When and How to Pair:
Introduce this text after reading Act II, Scene Three. The Youngers’ dream of a house is challenged by the Clybourne Park Improvement Association. Meanwhile, Walter duplicitously puts all of the insurance money into his business plan, which his business partner runs off with. Ask students to compare the characters of Mama and Walter, with their respective dreams of a house and a business, to the bird in the poem. Why does the caged bird sing, if not out of happiness? Why does Mama pursue her dream of a house? Why does Walter want his own business? Like the bird in the poem, what is the metaphorical cage that surrounds the characters in the play?