In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Loraine Hansberry, both Walter and Mama have great dreams and encounter barriers on the path to achieving their dreams. Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and being able to better provide for his family, a dream that changes when he faces the barrier of his money being stolen by Willy Harris. Mama dreams of living in a real house with a garden and also encounters barrier of her money being stolen by Willy Harris. Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and being able to financially support his family. Walter’s dream is shown in act 1, scene 1 when he explains to Ruth how the liquor store he and his friends are buying will help their family have enough money to do more than just make ends meet (32,33). …show more content…
Despite the fact that dreaming of a liquor store is shallow, Walter’s motivation to be able to support his family helps reconcile his somewhat immoral hopes. Later, Walter shows the idiocy of his plan to own a liquor store when he gets drunk. In act 2, scene 2, Walter borrows Willy Harris’s car and drives around Chicago for two days, then “just walked”, and finally “went to the Green Hat” (2.2 105). Through his actions, Walter shows that he is immature and cares more about pretending to be rich than his job that would allow him to provide for his family. He also demonstrates that he drinks too much and puts his drinking in front of his family, a bad habit that would be made worse if he owned a liquor store and had liquor more readily available. In act 2, scene 3, Walter faces the barrier of his money being stolen by Willy Harris (128). Immediately following the theft, Walter is crushed and wants to take the money the citizens of Clybourne Park raised to keep the Younger’s out of their neighborhood and use it to replace the lost insurance money (3.1 141,142). Finally, when faced with Linder, Walter has an epiphany and his dream changes to match that of his family. He realizes that
In a very calm manner (which is rare for Walter), he holds his own ground and lets Lindner know that money can't buy out their dreams or change their decision. Which proves amazing character development because earlier in the story, all Walter wants and cares about is money, and is the reason for being scammed out of $6500. The family knows their worth and they know that this world favors the opposite race, but they aren't going to let it stop them and they will not stop their dreams because of
Walter goes into immediate denial, making excuses for where Willy, their second business partner, could be with the money. He continues on until he realizes “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY [HIS] FATHER’S FLESH-” (128) and he had lost it all; he felt he lost his chance of pursuing a better life now that he had even lost his father’s support. His false pride is severely injured up until he is struck with an idea which he believes could save the family. He abruptly calls Mr.Lindner, who he had originally turned away, and tells him to come by because he wants to take his offer of being paid to not move into the new house.
(...) A man needs for a woman to back him up…” This shows that Walter feels that it’s his full responsibility to provide for his family and give them the money without being the “man” (head) of the family and make decisions about the money or take it and achieve his dream which collapsed in the end after the money was stolen by his best friend Willy Harris. Walter Lee wanted to achieve his dream by buying the liquor store with his family insurance money and prove that he is a man to his family after
The Deferred Dreams of the !950’s In Lorraine Hansberry 's play, A Raisin in the Sun, the characters of Mama, Walter, and Beneatha face several obstacles and hardships that refrain the characters from being able to accomplish their dreams. They are faced with issues such as gender stereotyping, discriminatory housing , and racial prejudice. All of which lead to their deferred dreams. Throughout the story, the reader is given a visual of how all of these issues are relevant and how they affect each character.
For Walter, the punishment for his decision to give the money to Willy Harris is that he will not be able to follow his dream of buying a liquor store and becoming successful. He soon accepts that there is no way to undo what he did and makes the decision to not drag his family done with him. This revelation causes Walter to not sell the house, which was his original plan when he first heard the news that Willy had stolen the money. Prometheus also has a similar realization about how his decision to give fire to humans was not the best idea and that maybe he
He has a wife, Ruth, a sister, Beneatha, a mama, Lena, and a son, Travis. His ultimate dream is to illegally sell liquor with a couple of his friends so he can become the main provider for his family and give them a better life. Walter’s father has recently passed away and the family is waiting on an insurance check of ten thousand dollars. Walter says, “Yeah. You see, this liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand
This indicates Walter has forgotten just how much this means to his family and that now he has put his own greed ahead of his sister’s future. Thus, the need of money making one forget his families and needs is shown through the climax of A Raisin in the
In this line, Walter is hinting at the liquor store investment, that no one in the family approves. A few days later, Bobo pays the Younger's a visit to update Walter on the investment. Walter finds out, along with the rest of the family, that Willy, their other business partner took all of the money and ran off with it. This upsets the whole family and Mama says to Walter, "You mean... your sister's school money...you used that too...?"
In A Raisin in the Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, the audience was able to obtain a sense of the struggle for the American dream. We are introduced to the Youngerś a black family living in the Southside of Chicago around the 1950’s. Each member of this family has their own meaning to what is the American dream. A Raisin in the Sun teaches us that even though life might be full of conflicts, it is important to not give up on our dreams.
When Walter's father died, his family was going to receive a check from a life insurance policy. Walter planned to use the insurance money to open a liquor store and financially prosper. His mother though, would not let him do this though because it was unholy and an immoral way to make money. Walter, who was already bitter because he was a chauffeur, felt deprived. He saw an opportunity to make money and grew increasingly resentful because his family would not allow him to pursue those avenues, instead his family wanted to buy a home they could call their own.
Walter further shows his false pride when he flaunts his newfound sense of power when Mr.Lindner, one of the Younger’s soon-to-be neighbors, offers him an unjust deal. Now that Walter has control over the family 's money, he considers himself the head of the family and decision maker; this plays an important role towards how Walter treats others now that he holds himself to a higher standard. This theme applies to Walter when the chairman of the “welcoming committee” (115) named Mr.Lindner pays a visit to the family a couple weeks before they 're supposed to move into their new home in Clybourne Park. During this visit, Mr.Lindner makes the offer of the Clybourne Park community “buy[ing] the house from [them] at a financial gain to [the] family” (118). Mr.Lindner’s offer represents the racial oppression and how the white community looks down upon and doesn’t want African american people dirtying their communities.
He wants to be a businessman and own a liquor store. He wants to be able to provide for his family and give them what they have never had. Walter also wants to take his mother’s position as the head of the house and make the financial decisions for the family. Walter can be seen as selfish as instead of putting the money for him and his sister in the bank he uses it all and loses it trying to fulfill his own dreams with no regard to his sister’s dreams or the rest of the family’s.
(114-115) By giving up the money, Walter is shown to be spontaneous and quick to trust. He made a quick decision about giving Willy the money, without even thinking about the consequences, which shows his spontaneity and trust issues. He also didn’t even think to put any money away for Beneatha and he just trusted Willy to get the license before actually getting to know him. The play A Raisin in the Sun, shows how Walter settles on a brisk choice to give his Mamas insurance money to the character Willy Harris so he could purchase an alcohol store. Thus, his choice accounts Willy Harris to steal the cash which causes an apathetic temperament in the story and makes lost expectation in the family.
All Walter wanted was to have money and open his own liquor store but it was not possible. Walter’s dream was unfortle not able to come true
In Susan Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun, the themes identified are dreams and faith that each character signifies throughout their struggles in their daily lives. The theme dreams refer to how each of the main five characters: Ruth Younger, Walter Lee Younger, Travis Younger, Beneatha Younger, and Lena Younger dealt with different oppression situations that took part in their lives that put the dreams on hold. Furthermore, the theme also connects towards the faith that each main character had to pursue to keep their family together after the death of a love one. The characters’ in A Raisin in the Sun tries to chase after a separate dream, unfortunately their dreams are utterly pushed away to realize the importance of their family