A Raisin In The Sun Poverty doesn't have to effect the people's personalities that I consumes like most of the Youngers. Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha did not let being poor make them envy any one who had money. Walter on the other hand was sick of the way he and his family had to live. He was fed-up and was desperate to make money any way he could think of for his family. " You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be bout thirty thousand. See. That be ten thousand each" this quote is Walter telling Ruth that he wants to go three way split with Bobo and Willie Harris. For the initial investment they have to put down ten thousand dollars. But Ruth has heard this all before and she doesn't want to hear his non-sense so she retaliates to avoid hearing more by saying. " Eat your eggs, they gonna be cold." Walter " Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say : eat your eggs." Walter thinks Ruth does not care at all about what he is saying but the truth is she is annoyed by him saying the same thing over and over again. Walter Sr. was Walter and Beneathas father he died and his wife mama received ten thousand dollar for life insurance. Walter wants the whole ten thousand dollars for himself and put it down on the liquor store. But Beneatha wants to go to medical school and be a doctor. Walter thinks that it is selfish of Beneatha that she wants to attend medical school because he then wouldn't get all of the money for the liquor store. Beneatha "that money belongs to Mama, Walter, and its for her to decide how she wants to use it. I don't care if she wants to buy a house or a rocket ship or just nail it up somewhere and look at it. It's hers. Not ours hers." Mamas getting all the money and it is up to her if she wants the money for herself give it to Beneatha for school or give it to Walter for the liquor store. Now that it is getting closer to the date in which the money will arrive. Walter is acting more and more desperate for that money.
The values of the New World have caused Walter to become materialistic, emotionally insensitive, and frustrated. The first example of where this can be seen is during Walter’s argument with Mama. Mama and Walter both have different meanings on what it means to be alive. Walter, due to having become materialistic, views the meaning of life as money. Mama views the ...
Walter is stubborn and pigheaded and spent the rest of the money. It ends up backfiring at him and all the money is stolen by a friend. At this climax of the story it shows the family being under a lot of stress and hardship because of Walter’s actions. However because they are a family they were able to overcome this hardship. When Beneatha is ranting negatively about Walter, Mama comes out and says “There is always something left to love. And if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself and for the family ‘cause we lost the money. I mean for him; what he been through and what it don’t to him. Child, when do you think is the time to love somebody the most; when they done good and made things easy for everybody? Well then, you ain’t through learning-because that ain’t the time at all….” (528) Here at the climax of the story Mama is clearly bringing back the theme of family. Mama even though Walter made a huge mistake and it was extremely selfish, she still supports him. Mama is still teaching her family on how to be a family through such hard times. The family is what is holding all of them together. Moreover, after family as a theme is evident in the rising action it is also displayed in the
The mother who was receiving the check for her laid husband was against her son Walter’s decision for owning a liquor store. Walter truly showed his desperation for success by saying, “I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy…Mama – look at me”. (1.2.222), by him pitching his business plan to his mom shows how desperate a man who has little to nothing to call his own can be. Because his mom has faith in his decision to invest his money she decided to go ahead and let him have it. His risky decision to invest his money in his business lost not only all of the money for himself his mother had given him, but he also lost the money that was supposed to be saved for his sisters college tuition. I was able to relate to this point in the story because I have made the same mistake before with my financial aid money. Although the loss of losing something so dear to you can be hard to overcome mentally, those who recover always come out
Walter was already making plans in how to spend his mother's money in one of his twisted ideas without considering others. It is obvious that Walter is somewhat ignorant to the necessities of everybody else in his family but his child (Washington 1). Walter was not the only one in that house who was already making plans for that money. His sister Beneatha was also making plans in spending that money on her medical degree; this lead to a problem between Walter and his sister Beneatha. Walter in a selfish manner was trying to manipulate his mother in order to make her feel sorry for him and gi...
To make Walter feel more like a man, Mama decides to give Walter the position as head of the household which includes being in charge of the money. Mama tells Walter “That leaves sixty-five hundred dollars. Monday morning I want you to take this money and take three thousand dollars and put it in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical schooling. The rest you put in a checking account – with your name on it. And from now on any penny that come out of it or that go in it is for you to look after. For you to decide” (106). Walter defies his mother's wishes. He goes behind her back and attempts to invest the rest of the money into the liquor store. Walter then says to his mom “ (Lifting his head slowly) Mama … I never … went to the bank at all … (128).” Unfortunately, the crooked investor that Walter is doing business with, is stealing the
Walter is seen as struggling to become the head of the family throughout the book and this comes to a head at the end of the story when he gets to his lowest point. Felder goes over the male characters in each sitcom and analyzes how they all have the same roles acting as head of the family, in charge and in control. The women were expected to be soothing and calming, as Felder writes “It was her husband, Jim, who ultimately solved the many problems concerning the couple’s three children… often appeared overly authoritarian and frequently lost his temper with his sons… these negative “masculine” character traits were countered by the soothing “feminine” presence of his wife” (Felder 156). As Walter loses control of his life after he lost the money, the women of the family ridicule him for not taking control like he is expected to. Beneatha and Mama have a conversation about the way Beneatha was treating her brother and adds this: “That’s what I thought you said. You feeling like you better than he is today?... Yes? What you tell him a minute ago? That he wasn't a man? Yes? You give him up for me? You done wrote his epitaph too- like the rest of the world? Well who give you the privilege?” (Hansberry 108-109). Beneatha ridicules her brother because he wasn’t able to take the role he was expected to. He wasn’t able to control the family or handle the problems like he was expected to even though that is what every man of the family ‘needs’ to do. The influence of these gender roles is so prevalent as Mama stops Beneatha from ridiculing her brother, Walter’s inability to take the role that is expected of him completely breaks him down and pushes him to his
Mama’s money let the Younger’s have a chance to buy a better house and gave Walter and Beneatha a chance to follow their dreams. Mama and her late husband life long dream was to buy a house, when mama got an insurance check of ten thousand dollar it gave her chance to put a down payment on a house “she went out and she bought a house”(Hansberry page 91-92). The whole family was excited when mama bought the house. Although some may argue money made the Younger’s lives better it just changed their lives for the worst. The want for money stained Ruth and Walter's relationship. Walter’s desire for money caused him to lose all his money a bad investment. Also, Walter could not tell his kid about how poor the family
Walter lives with his mother, sister, wife and child Travis. After the receival of a life insurance check from the deceased Walter Lee Senior, Mama makes a decision to give it to Walter to make him feel like the man of the house. She places endless trust into her son; she gives him the money that is needed for his sisters school, and the house payments. She has high hopes Walter would not let her down by the use of it for something that goes against her values. Unfortunately, as he receives the money one can see how hastily he works to use it for a meer liquor store as he confesses his wrongdoings: “Mama… I never went to the bank at all… It’s all gone.” (Hansberry 129). Prior to this moment, Mama had asked Walter to
It’s safe to say that his dream is miles away, but he insists that if the family invests the insurance money in the liquor store this dream could come to fruition. To the family’s devastation, Walter’s investment goes South and his “partner” runs away with the money. The loss of the money is the entire family’s burden to bear. Each of their dreams revolved around the money; Walter, Ruth, Mama, and Beneatha’s dreams depended on the outcome of the investment. Initially, setback made all of the characters feel resigned toward their dreams, but they were all able to bounce back. Losing the money allowed the characters to gain a new perspective, each of them were affected differently, but the effect was decidedly positive. Walter resolves to have the family move into the new house anyways, and Beneatha, empowered by Asagai’s speech/proposal, chooses to revise her dream. The course and conclusion of these events prove the family’s growing passion for their dreams under difficult
Mama talks to Walter about her fears of the family falling apart. This is the reason she bought the house and she wants him to understand. Walter doesn't understand and gets angry. "What you need me to say you done right for? You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to. It was your money and you did what you wanted with it. So what you need for me to say it was all right for? So you butchered up a dream of mine - you - who always talking 'bout your children's dreams..." Walter is so obsessive over money that he yells at his mom for not giving him all of it. He doesn't know that what his mom is doing is for the family. He thinks that having money will make the family happy, when in reality the family doesn't need anymore than what they have to be happy.
Following the death of his father, Walter’s mother received life insurance benefits that came to about ten thousand dollars. Seeing as the money came as a result from the death of her recently deceased husband, Lena and/or Mama is troubled when it comes to how to use it, whereas Walter sees an opportunity to take it for himself and open a liquor store,
This will only happen if his family will allow him to roll with the big check they are about to receive. Walter becomes infatuated with the idea of being a successful businessman because he wants to care for his family and be consider as a man. However, that idea of becoming a successful businessman falls flat. When Walter says, “you wouldn't understand yet, son, but your daddy’s gonna make a transaction . . . a business transaction that is going to change our lives [ . . . ] man ... I trusted you . . . man, I put my life in your hands . . . man . . . that money is made out of my father’s flesh” (Hansberry 326, 340). By Walter saying this proves that he failed to achieve what he had planned. Walter was very arrogant with the idea of becoming a successful businessman without any background knowledge. When Walter says, “going to change our lives” proves that Walter believes he is able to achieve his goal if he follows what people who do not have his best interest advice. By allowing that to happen Walter lost all of the money, which he failed to take care of and now he will not become that successful businessman that he had planned. Walter and Willy show how easy it is to become obsessive over and idea that they both knew they will never achieve. Aside from covering the truth from their families, they fail their families by pretending to be someone they are
Essentially this play can be regarded as the mid-life crisis of Walter Lee Younger, passionate for his family, ambitious, and bursting with energy and dreams. Walter cares about his family, and he hopes that buying the liquor store will being a brighter future to Travis, ?And-and I?ll say, all right son-it?s your seventeenth birthday, what is it you?ve decided?...Just tell me where you want to go to school and you?ll go. Just tell me, what it is you want to be ? and you?ll be it.?(Hansberry 109). Walter Lee, shackled by poverty and prejudice, and obsessed with his own sense of success, which he felt, would be the end of all of his social and economic problems. The dreams he had gave him a great sense of pride and self-satisfaction. Unfortunately Walter had to learn a hard lesson in life; pride and greed will eventually lead to unhappiness.
The setting in which human beings find themselves can cause a lasting affect on the way they live. The ply "A Raisin in the sun" exemplifies how cultural and geographical elements in one's surroundings can physiologically or morally drive their motivations.
A Raisin in the Sun was created based off a play called “A Dream Deferred.” This play ask question about what dreams may do. For instances, “does dreams dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run” (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1996)? In A Raisin in the Sun, it is clear all the main characters have dreams whether it is to give have a nice life, buy a house, make money, or become a doctor. Each character is able to realize the importance of having a dream while still loving and caring for their family. This symbolizes so much in life because we can often be blinded by our dream that we forget about the main picture. Finally, our dream causes us to be simple minded and quick to call upon self wants and needs.