Times have changed since the play “A Raisin in the Sun “was written by Loraine Hansberry. Only certain things have changed but, many of the conditions from those times still exist today. The play is about the Youngers, a black family who lived on the Chicago's Southside. The younger family had five members. Mama, Walter Lee, Ruth, Travis and Beneatha. While they live in a poor neighborhood, they can't afford to live in better conditions. Mama is expected to collect a 10,000 check from her late-husbands insurance money. Mama and Walter both have disagreement and agreements on what to do with the 10,000 check. They both want to use the money to help support and to benefit the family as a whole. However, the disagreement becomes a conflict of how to manage the money and the way it is to benefit them.
Walter Lee wants his to have the same vision his father had which is to have a better life and to use the money to invest in a liquor store. Walter thinks he can
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He tries to convince her to give him the money and that it would benefit the family. His mother's past generational values is hurting his manhood and pride. Walter thinks money is so important that it’s the only way he can be successful. Mama had to remind him the reality of his that his family is the most important and not the money. In act 1, scene 2 there is a conversation between Walter and mama. This show Walter's desire for the money in which he thinks will make him feel like a man. Walter says “Oh-so you don't aim to speak on that again? So you have decided... Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living room couch...Yeah - and tell my wife, Mama tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else's kids. And tell it to me, Mama every time we need a new pair of curtains and I have to watch you go out and work in somebody's kitchen. Yeah, you tell me then”
Walter, distraught after Mama had denounced his ambition to run a liquor store, had skipped work for three days, borrowing Willy Harris's car to drive around the city. Mama, seeing Walter so defeated, decided to entrust the remaining 6,500 dollars of her 10,000 dollar check to him, saying, "It ain't much, but it's all I got in the world and I'm putting it in your hands." (Hansberry,) Having incessantly denied Walter's dream,
... buy the family a new house so that Travis would have a better place to grow up. Mama could have spent that money on something she wanted, but instead bought something that would make the whole family happy. After she buys their new house, Mama gives Beneatha $3000 dollars towards college and gives Walter $3500 dollars to better his future. Mama has given all of the insurance money to the people she cares about, and kept none of it for herself. She thought about her children’s future and decided to invest the money towards a better life for them. This is a very unselfish act on Mama’s part, a perfect example of putting family before oneself.
He is an ambitious character whose main goal is “to invest in any liquor store” (38). This is a dream that is highlighted throughout the play as he frequently talks about this dream. This dream is not achieved because of a sly and shady character named Willy running away with all of the cash. Taking about the money, he left the family with no more insurance cash. Walter says, “All of it… it’s all gone” (129). This dream is badly wanted by Walter. He wants it badly enough to put that dream about his family. He disobeys Mama and “never [goes] to the bank at all” to put away savings for Beneatha’s schooling (129). Walter, sadly, prioritizes this dream too highly in his life.
In this essay I will be discussing the first performance of the play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ in 1959 (A Raisin in the Sun [Performance] 1959) as the socio-political context of the play. The socio-political context of that time, then in turn influenced the characters. Firstly, I will discuss the socio-political context, then the characters of Mama and Walter. This will reveal how the nature of the society influenced each of the character’s views, morals and values. These differing ideals leads to the intergenerational conflict between Lena Younger (Mama) and Walter Lee Younger. This will reveal how ‘time’ influences Mama to believe that freedom is life whereas Walter rather views money as life. This is due to the nature of society that each character was exposed to throughout their lives.
Walter’s main dream in this book was to open up a liquor store and make money. His thirst for a better live drove him to work toward these goals. When Mama tells Walter that she took all of the life insurance
Walter Lee’s dream was to own his own liquor store to get more money for his family, even though it is probably not the best idea. Walter in A Raisin in the Sun expresses, “Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be
Walter was left money from his fathers insurance. Wanting to invest his fathers’ money into a liquor store Mama opposed saying, “I don't want that on my ledger this late in life" (Hughes, Pg. 16). Her better half eventually gave Walter some of the inheritance money to Walter and foolishly, Walter loses it. Living in his mothers’ house with his Wife and Son, Walter wants to be "The man of the house". Add poverty and being treated like a child as a man, can ruin a persons life, ability to adapt, overcome and to better themselves and
Since its first paragraphs, the “A Raisin in the Sun” focuses on a fundamental issue – poverty and how it’s related to race. Hansberry is drawing the portrait of a stereotypical situation, in the mid-20th century, when racial discrimination was linked to lack of money and vice versa. The plays spins around a check of $10000 from the insurance company, granted for the death of Mama’s husband. The story goes with discussing the investment choices about that sum of money. The main male character, Walter Younger, Mama’s son, is presented as man who is eager to get rich fast, over-appreciates money, and has little ethical bias. The phrase “Check coming today?” (p.1294) written in the beginning of the act one, scene one, shows Walter’s impatience and the idea that he places a greater value on material stuff, rather than interpersonal relations.
In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, there is a large family, the Youngers which you may consider them a lower-class, that live in a small apartment and share it with a different family, the johnsons, in a African-American neighborhood, that you may just call a ghetto. They live in a cramped space where they all sleep in small spaces, they have only one bathroom which they have to share it with the Johnsons. They get an opportunity to move into a different house with Lena Younger(Mama)’s husband, Walter Lee and Beneatha Younger’s father, Big Walter,passed away and the youngers got a check. Walter wanted the money to invest in a liquor store, but instead Mama bought a house in a white community with the money. The people in the whites community do not want black folks to move into the community so a representative of the Clybourne Park Owners Association offered money to them so that they would not move in. They should not accept the money that would not contain any pride, dignity, or hope
Earlier in the play, Walter feels that Mama is the one calling the shots for the family, and she was. His perception that he is not the man of the household causes Walter feel that he is unimportant and insignificant. Walter’s power struggle is highlighted by Hansberry in Act 2 Scene 1, Walter says to Mama, “you the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to.(LH pg.95)” This quote is talking about how Mama is the one making the decisions in the family. But, it is very important because it shines a light on the emasculation Walter feels throughout the play, and how he thinks family is the one to blame for his problems. Later in the play the family dynamic changes and Mama finally let’s call the shots. Mama leaves Walter up to make the crucial decision about whether or not to sell the house. Walter says, “and we have decided to move into our house…(LH pg.148)” Walter chooses to move his family into the house, mainly because they have worked so hard and they deserve to be rewarded. But, this quote is most significant because it shows how Walter’s family has put their trust and the power of decision making into Walter’s hands. Which causes Walter to be more confident in himself, and make him feel like a true
Differences in generations can cause people to have different viewpoints in life. A Raisin In The Sun is a play set in the 1950s written by Lorraine Hansberry. The Youngers are a black family who lives in a cramped apartment in the South Side of Chicago. When Mama receives a check of insurance money, members of the family are divided in their own hopes of what it will be used for. Mama, Ruth, and Beneatha are the three women of the Younger household and their generational differences clearly show through their actions. The difference between generations is why Mama is the most devout, Ruth is an agreeable person, and Beneatha is outspoken and has modern views.
Walter fights for what he thinks is right, which is starting the bar with help of his 2 friends. He is trying to convince the family that opening the bar is a good Idea. Walter is trying to get approval so that he can get the money from Mama's
A Raisin in the Sun took place in Chicago during the civil rights movement, where African Americans did not have the same rights or opportunity as the whites. Blacks dealt with discrimination every day just like how Mama did. Mama’s late husband just passed and she is living with her kids and grandkid trying to keep living in this new lifestyle. In the play, Mama had dealt with discrimination from her own kids putting each other down due to their race, being judged by her new neighbors for moving into an all white community and living knowing how life was for her slave ancestors.
Walter Lee Younger is the protagonist of the play. He aspires to become rich; when the family receives the $10,000 check from the insurance company, his first thought is to open a liquor store. He believes money will solve all of the family's problems, but is not
Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals are two key parts played out throughout the whole process. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends meet to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision regarding money that could have helped the family and not only himself, if he had thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to set up for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers to understand the history of racial discrimination and how racial discrimination has an effect on the people in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as how that has an effect on the characters within the play.