A Raisin in the Sun Money is one of the things in the world that a person can become obsessed with. In the story “A Raisin in the sun” the author Lorraine Hansberry shows how a family is changed by the lust of money. A widow, Lena, her son Walter Younger, his wife Ruth and daughter Beneatha all lived under the same roof. Lena just lost her husband and is receiving a check for his death. With the money, Lena wants to buy a new house for the whole family to live in but everyone else in the family sees a different type of opportunity. Being the man of the household, Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and plans on using Lena’s money to do so. Walter is always after money and believes that the only way to succeed in life is with money. For example, when Walter is talking about the check, he says, “Mama, sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking about things, turning deals worth millions of dollars, sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (992).This shows how Walter wanted something more out of life and not just be a poor black man. Everyone in this family had dreams but no one supported each other dreams. Even Walters’s wife Ruth didn’t believe in his dream to own a liquor store. She grew weary of his day-to-day pipe dreams. Walter quotes, “That’s is just wrong with colored woman in this world, they don’t know how to build their man up and make them feel like they somebody.
A Raisin in the Sun Essay The book A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a struggling family striving to achieve their dreams. The story takes place in a cramped, one bedroom apartment, home to 5 members of the Younger family. Each members of the family have a dream they want to achieve, but money has a strong effect on this happening. When the family’s father of the house passes, Mama receives insurance money.
Desperate to fulfill this dream, he takes $6,500 of his mother’s insurance money that she obtains shortly beforehand following the death of Walter Sr. and strikes a deal with two friends of his to purchase a liquor store. This causes him to be scammed by one of them. Langston Hughes’ poem accurately represents the state of the family after Walter’s investment. In the play, the immediate answer to Walter’s betrayal of the family is to “explode” with anger.
By the end of “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger’s lives are beginning to improve. Compared to the state of the family at the opening of the play, most considered that play ends on a joyous moment. However; that is not so for the Younger family. The way the play ends is not a happy ending because the Younger family does not have the funds that they need, two people are further from their dreams, and they are moving into a neighborhood to could be dangerous for them. Although one may be excited that things appear to be better for the Younger’s, the reality is that things could possibly be worse for them.
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
The author, Lorraine Hansberry, puts in different characters to help display these themes and the correlation between money and how it affects people. In A Raisin in the Sun, there is a connection between pride and money with more than one character. She puts these specific characters in to display the themes clearly. Lorraine Hansberry puts Walter in the beginning of the story as very pride driven, never wanting to show his son or family their financial struggles. He is a hard worker, but being a chauffeur for a rich white man is difficult for him and his pride and further into the play takes a toll on his attitude, ambitions and family’s future.
Walter wants to be free from the family’s low income lifestyle, and becoming rich is Walter’s extrinsic motivation to live. Mama said to Walter, “Son-how come you talk so much ‘bout money?” Walter responded with immense passion, “Because it is life, Mama!” Walter looks at life, and like a bride sees through her wedding vail, Walter sees through money lenses. He sees his father’s money as a possibility in a world that revolves around a minimal supply of money.
Lastly, throughout the play, one of the on-going conflicts is between Mama and Walter. Mama does not accept Walter’s idea of a liquor business and Walter claims that Mama understands neither him nor the importance of money in the real world, nor his desire to do more with his life than open up car doors everyday. However, in Mrs. Johnson’s scene when Mrs. Johnson criticizes Walter’s need to go out to look for a different occupation, Mama defends him. She states that her husband, “always said a man 's hands was made to make things, or to turn the earth with—not to drive nobody 's car for 'em—or — carry they slop jars. And my boy is just like him—he wasn 't meant to wait on nobody.”
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).
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...?"
When people are poor, they often have a lot of problems in their life. They struggle through every day, but they learn to appreciate everything that they have. However, when people are going through tough times, they often think that money will solve all of their problems. In “A Raisin In The Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, she guides the audience through a black family -- impacted by the need for money -- living on the south side of Chicago. The Younger family gets Lena Younger’s dead husband’s insurance check and buys a house in a white neighborhood, and they save the remainder of the money for Beneatha’s medical degree and for starting a liquor store.
Not even my own mother. " Walter feels betrayed by the family and especially the mother when they don't support his dream for the liquor store and is disappointed with the purchase of a house. He wants their respect and support, but when he doesn't receive it--goes crazy by missing work, dancing "African", and becoming very rude. As the man of the household he feels that all decisions should be made by him and by Mama rejecting his offer, he feels let down by his own family.
Through that he hoped that he would become independent and be the head of the family. Walter worked as a chauffeur for a rich white man and he was unsatisfied. Walter felt terrible because he was in his
A Raisin in the Sun is a play, which consists of three acts for a total of six scenes. From the very beginning, the plot line begins with the Younger family waking up, going about their morning as they normally do. The family living in the small apartment consists of Mama, Beneatha, her daughter, Walter, her son, Ruth, Walter’s wife, and Travis, Walter and Ruth’s son. The apartment that accommodates this family consists of a small kitchen, containing one small window, a living room, which also serves as Travis’ room, and two bedrooms, one for Walter and Ruth, the other shared by Mama and Beneatha. In the kitchen window lays a potted plant, second to only family in Mama’s most prized possessions.
This could be for a variety of reason such as the way walter acted once mama received the money. He was always upset about not being the complete “breadwinner” and he technically wasn't the head of the house because mama was. Walter tries to make more money by investing in the liquor store. He loses the money because the man runs off with and mama warned him before so of course she becomes disappointed. “THAT MONEY IS MADE OUT OF MY FATHER’S FLESH!”
A Raisin in the Sun "Education has spoiled many a good plow hand" (Hansberry 103). This quote is significant because it is applying that education is better than being a hard-worker. A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry, is taken place in South Side, Chicago between World War II and the present. The main focus of this play is about a poor African-American family who has a chance to escape this lifestyle with a ten-thousand-dollar life insurance check, but is not desired to live in a "white" neighborhood.