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A Raisin In The Sun Critical Lens Essay

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Recommended: Underlying tensions among characters in raisin in the sun

Oliver Fredrick
Ms. Coen
Advanced English 9
May 8th 2023
The Analysis Walter Lee and Prometheus

How far are people willing to fall to achieve their dreams? This question of life is vital to understand people. The fullest expression of what people will do to grasp their goals is best shown in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry. Loraine Hansberry is an American author from Chicago who was well known for how immersive she would write dialogue and families, giving both a full range of emotions. In the play, readers are introduced to Walter Lee a father of one who lives in a cramped and run-down apartment with his wife, sister, mother, and son. In the play, A Raisin In The Sun by Loraine Hansberry, the character of Walter Lee is …show more content…

Walter’s faults are abundant and they range from his disregard for the feelings of others to his inability to let others achieve their dreams without his help these faults are nearly identical to Prometheus’s when one looks into their stories. The scars of men and gods are seen clearly in the Theogony by Hesiod with many different stories in the work displaying this. But no quote better summarises these faults than “he [Prometheus] had made the beautiful evil to be the price for the blessing”(Hesiod 585). This quote refers to how Prometheus gave up his brother for Zeus to torture using Pandora by not warning his brother, knowing if he gets punished that Zeus will come for his brother. The evidence of Prometheus’s willingness to let others suffer just because he is suffering correlates with how Walter Lee handles Mr. Lindner. Mr. Lindner is a character in A Raisin in the Sun that tries to prevent Walter Lee and his family from moving into a neighborhood that is against the idea of anyone moving in that isn’t a rich, white, Christian family that fits their perception of acceptable. So Mr. Lindner offers a Faustian deal of trading the pride of the family for money and originally Walter Lee is against it like the rest of his family. But the second that he loses what he wants he reconsiders the deal with no regard for his family and what they …show more content…

In A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee loses all the money he supposes to put toward his family and is presented with a choice where he can get the money back but costs the whole family their house and dreams or he and his family can move into their new house but be broke and in a dangerous environment where they have already been threatened with violence. In comparison, Prometheus is presented with another impossible choice he can either let mankind live without fire, suffer from the lack of warmth and not being if the food they eat is safe or he can steal fire knowing he would take some blame and that a different and hopefully better punishment for mankind would be instore. But the difference between the chosen choices is who weighed in on it in the case of Prometheus he could have consolidated in his brother or sought out his friend Athena but he instead decided the fate of man without counsel which leads to us getting greed, envy, hatred, pain, disease, hunger, poverty, war, and death but still maintaining hope but this choice also leads to Prometheus getting chained to a rock and forever getting his liver ripped out and regrown. But in the case of Walter even though he tried to keep his family out of it he eventually took in the

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He finds his dignity and tells Mr. Lindner that his “son said we was going to move and there ain't nothin left for me to say.” (Hansberry 575). At this point the full depth of his character development is obvious; one can see that he finally turned into a respectable man that cares about his family and their pride. The events in the play changed Walter Lee by growing him into a more honorable man.

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The hidden meanings in the references that authors write about, when they write their novels or plays, change how a play or book is thought of and also commences the development of better critical thinking skills.. In the play, A Raisin In The Sun, Lorraine Hansberry uses many different types of literary devices for the play to have a deeper meaning or idea than what is just read. Taking place during the 1950’s in Southside Chicago, the play is about an African American family who live through many struggles, racially and financially. When the father dies and the Younger family receives $10,000, their hopes and dreams are possible and may come true. It is until they lose their money that they realized they “aimed to high”(140), especially Mama and Walter Younger.

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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

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When observing the male characters, thematic influences that shape their idea of freedom are status and wealth, from analysis of the text it is evident that it provides the men of these stories with a sense of masculinity and power. Taking a look at Walter’s relation to wealth in A Raisin in the Sun, it demonstrates that he believes that the more leisure and free spending his family has, the more of a man it makes him. When Walter, his mother, and his wife, argue over their spending and finances, Walter states, “Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living-room couch … Yeah—and tell it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here to look after somebody else’s kids” (1.2.191).

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In the text “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the author uses the writing strategy of conflict to develop the central idea of how oneself can become selfish when trying to achieve the American dream. The text shows that the central idea is selfishness because circumstances are presented where various characters fail to take into consideration others while seeking their dreams. For example, Walters says, “ Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ’bout messing round with sick people, then go be a nurse like other women-or just get married and be quiet…. ’’. This example of greed shows that the ambition to obtain a dream brings out the selfishness is true in the instance of Walter.

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This is the final development in the play on the topic of manhood and is quite a turn or the character Walter. In A Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry develops the concept of manhood and what it means to be a true man by utilizing the protagonist Walter and showing how both he and the idea of manhood can change. Walter starts out by just hoping to attain material items and ends with a deeper knowledge of what it actually means to be a man. By doing this, the play is resolved in a positive manner and Walter has grown as both a character and a

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Prometheus is portrayed as a hero and comes to live with the consequences of his actions, while Walter's actions are seen as misguided and possibly harmful to his family. Walter explains, “Invest big, gamble big, hell, lose big if you have to, you know what I mean. It's hard to find a man on this whole Southside who understands my kind of thinking you dig?” (Hansberry 84). This quote addresses how Walter views spending and losing money.

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In the play Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry takes place on the southside of Chicago where Walter and his family are racially profiled and show us how the survive throughout their struggles. The central struggles for the younger family in their search for the American dream is mostly poverty and being racially profiled against for their actions. Hansberry challenges the traditional gender roles and issues of dominance throughout the play when Mama gives Walter lee the rest of the money at the end of the play. He becomes all excited and was supposed to save some for himself and put the rest of the money to Beneatha 's education. Instead, he gave all that money to Willy another character in the play which later on that he stole from him.

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This directly corresponds to the way Walter’s family reacts when they find out all the money had been gambled and lost. Mama, the head of the Younger family and Walter’s mother is in such shock she starts to beat him across the face, not even thinking. After this, she kneels on the ground, helplessly begging God to “[l]ook down here and show [her] strength” (Hansberry 129). Prometheus and Walter had to watch as their actions indirectly resulted in the mental anguish of themselves and their close family. This parallel allows how closely tied ancient themes are to modern

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Mr.Linder offered Walter money to encourage the family to reconsider their decision. Although the family knew they would not be welcomed in the new neighborhood, Mama stuck up for Walter and supported his wish to relocate. “There are no mentioned contact between younger family, a black family, and white members of society except for their work and a visit from Mr. Lindner. Mr. Lindner, representative of white community, arrives to the Youngers' apartment to demand them not to move. He only cares about the feeling and comfort of whites without any sympathy for and thought of black people” (Nowrouzi).

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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.

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Walter shows this when he speaks to Karl Lindner, a representative from the white neighborhood association who has offered to buy the Younger family's new house in an attempt to prevent them from moving in. “And we have decided to move into our house because my father – my father – he earned it for us brick by brick. We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors. And that’s all we got to say about that. We don’t want your money” (Act III).

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Reader Response: 3 “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, is a play about a black families experience in 1950s South Side Chicago. The story revolves around what happens to the family when Lena Younger, the matriarch of the family, receives a ten thousand dollar life insurance check upon the death of her husband. Everyone from the family has different plans for what they want to do with the money. Lena Younger serves as the head of the family. She is Walter and Beneatha’s caring mother so they and Ruth call her Mama.

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A Raisin in the Sun addresses major social issues such as racism and feminism which were common in the twentieth century. The author, Lorraine Hansberry, was the first playwright to produce a play that portrayed problematic social issues. Racism and gender equality are heavily addressed throughout the play. Even though we still have these issues today, in the 1950’s and 60’s the issues had a greater part in society. Racism and gender have always been an issue in society, A Raisin in the Sun is an important piece of American history during that time period.

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Just within the recent decades, men and women started to fight against the gender stereotypes and started to challenge their roles in a family and in the society. The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the lives of African–Americans during the 1950s. Lorraine Hansberry, a writer and a social activist, reinforced the traditional gender roles, especially female’s, by depicting how the Youngers interact and how they act in an economical struggle. Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, she uses Walter Lee Younger, Ruth Younger and Lena Younger to reinforce the traditional role of fathers, wives and mothers within a family.

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