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A Raisin In The Sun Walter Character Traits

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Raisin Character Analysis

In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee Younger is seen as something of an outlier in his family. He is the sole adult male and exhibits an outward facade of self-assuredness towards his own plans to financially resuscitate the Younger family, even portraying an air of indignancy when they are challenged; however, this front is merely a result of Walter’s underlying desire to be recognized and respected as a competent, reliable man by his family. Walter tries to make shows of his manhood several times throughout the play. An early example is his actions after Ruth refuses to give Travis 50 cents for school where he responds to Ruth “What you tell the boy things like that for?... Here, son…Buy …show more content…

To Walter, his ideas are big, important, and ready to burst forth in an explosive and lucrative fashion, yet the surrounding ants pay him no mind. Although Walter carries this frame of mind with him through much of the story, the very closing moments of the play feature a transformation in him. Walter decides to keep the house that Mama purchased with the life insurance money. Despite opposing it for the whole play, Walter broadens his point of view and rejects the offer by Karl Lindner. Walter has finally halted his quest for a high-risk, big business job in favor of supporting his family’s wishes. To recapitulate, the ambitious, lone man of the Younger family, Walter Lee Younger, grapples with conflicting ideas of what the best path forward for him and his family is, beginning with the shortsighted scheme of buying a liquor store to assuage his family’s woes, yet later realizing that buying the house is the best course of action to secure his family’s welfare. Walter’s actions at the end of the story transcend the petty, myopic mindset he once had. No longer blinded by his own pride, Walter is now free to identify the true …show more content…

As stated prior, Walter is an ambitious and, to some extent, avaricious man. These traits are on full display as he describes his thoughts of cupidity to Mama, stating, "I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy...Mama, sometimes when I'm downtown and I pass them cool-quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking 'bout things...sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars...sometimes I see guys don't look much older than me" (Hansberry 75). He doesn’t just want to improve his family’s standing, he wants to be at the very top of society, with all the money and status that such a position comes with. He wants to be in those circumstances now, and he’s willing to take risks to get there as quickly as possible. Walter is someone who only sees the destination, electing to skip the journey entirely if possible. Alternatively, Ruth is far more Jaded than Walter. She doesn’t hold the same dreams of grandeur that he does. Instead, Ruth has her sights set on steadily improving her family’s life little by little. This trait

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778 Words | 4 Pages

In some plays the experience of an important character changes him or her; this can be said about Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. A perfect example of a changed character from this play is Walter Lee Younger. Through the trials and tribulations that him and his family are made to face he becomes a better man.

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960 Words | 4 Pages

Walter learns to be much nicer to his family and realizes his mistake, however owns up to it and they accept that he messed up. Walter now becomes nicer to Ruth, and supports all of his family. Act 3 scene 1, still in the conversation with Lindner, Walter states, ”[W]e have decided to move into our house. . . . We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors.” This becomes the start of Walter developing much self respect for him and his family.

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Walter embodies the image of his father and his morals when he scolds Lindner, "My father almost beat a man to death once because this man called him a bad name or something, you know what I mean?”(147). Walter’s euphoric pride in his family was evident as his affiliation with his father’s principles was prominent. When Willy escaped with his money, Walter originally resorted to tomfoolery and begging to cope with his newfound pain. But when Mama reaffirms her faith in his judgment, he loses his vanity and ego, becoming a man his family respects. Walter continues to stand by his new beliefs when he lectures Lindner about self-worth, "And we have decided to move into our house because my father --my father--he earned it for us brick by brick”(148).

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225 Words | 1 Pages

Walter’s Textual Analysis Essay A Raisin in the Sun The role of money in the play, A Raisin in the Sun affects Walter greatly. Ever since he’s known Mama was getting the insurance check, he’s been spending time with his buddies, and trying to convince Mama to let him invest in a liquor store with his two friends Bobo and Willy. He gets angry in the beginning because Ruth doesn’t agree with him and hits in the face with a hard slap of reality.

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676 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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600 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

The interpretation gained from reading “A Raisin in the Sun” came accross with a few points, Ruth and Walter fight a great deal within the story. Ruth and Walter’s living environment is both positive and negative. It would be interesting to find out what's makes Walter tick, as well as why Ruth feels like she needs to put up barriers. Also explore how Walter and Ruth slowly come back together as a couple to find peace in their lives which directly affects the baby living or dying. The understanding received was Walter wants to be better within his socioeconomic status.

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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.

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934 Words | 4 Pages

At one point in the story, Mama decides to give Walter the money to support his business because she felt as if she owed Walter. But, she

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1209 Words | 5 Pages

Walter Lee feels ignored by the world, and that Ruth is holding him back. Walter Lee is living his life, barely getting by, while seeing people who look around his age, living the high life he may never live. The reason that Walter wants to invest in the liquor store is because it will let him be like them. This is further proof of Walter’s heedance towards masculinity. The reason that

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

In A Raisin in the Sun, Walter and Ruth have a personality that correlates to the traditional gender expectation. Walter has an abrupt nature, while Ruth is demure and quiet; the temperament of the two characters corresponds to a man expectation to be dominant and superior to women. Walter comments, “Don’t call it that. See there, that just goes to show you what women understand about the world. Baby, don’t nothing happen for you in this world ’less you pay somebody off!”

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923 Words | 4 Pages

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!”

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

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

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950 Words | 4 Pages

It was normal for a man to have the most power over a household. However, Walter struggles to the role his family plays in his daily life. Because of Walter’s business failure, he was able to develop and find the harmonic balance between money and family. Walter was able to face Karl Lidner when given the choice to sell his family’s dream home in return for one thousand five hundred dollars. He confronts his greed and desire to become a wealthy businessman and realizes that he lost his only supporters throughout his journey.

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779 Words | 4 Pages

In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, there are many examples of sexism throughout its entirety. The character, Walter, demonstrates the acts of a sexist human being. Walter is sexist to not only women in general, but to the women in his family. Not taking into consideration of other people’s sayings and their feelings, Walter generally only thinks about himself, says what he believes, and truly only cares about money. Walter constantly is fighting with all of the women in the family as well.

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