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Raisin In The Sun Gender Roles Essay

950 Words4 Pages

Raisin in the Sun: Gender Roles Defied Following the event of World War Two, America during the 1950s was an era of economic prosperity. Male soldiers had just returned home from war to see America “at the summit of the world”(Churchill). Many Americans were confident that the future held nothing other than peace and prosperity, so they decided to start families. However, the 1950s was also a time of radical changes. Because most of the men in the family had departed to fight in the war, women were left at home to do the housework. Even after the war, women were urged to stay at home to take care of the children. On the other hand, males would deal with financial businesses to keep their family out of poverty. These gender roles were embedded …show more content…

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. Walter declines Karl Lidner while staring at Travis, his little son. With these actions, Walter is seen as a family man- somebody who realizes the importance of family. Walter develops into a character similar to his father- Big Walter. Big Walter was seen as “a man who loved his children”(PAGE) according to Mama. Even though he was financially unstable, he “” QUOTE. Walter was introduced as a man who cared about nothing other than his business. He had sacrificed his sister’s dream of becoming a doctor, and held the power to wipe out Mama’s dream for a better home. Walter sees the gender roles as boundaries keeping him from loosening up to his family. He is given the insight that men must be powerful, wealthy, and demanding for them to truly be the head of the household. However, Walter sees past these gender roles, and not only challenges these rigid roles, but he also regains his family’s trust along the

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