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Raisin In The Sun Gender Roles Essay

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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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In the beginning Walter is basically perceived as a jerk-he doesn’t seem to get along with anyone, not even his own family. His character likes to turn discussions into fights, make rude comments to his wife, and act all around immature. A part that accurately shows the way Walter conducts himself is when he is arguing with Ruth and says “Man say: I got to change my life , I'm choking to death, baby! And his woman say- Your eggs is getting cold!”

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In the months leading up to World War Two, additional labor was needed in the United States. Men had to fight in the war, so they left their jobs unoccupied. Women were needed to work in the war front, as well as in “essential civilian” jobs--jobs that kept the home front running smoothly. Examples of these occupations are teachers, taxi drivers, child-care workers, bank tellers, restaurant workers, and police officers (Colman). Housewives were the only group of people who were not contributing to the war efforts, or in Teresa English’s words “the only untapped demographic.”

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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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Everyone wanted to forget about the war and the lives lost, and go back to how life was before, with typical gender roles (Nathan 47). And so came the era of the housewives in the early 1950’s. There was no demand for women in the workplace anymore so women became housewives and took care of their families (Nathan 47). The government provided incentive to male breadwinner families with a tax break (Coontz 60). “Marynia Farnham and Ferdinand Lundberg (famous anti feminists) insisted that pursuing a “career,” which they defined at workplace prestige, was antifeminine to its core and an assault on men’s self-respect” (Coontz

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