Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Kisanet Sium English 1B Professor M. Jones July 10, 2016

Walter-Lee Younger

It is pretty ironic when the man of a house is set up for a failure. But that’s who Walter

Lee, one of the main characters in Lorraine Hansberry’s play, Raisin in the Sun, is. He is emotional macho man with almost no capability of leading his household as the head. He has unmeasurable greed for money and incredible desire to live the American dream. He prefers to run away from his problems rather than to face them. He disrespects the women of his family, and does not set up a good example for his son to follow. Walter is a man with under developed ego, and basic defense mechanism. But he was not born like that, he was made to behave the way he behaves. Walter Lee Younger,

Walter was born and grew up early 20th century, when slavery was fresh in the minds of the elite and the privileged. Racial discrimination was at its peak and he was among the people with the undesirable race of the 20th century, but even among the ‘undesirable race’ there was discrimination, based on who has more money. economically disadvantaged individuals had a lower social class compared to the rich people of the same color. And Walter was one of the economically disadvantaged African Americans. He was discriminated because he was poor in addition to the discrimination he suffered because of his skin color. He grew up in

He is repeatedly seen to disrespect his wife even telling her he does not care about her. He is seen to suppress hi sister trying to push her away from her dream of becoming a doctor. He is even seen to disrespect and constantly argue with his mother. This is his defense mechanism to the inferiority complex he suffers as a poor and as a black. He is treated as inferior in the society and his subconscious mind displaces his inferiority complex to those with lower social class than him. he projects his anger and his suffering on the females of his household. Water is also seen to constantly destroy himself when his mother refuses to help him with his investment on the liquor store. Displacing his mistreatment and hurting himself is his way of dealing with things he cannot change. This is his way of changing his mother’s mind. He also goes to denial when he heard his wife is trying to abort the pregnancy. He acts as if nothing is happening and as if he did not hear anything. Walter Lee denial and displacement are his best ways of dealing with the life problems he