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Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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In this essay I will discuss if Walter or Mama is the main character in the play Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, I will show this by relating my answer to James Thomas suggestion that the lead character is the most complex and therefore the most self-aware. This will be achieved by using quotes from the play and readings as evidence.
In Drama, Character is defined as not a static object fixed forever in time but rather a dynamic (shifting) pattern of features that gradually develops over the course of the play (Stopford, 2016). According to James Thomas (1999:96-97) “the character’s awareness or lack of it is what connects them to the play and determines their influence in the overall scheme”. Looking at the play Raisin in the sun, …show more content…

He applies dramatic actions such as manipulation, self-pity and self-destruction as a way to get closer to reaching his goal. Walter says to Ruth “you are tired ain’t you? But you wouldn’t do nothing to help” (Raisin in the sun, 1986: 527). By saying this he uses Ruth’s dissatisfaction with how they live in a cramped house, to try and make her feel guilty about not helping him get to Mama. Walter also uses his son Travis’s sleeping arrangement as further manipulation of Ruth to pity him by telling her how he was looking at the mirror and he realised he is a 35 years old man, married for eleven years, who has a son who sleeps in the living room and the only thing he has to give him is stories of how rich white people live (Raisin in the sun, 1986: 528). Walter plays victim by telling Mama he thinks his going crazy by wanting a lot of things, he says to mama “sometimes it’s like I can see the future stretched out in front of me-just plain as day” ( Raisin in the sun, 1986:547). As the play precedes, when Mama puts a down payment for a house, Walter goes on a three day drinking binge and refuses to go to work (Raisin in the sun, 1986:554). Mama and Ruth find out he hasn’t been to work in three days, they ask where he has been, he tells them about his expeditions and what he did. Ultimately this tactic makes Mama to

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