Oluseyi Akinbami once said, “Every man’s heart speaks, where no one can see, it reveals the motives for our actions, and many times the motives are not good.” In Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun” the Younger family is one full of ambition. Each member of the family has a goal in life that they wish to achieve. For Ruth and Lena (Mama) Younger, this goal seems to present itself as the desire for family bonding. For Beneatha Younger, success in the medical field seems to be prominent. Finally, for Walter Younger, he dreams for success in the purchase of a liquor store. Each of the characters have differing ideas of how to achieve their individual goals. Additionally, each has different motives behind their dreams. The degree
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It is imperative that the steps be evaluated for any unhealthy trends that would be detrimental to personal health, as well as others. For every action, there is indeed an “equal and opposite reaction.” –Newton When the motives come from healthy origins, an incredible work ethic becomes evident. On the converse, when a motive comes out of selfish or malicious desires, it can fuel disingenuousness. For Walter, it was unfortunately the latter. One can see evidence of this when Walter is willing to put others at risk for dissension. He implores Ruth (his wife) to coerce Mama into loaning him the money. “A man needs for a woman to back him up… Mama would listen to you” illustrates the near emotional manipulation he is willing to ensue in order to further his process in the goal of the liquor store. Later in the story, Mama decides to give Walter a percentage of the money. She says “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (966). In giving him the money, she lays out specific guidelines as to how he is to use the money. Walter’s unhealthy motive is reflected in his disregard for Mama’s guidelines. He untrufully and unwittingly “invests” the money in the liquor store despite her …show more content…
When initially pursuing an ambition, one must take a careful look at the motives and process. Sometimes, one can immensely decrease the likelihood of a damaging outcome (or almost damaging) when taking this point of caution. For Walter, the lack of consideration for “what-if?” situations caused a great deal of pain for the Younger family. When he secondhandedly invested the money, the middle man(Willy) ended up taking the money. This resulted in Walter successfully losing all of the money that was initially intended to provide education and family stability. Mama poses a series of questions to Walter. Upon realizing the gravity of what had happened, Walter laments “Yessss! … All of it … It’s all gone…” (980). The loss of the insurance money was not only harmful to the well-being of the family, but also to Walter’s pride and acceptance. Beneatha (Walter’s sister) remarks: “That is not a man. That is nothing but a toothless rat…He’s no brother of mine” illustrating the great disappointment each family member had for the upset he had caused
It is imperative that the steps be evaluated for any unhealthy trends that would be detrimental to personal health, as well as others. For every action, there is indeed an “equal and opposite reaction.” –Newton When the motives come from healthy origins, an incredible work ethic becomes evident. On the converse, when a motive comes out of selfish or malicious desires, it can fuel disingenuousness. For Walter, it was unfortunately the latter. One can see evidence of this when Walter is willing to put others at risk for dissension. He implores Ruth (his wife) to coerce Mama into loaning him the money. “A man needs for a woman to back him up… Mama would listen to you” illustrates the near emotional manipulation he is willing to ensue in order to further his process in the goal of the liquor store. Later in the story, Mama decides to give Walter a percentage of the money. She says “I’m telling you to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (966). In giving him the money, she lays out specific guidelines as to how he is to use the money. Walter’s unhealthy motive is reflected in his disregard for Mama’s guidelines. He untrufully and unwittingly “invests” the money in the liquor store despite her …show more content…
When initially pursuing an ambition, one must take a careful look at the motives and process. Sometimes, one can immensely decrease the likelihood of a damaging outcome (or almost damaging) when taking this point of caution. For Walter, the lack of consideration for “what-if?” situations caused a great deal of pain for the Younger family. When he secondhandedly invested the money, the middle man(Willy) ended up taking the money. This resulted in Walter successfully losing all of the money that was initially intended to provide education and family stability. Mama poses a series of questions to Walter. Upon realizing the gravity of what had happened, Walter laments “Yessss! … All of it … It’s all gone…” (980). The loss of the insurance money was not only harmful to the well-being of the family, but also to Walter’s pride and acceptance. Beneatha (Walter’s sister) remarks: “That is not a man. That is nothing but a toothless rat…He’s no brother of mine” illustrating the great disappointment each family member had for the upset he had caused