In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family overcomes the tensions that money brings between a family and uses it to ameliorate their life. They receive an insurance check from their father’s passing for $10,000 that provokes a plethora of different feelings throughout the family. Not only are they hopeful, but receiving it also causes them to become argumentative and greedy and puts them in a worse place than when they first get it.
In the midst of poverty and discrimination, the check results in Walter Younger becoming confident that his dream of owning a liquor store can come true. He explains to his skeptical wife, Ruth, “You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the …show more content…
In a discussion about the fate of the check, Walter explains to Beneatha, “—but if Mama got that money she can always take a few thousand and help you through school too…” (Hansberry 835). He goes as far as convincing his sister that she should use the money for herself to make his plan with it sound reasonable. Walter does not care about whether or not she or anybody else gets to use it. He only tries to make her understand his side of the story by appealing to her situation. Therefore, he is selfishly persuading his loved one into thinking that he deserves the money. In the end, Walter gets his family in one room and confesses, “Mama…I never went to the bank at all…” (Hansberry 875). He goes on to explain that has taken the money behind their backs, gives it to a man whom he thought is trustworthy to deposit it to the store, and ends up stealing all of it. Through his greediness, Walter lies and takes the money for himself instead of putting it into the bank like he tells his family. This level of greed begins with the arrival of the check and is taken too far, thus ending in the complete demolition of any of the plans that the family has for a new
In the midst of poverty and discrimination, the check results in Walter Younger becoming confident that his dream of owning a liquor store can come true. He explains to his skeptical wife, Ruth, “You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the …show more content…
In a discussion about the fate of the check, Walter explains to Beneatha, “—but if Mama got that money she can always take a few thousand and help you through school too…” (Hansberry 835). He goes as far as convincing his sister that she should use the money for herself to make his plan with it sound reasonable. Walter does not care about whether or not she or anybody else gets to use it. He only tries to make her understand his side of the story by appealing to her situation. Therefore, he is selfishly persuading his loved one into thinking that he deserves the money. In the end, Walter gets his family in one room and confesses, “Mama…I never went to the bank at all…” (Hansberry 875). He goes on to explain that has taken the money behind their backs, gives it to a man whom he thought is trustworthy to deposit it to the store, and ends up stealing all of it. Through his greediness, Walter lies and takes the money for himself instead of putting it into the bank like he tells his family. This level of greed begins with the arrival of the check and is taken too far, thus ending in the complete demolition of any of the plans that the family has for a new