Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Improved Essays
If you had to choose between a secure income of money and your family’s respect, which would you choose? In the book,”A Raisin in the Sun”, there is an ongoing theme of “Money and Morality” between Walter and Mama. This theme of Money and Morality is developed throughout the story as Mama gains the $10,000 and Walters desire to invest in the Liquor comes closer and closer to deadline that Willy Harris has set for him. With this said, other things occur because of this, for the great or good, such as Walter getting frustrated at his family, Mamma disappointed about how times have been changing, and Mamma dissapointed about Walter’s views contrast to hers.

Walter Lee is a desperate man, shackled by poverty and prejudice, and obsessed with a

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Walter is not happy with his conditions. He thinks that the money will help him leave the area that he is in. He wants to make an investment in a liquor store with the help of the people known for schemes. Although his mother does not agree with the plan, he has confidence in…

    • 779 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A wise person once said, “Sometimes we have to let go of what’s killing us, even if it’s killing us to let go.” A man will always try to do what’s best for his family. But does he always know what’s best for the family? In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry debuts a thirty-five year old man who thinks life revolves around money.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why should anyone’s dream be deferred? Everyone should have equal rights despite their race, religion, skin color, gender, et cetera. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, members of the Youngers family had their dreams deferred. The Youngers family faced many struggles, but it was all futile because in the end, they could not achieve their dream. Walter jr. was born around 1905, where the Plessy versus Ferguson law had been recently passed.…

    • 654 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Raisin In The Sun Mama

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Walter’s journey takes him from being a total jerk who’s obsessed with many different get rich quick schemes, to a man worthy of respect and trust. In Walter Younger, the author Lorraine Hansberry shows how when people possessed with poverty and racism can twist and depress people, turning them against those that they most love. With Walter, the play shows how people when faced with these social barriers which can be overcome through personal determination and staying true to one's own…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Grape in the Moon Sometimes, characters who appear briefly or who are only mentioned have some of the greatest impacts in literature. In the play A Raisin in the Sun, playwright Lorraine Hansberry creates Karl Lindner, a white racist who manages the Clybourne Park Welcoming Committee and greatly affects the plot, motives of characters, and conflict despite his miniscule appearance. The characters of Walter, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha are all changed for both better and worse by the words and actions of Lindner, ultimately bringing out the central theme of the story. “We feel that most of the trouble in this world, when you come down to it… exists because people just don’t sit down and talk to each other.”…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When Walter loses the rest of the money to Willy, Mama realizes her dream may not become a reality. Mama says, “I seen him grow old before he was forty...working and working... killing himself...and you-gave it all away in a day.” (Hansberry 129) This shows that Mama is furious that despite her putting her faith in Walter to take care of the money, he gave it away to be put forth into a skeem. After this, Mama knows that she will never be able to get the house and garden she wanted for her family.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How would you react if you held off your biggest dream? Would it die, haunt you? Would it hurt those around you and explode? In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, many of the characters go through dream-related struggles. Shortly after the Harlem Renaissance, Hansberry meets Langston Hughes, a famous poet, in Harlem, New York.…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Family is more important than money. In the play A Raisin in the Sun the Younger family, consisting of Mama, Ruth, Beneatha, Walter and Travis, are an African American family living a hard life. They receive a 10,000 dollar check for the death of the Younger’s dad. Each Family member dreams of using the money in a different way that caused the family to have disputes. In A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry uses Mama and Walter to show that money drives families apart.…

    • 455 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Though many readers may sympathize with the narrator because his brother is addicted to heroin, the narrator actually begins as a hardened, unfeeling man. Two scenes show his lack of compassion. The narrator shows how cruel and unfeeling he is when he meets Sonny's friend on the street. Adopting a sarcastic tone, the narrator questions the friend's motives: "You come all the way down here to just tell me about Sonny? " We can see in this tone that the narrator doubts that the friend truly cares for Sonny.…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through Colbie Caillat’s new lead song Try and Lorraine Hansberry’s prominent production, A Raisin in the Sun, a powerful universal message is provided about an individual’s awareness of societal approval of their external factors, specifically in this case physical beauty, status. In a Raisin in the Sun, Walter’s dream to start a liquor business is based on his inability to provide for his family and his importance on masculinity—a societal stereotype internalized in him. He wants to hold the masculine role in his family, and become the sole provider. However, his dream is also heavily based on the racial issues that were going on during the 1950s. Walter wanted to get a respectable status in society, and therefore be accepted and respected by white society.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walter never shows up at work, always drinks too much. He waste his money,, is always at the Green Hat Bar comes home drunk. Each character has a dream, Walter is shaped to his concept of manhood. Walter believes that a man is chiefly defined by his own work. He dreams of a job that will get him more respect.…

    • 519 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For one, Walter Lee wanted to make a deal to with two of his other friends to start a liquor business with all of the ten thousand dollars, as shown “Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be bout’ thirty thousand, see. That would be ten thousand each.”, but Mama believed in was a useless investment and said “Well-whether they drinks it or not ain’t none of my business. But whether I go into the business selling it to ‘em is, and I don’t want that on my ledger this late in life.”, and was more concerned about saving money for Beneatha going to medical school, and getting an education.…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walter Lee Younger, a defiant, selfish, dream chaser, who does not feel validated, and who's never listened too, but will do anything to help his family live happier. The goal Walter wants for him and his family, to be successful and live a comfortable life. The Younger family, who live in the southside of Chicago in the 1950s. They live in the small undersized apartment not fit enough for the five of them.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This as well, shows how Mama’s identity conflicts with her success, because since she does not value money, or see it as important, she decides to just give it to Walter, knowing that he cannot be trusted with…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Walter Younger is somebody, who at first, only cared about monetary gain and achieving his dreams, while his sister, Beneatha, who breaks the traditional role of women, trying to find who she is, and dreams of becoming…

    • 2171 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays