A Raisin in the Sun Summative Essay “So now it’s life, money is life, once upon a time freedom used to be life and now it’s money. I guess the world really has changed.” This may suggest that money is over everything and that money is changing the view of the world. Or perhaps it could be saying that money is very important and can be used for many different purposes. In the story “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hasberry, Walter lives by this statement and sees money very highly. Walter, a father, brother, husband, and son, has a big dream of owning a liquor store and becoming rich. Walter is given the opportunity to accomplish his dream by getting money from his father’s life insurance check, but his mother has other plans, like buying a …show more content…
Walter has a dream of owning a liquor store, but the issue that stands in the way of his dream is that he doesn’t have the money to start a liquor store. Throughout the play, Walter faces the issue of having a lack of money as Walter works as a chauffeur and doesn’t make much money. Since Walter doesn’t have nor make much money, money is very important to him since he has lived with so little of it. For example, Walter says, “Do you know what this money means to me” (Hansberry 20). This reveals how important money is to Walter since he has never had a big amount of money before. With the money being so important, it could fix the money issue that Walter has that is holding him back from achieving his dream of owning a liquor store. The importance of money is demonstrated by Walter by saying, “That money is made out of my father’s flesh” (Hansberry 41). This is important because the money is from Walter’s life insurance, showing that the money isn’t just money, but Walter’s father. Money is also important because it is a way for the family to better themselves and better their …show more content…
When Walter is faced with the decision, he chooses to move into the new house. Although this weakens his dream, Walter realizes that his family is more important and that he needs to follow his father’s footsteps by being the man in the house and to provide for the family and not himself. This is shown when Walter says, “We have decided to move into our house because my father, my father, he earned it for us brick by brick” (Hansberry 47). This reveals that Walter is now seeing the importance of his family, and seeing what he really has to do rather than own a liquor store. The quote also emphasizes how important Walter’s father is since he had put them into the position where they could have a better life. With Walter choosing the house, it shows that he is going to follow his fathers footsteps and honor his name by doing what his father has done before which was providing for his family. To illustrate this point, Walter says, “Well what I mean is that we come from people who have a lot of
Walter is one of the characters to impact the play. His main goal is to get Mama’s money that would be coming the next day so he can open his very own business. The conflict of this is that all the talking about the cash and the idea of getting a liquor business makes most of the family disagree with it. The family would rather use the currency for something more important. Walter talks with his wife, Ruth, and states “you see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand.” Ruth at this time, is trying to avoid the subject because she didn’t want to talk about the money.
In the beginning of the play, Walter Lee Younger presents as a character that values money over his own family. He has plans of entering the world of business by investing in a liquor store; however, Walter does not receive full support from the other members of his family. Mama is hesitant on giving a portion of the $10,000 to
The Younger family has not been able to experience the finer things in life, and Walter, being the authoritative male figure, feels he is at fault knows that a change is needed. Walter’s solution is to use his father’s life insurance money to fund the acquiring of a liquor license. The women of the household are always ordering around Walter. It’s Ruth, Mama, or Beneatha telling him how to run things, and when he gets a chance to take the initiative by using the money to invest in his liquor license, his friend betrays him, and his dreams are crushed.
Suddenly, things changed, and Walter and his family came into quite a bit of money. Walter’s mama got a check for ten thousand dollars from her husbands life insurance after he passed away, which was a lot of money in that period of time. A nice house or a liquor store could easily be bought with half of the money from the check. Since the check was actually written out to mama, the money was all technically hers, so all that she wanted to do with it was buy her new house for her family, but stubborn Walter, he wanted his liquor store, and would stop at nothing to get it. When he finally realized that his mama was never going to give him the money to get the liquor store, he took it upon himself to get it himself. He eventually stole a portion of his mama’s money to get the store, but he was taken for a fool when the other person that he was making a deal with, stole all of his money. Now he had nothing, and mama had only some of her money.
In the end, Walter comes to a realization when Travis is looking upon him that he does not want to give up his dignity, he steps up and becomes a man for his family. “And we have decided to move into our house because my father- my father- he earned it for us brick by brick.” This signifies that the money they still have would be invested into the house because they could create new memories and aspirations there. The family all had plans of doing something with the money, but in the end, they all agreed upon purchasing the house and that can represent that family can stay together during tough times and hardships. “What I mean to tell is that we come from people who had a lot of pride. I mean- We are very proud people” The Younger family know that Walter has finally become a man, and they are very proud of him. Walter will not give up on himself and his family, he will remain ambitious and face the future with his family.
In life people have ups and downs; the characters in A Raisin in the Sun experience many highs and many lows. Throughout the story there are many decisions that the characters toss around and debate. Mama, the mother of the family, receives $10,000 which is a very large sum of money for their family. It is up to Mama to decide where the money should go. The Characters in the story developed and their true desires are shown through the choices they make. The characters are faced with many obstacles and these hurdles reveal their character and help to shape the overall plot. In Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the struggle to overcome oppression in order to actualize one’s dream is revealed through the character developement of Walter, Beneatha, and Mama.
In the play A Rasin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, throughout the opening scenes, Walter makes the repetitive point that he feels less than others because of the family's financial status, even going as far as saying: “money is life.” His mother, a woman of an older generation, takes great offense to this statement and exclaims, “Once upon a time freedom used to be life, now it’s money.” to which Walter responds, “No it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it.” (Hansberry 74). On the surface money seems to be Walters's main concern, under the surface, however, he longs for the support of his family more than anything else.
In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the majority of adults in the Youngers’ household are searching for a better way to live their lives. Beneatha and Walter stick out the most when thinking of characters who are actively seeking change or improvement in their lives. Beneatha hopes to become a doctor, and Walter wishes to invest in a liquor store. They’re both personal goals with the same main restriction, money. What they would gain from stepping over their current boundaries and follow through with their goals would significantly improve their lives.
Walter urges his mother to give him the money from their father's life insurance. With this money he intended to help the family by earning all the money in the house, getting them out of poverty by buying a liquor store. “Is it all gone? Son, I gave you sixty-five hundred dollars. Is it all gone?” and Walter replied, “Yesss! All of it… It’s all gone…” (II.ii.129), but his actions made the family get set back even more because he lost the sixty-five hundred dollars. This happened because of his selfishness. He always wanted to be the big
I say this because the way Walter plan on become rich isn’t a good idea to his wife, and mother. Walter seems to be so concerned with becoming wealthy and self-employed, without really thinking about how his family could be hurt by him being so concerned about
Walter wants to make money in the business industry. Walter wants to be rich and he wants to be respected by all. Unfortunately, again there are many major complications. The first hurdle that Walter has to jump over is money. Although, he receives money for the liquor store that he wants to invest in, he ends up losing it by trusting the wrong people with it.
. There are many obstacles in the way of Walter's dream of opening a liquor store, as he tries to explain to his wife, Ruth, about what he has to do, "Baby, don't nothing happen for you in this world less you pay somebody off!"(Hansberry 33) Walter's determination to open the liquor store can be viewed as means to an end to his family's hardships.
Mama and Walter both desire to provide for their family. They both look at money as success. When the $10,000
Walter relieved his anger by getting drunk, and also getting into fights and argues with his wife, Ruth, mama, and his sister Beneatha. He hates living in poverty, so he invests the insurance money into a liquor store with two of his friends. Walter thought money was life. Mama says, “Oh—So now it’s life. Money is life.
“Because it is life, Mama!”(pg. 74). Walter explains to Mama, who doesn’t think money is important, that money is life to him because he thinks that if he has money he will be able to have power and obtain things wants. Walter’s need of money makes his American Dream different than Mama’s, who really cares about the family. Not only can their needs change their American Dream, their personalities can too. “I-I just seen my family falling apart today… just falling to pieces in front of my eyes…