A Raisin In The Sun Quote Analysis

Walter Lee Younger is the son of Mama, the sister of Beneatha, the spouse of Ruth and the father of Travis. Because of poverty, Walter Lee lived a life of trying to get rich schemes, which led to losing his family’s money. However, in the end Walter realized family was the key to true success.

In A Raisin In the Sun Lorraine Hansberry uses everyday objects-a plant, money, and a home to symbolize a family's struggle to deal with racism and oppression in their everyday lives, as well as to exemplify their dreams. She begins with a vivid description of the family's weary, small, and dark apartment in Chicago's ghetto Southside during the 1950s. The Youngers are an indigent African-American family who has few choices in their white society. Each individual of the Younger family has a separate dream-Beneatha wants to become a doctor, Walter wants to open a liquor store, and Ruth and Mama want a new and better home. The Youngers struggle to accomplish these dreams throughout the play, and a major aspect of their happiness and

that ain’t anything at all. Mama, I don't know if I can make you understand” (73). Walter is not able to provide for his family by American standards, and as a result, his family lives in poverty.

The white people acted as though their lower social class status was contagious. That allowing the Youngers to move into their neighborhood would corrupt their children and that their neighborhood would turn to trash and rubble. There was not a logical reason for them to act this way. It was as if the Youngers attempts to do better for themselves was an unacceptable notion. As Albert Einstein once said, “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them”. (Baer) Which is what the Youngers were trying to do. Moving into the house in the white community would have been a major step up from living in an apartment with a bathroom that was shared by all of the residents. They had never owned their own home before, and this was a dream of Walter’s father. Mama reflects on how “Big Walter used to say, he’d get right wet in the eyes sometimes, lean his head back with the water standing in his eyes and say, ‘Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams – but He did give us children to make them dreams seem worthwhile.’”(pg. 1923) Lorraine Hansberry analyzes this in A Drama in Three Acts saying “Mama always describes Big Walter as a sacrificing parent who really tries to give his children as much as he can… [but] Lena’s dreams are not for herself but for her family, for her children and for their future.” (Drama in Three) While a father’s dream

Every black male's plight in America can be regarded as a provider for his family. However, society does not afford black males the benefit of feeling secure about providing for their families. It can be easy for anyone to criticize society and place the blame on America for not affording Walter the opportunities of his white counterparts. Walter does not have control over his own responsibilities. Therefore, if he was given all the resources needed to provide his family his poor judgement and lack of business sense would create further stress on the family. Ruth, Mama, and his sister Beanetha attack him from every angle about his doubtful ideals. Ironically, those ideals are what Walter needs to shape and justify his manhood. Without ideals and proper resources to obtain them, a man's existence can be regarded as insignificannot

Money has been a life objective since they introduced it back in early 5,000 BC. People are so focused in acquiring materialistic things in order for them to feel special or overall happy. In most cases people focus on becoming rich to feel important and start to lose morality. In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, there is a specific character named Walter Lee. In the play Walter is concerned about money and has some morality because he was willing to let his future baby die from abortion, risk his family’s money for selfish needs, and thinks money is life. But deep down inside him he cares for his family more than money.

Providing for your family and yourself is a important key to survival, in “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry the Youngers know the true struggle of survival in the 1960s being an african-American family in a low income neighborhood. The family of five (soon to be six) living in a two bedroom apartment must share everything and live paycheck to paycheck. The play itself shows the hardships the family are trying to overcome poverty, but once they receive knowledge of a check that is, ten-thousand dollars, coming for Lena (Mama) Younger from the life insurance of the Youngers’ (Walter Younger Senior) deceased father. Since the coming of the check everyone seems to have their own plans for the check. The check changed everything, we

Blacks and whites were still separated; however, had some contact with each other at work. Accordingly, Ruth worked as a maid, and Walter Younger worked as a chauffeur, both being employed by wealthy white families. The setting of the play was in a ghetto apartment on the south side of Chicago. Until near the end of the play, interaction with whites was limited until Mr. Linder arrived from a white neighborhood where the family had recently purchased a new home with insurance money claimed from Ruth’s husband who passed away. Mr. Linder arrives with his offer of buying the house back from them, intended to keep their neighborhood segregated, and “…that for the happiness of all concerned that our Negro families when they live in their “own” communities.”, but the Younger’s refused. The Youngers were a poor family, but they were fiercely proud of it and what they believed in. They kept the house and chose to stand up for themselves (Hansberry, 1994). This is how African-Americans were treated in the 1950s and 60s, but the way they responded by standing up for themselves is what gave them their equal rights they have

(page 45-46)” In the first act alone, the audience is shown the great disparities between the American dream for a white man and the American dream for people of color. However, now with this insurance money from Big Walter’s death, there is a chance of someone their dream, the problem that the Younger’s face is which someone should get to use the money. Beneatha needs it for college to become a doctor, Walter needs it to invest in a liquor store so he can finally “be somebody.” But Mama wants to use that money to buy a house. She wants to leave their current rented apartment and she wants a nice house in the suburbs where she could have a garden and “with a yard where Travis could play in the summer. (page 44)” Mama believes that a change of scenery is what the family needs and that it will bring them back together. These three characters have the most conflicting wants for the

“To realize the American Dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It is a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard it is possible.” However it is not always guaranteed. A Raisin in The Sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a family who continues to struggle while reaching towards The American Dream. The American Dream is described as “The ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.” The Youngers are a hard-working family who all have different interpretations of the American Dream. Mama, Walter, and Beneatha’s shared powerful dreams that give the a look into The American Dream. Despite

Walter has long dreamed of making his family’s condition better, of giving them wealth that his low-paying job is unable to do. Nature appears to be against Walter and his family, for they are living in a poorly maintained tenement apartment while surrounded with racism. Walter understands this

The play A Raisin in the Sun illustrates the social and economic pressure that is placed on the Younger family, especially Beneatha who aspires to become a doctor at the time where not many women could even imagine such aspirations. The Younger family's daughter Beneatha is an outspoken intelligent member who raises the argument for the other side of the spectrum at all times. Beneatha is aspiring to become a doctor and has some hope that some of the money from her father's social insurance cheque would help go to her medical school. The pressure of being lower middle class severely affects the relationships of the Younger family as Walter, Beneatha's older brother shows no regard for his sister as he sees her as the only one in the house not

When talking to Linder about not moving into an all-white neighborhood, Walter stands up for his family and states they will still be moving in, spite of being the only black family in the neighborhood. “WALTER: What I am telling you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud and that this is—this is my son, who makes the sixth generation of our family in this country, and that we have all though about your offer and we have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it… we don’t want your money” (145). Walter finally came to his senses and realized it was a true test of his character to not accept the money to stay away from a particular neighborhood because of the color of his skin. His internal conflicts to find his identity were resolved by setting a good explain for his son and follow in his proud father’s

Upon walking out of Krannert's production of "A Raisin in the Sun," an eerie silence drizzled about the audience as people murmured and slowly shuffled towards the exits. After witnessing such a powerful yet melancholy piece of theater work, words seemed inappropriate. For three hours, "A Raisin in the Sun" encompassed us with racial, economic, and social issues of the 1950s. Swirling portions of humor, disgrace, pride, and sadness into a smooth blend, the play developed many twists and turns that kept the audience and myself completely alert. Throughout the three acts I could feel the audience, as well as myself, totally devoting themselves to the play. But after taking a step back, the play proved to

Back to the story, the Younger family is struggling due to their overwhelming self pride. Walter is proud of being provider to the family and ends up making the wrong decisions. Due to his poor actions, it leads the family down to the point that he started to blame everyone and start being angry at them. Not until the end of the play does he realized that before he can be proud of himself, he must learn how to be proud of his family too. Thus, Raisin in the sun shows that having pride in others allow us to have pride in ourselves so we can achieve our goal. In fact, Walter is also too proud to take responsibilities for his problems, so he pushes them off on other people. For example, there was this time when Walter