A Raisin in the Sun by Loraine Hansberry has a multitude of themes throughout all of which seem to focus around poverty, dreams, and gender roles. Poverty seems to be the universal theme; the theme that affects all other themes. It seemed to strengthen these differences and problems they shared and appeared to be the central issue the family struggled with the most. These three themes seem to be embodied in one major character throughout the store: Walter Lee Younger. Through the character progression of Walter, you can follow the transitions of three major themes: poverty, dreams, and gender roles, while watching Walter’s character transition alongside the themes as well. The first instance the gender roles seem to be significant is with Walter, feeling the need to be the “man” of the family. He takes it that after his father’s death, being the oldest male, it was his duty to provide and support the family. Of course, this is an aged concept, as we know as times go on women are becoming more and more prominent and being recognized for the duties they provide. Walter uses this idea of being a powerful man, as an excuse for why things should be handed to him. His wife should support him, why? Well, because he is a man. His mother should provide him with the money for no other reason than that he is a man. He uses his ‘superior’ masculine attitude to try and get what he wants, and he leads his life with this this attitude throughout the play. He states at one point, “Somebody tell me – tell me, who decides which women is supposed to wear pearls in this world. I tell you I am a …show more content…
This play provides a theme of weak men who use their insecurities to belittle women around them. Walter feels entitled to respect, and support, among other things, purely because he is a man. This belief is proven further by insinuating that a woman’s job is to support him in this idea, and to further help him feel entitled to whatever he pleases by allowing him to dictate their own
In the play Walter Lee Younger Junior is a 35-year protagonist who can't provide or stand up to be the man to his family. Walter Lee Younger Junior suffered so hard and he was tired of they way him and his family were living in poverty and he's trying to take away poverty from his family and try to figure out a new, and better ways to secure its economic prosperity. Walter is going insane due to all
Lorraine Hansberry purposely used Walter as one character to represent the theme Money and Mortality. Walter’s character is revealed by a narrator, the narrator can simply identify that Walter is a very overprotective person when it comes to the topic of money. “Without even looking at his son, he begins to hard stare at his wife”. The narrator can identify this quote to Walter because; in the beginning of the play Walter and Ruth had an argument over the insurance check. This quote can be related to the theme Money and Mortality because; the narrator identified the concern of money towards Walter. “You know what the check is coming tomorrow”. The author, Lorraine Hansberry shows on how Walter is very excited to receive the check. This second quote from the play can show Walter’s concern with the check; the narrator can identify this by showing on how Walter is constantly reminding Ruth about the check. After Ruth tells Travis they have no extra money to give to him for school; Walter
No matter how hard they try, there are some people who cannot get ahead in life. Walter Lee Younger is a man who is frustrated with his current position in life, and every disappointment he has encountered thus far. Although he tries to be a loving man, sometimes he does not know how to show the idea of love, 'Sometimes...sometimes...I don't even know how to try' (Hansberry 89). His position in life can be regarded as symbolic of every black male struggling to provide for his family by any means necessary. Although Walter has a job, it seems inadequate for his survival. As a result, he has become frustrated and lacks good judgement. Throughout this play Walter searches
Walter asserting his manhood against his mother’s matriarchal dominance can be seen as the principal conflict in Hansberry’s work. Walter’s mother in settled in her traditional and old schools ways and views masculinity as a life-affirming Black tradition, whereas Walter equates manhood and masculinity with how much money one has and being his family’s sole provider. When Walter’s father died his mother received $10,000 in life insurance payments. She takes a portion of the money and uses it to purchase a house in a well-established suburban white neighborhood. In terms of the remaining money, Walter wanted to invest in a liquor store. After much persuading, Mama finally gives in and gives Walter the rest of the money. When the investment goes belly up Walter loses all the money. His attempt to establish his manhood ironically made him
Walter’s believes in the beginning, of the book to be a man you have to be career oriented and making enough money to provide for your family. In the beginning of the book, Ruth is making eggs for Walter as they discuss what to do with the money from the life insurance. Ruth is focused on making breakfast while Walter is focused on how a man would respond as, “I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby!.” (37) The fact that it’s choking walter to death that he can not provide for his family and be successful without the life insurance money shows that his mainfocus is achieving for his family . Walter believes his family should not only have enough money to get by, but thinks they should have a surplus of material objects. Walter tells Mama, “sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ’bout things … sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars …”sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me.” (76) As Walter sees his opportunity start to pass he starts to see he need to start focusing on his career.
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
Secondly, during the play Ruth is shown as a housewife who takes care of their son Travis, and is always cooking and cleaning for Walter. A prime example of Ruth is just being a lady who serves her man is when Walter is having George over and he tells her “ Why don’t you offer this man some refreshment. They don’t know how to entertain people in this house, man” (Hansberry 1488). Since Walter works all day driving around, he feels empowered to belittle his wife, and view her as a servant. Thus setting the expectation that women are just supporting roles to their husbands, and are meant to cater to the needs of the husband. Moreover, Ruth is relied on to get Walter and Travis ready for work and school. “Will someone listen to me today!” (Hansberry 1481). Ruth is therefore the caregiver for the family; she is heavily depended on to support her family, while her husband complains about getting the money to open up a liquor store with his friends or about driving his “white” boss around everywhere and being jealous because he isn't successful.
The Importance of Suffering Brave New World takes place in two locations that couldn’t possibly be more different. The Reservation is home to people who are heightened versions of us today. They strongly value religion, monogamy, and emotions. Meanwhile the people of the World State, have no religion, believe that everybody belongs to everyone else, and essentially experience only one emotion.
Showing his frustration to his mother, Walter does not feel like he will ever acquire his dream because he feels like he never got the chance or opportunity to. The inability of not able to provide a better life for his household is causing him to stress, act out of character and clouding his decision making. With nowhere else to turn he thought he could use his father’s life insurance money to invest into a liquor store which turned into a scam. Walter feeling trapped from making advancements in life, he makes a huge mistake and learns from this error. In the play Walter is talking to mother describing his anger,
In Kristine L. Matthew’s “The Politics of Home in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun,” Kristine Matthews states “Walter Lee accepts a system that refuses to accept him as “a man” thereby troubling his sense of self and defusing potential challenges that he might offer to his family’s oppressors” (5). His need to be rich also wrapped into his gender identity. As a man, Walter could see the White – male dominated society would not let him do anything. Therefore, Walter would like to take the roles of his own family for
Many people go through different moralities in there life some that they believe can change their life for the better but don’t know the consequences. This ties in with issues involving money. Many people believe that money is the way to happiness and do what they can to get money even if it means to hurt your loved ones. In the play “Raisin in the Sun” Walter Lee Younger is man that lives in South Side Chicago and at point in life that he’s in, he wants to do something in his life and make a difference for colored people. The way he believes he can accomplish that is by opening a bar to make money for his family while believing money is the only source of happiness. Walters ideal morality was to make sure he got his hands on the insurance money so he could open up the bar even if it meant his family would suffer when things went wrong.
In the play the book says, “Walter comes in during this performance; he has obviously been drinking”. But later on In act two Walter begins to get angry and offended. In the play Walter says, “I know ain’t nothing in this world as busy as you colored college boys with your fraternity pins and white shoes…” he directs this statement to George, the man his sister Beneatha is accompanied by. Walter is also angry because he feels like nobody supports him. In the play Walter says, “No! Cause ain’t nobody with me! Not even my own
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At the beginning of the play Walter Lee younger believes that manhood stems from being able to provide for one’s family. We first encounter Walter’s concept of manhood when he and Ruth are arguing over breakfast and Walter says, “I’m thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room and all I got to give him is stories about how rich white people live…” (Hansberry 478). This begins to show his ideas because it shows that he is getting older and he still cannot provide for his family. One thing that might hurt Walter the most
Juveniles in the justice system is an issue relevant not only to people in the criminal justice system but to society in general. There have been a number of studies done that link serious behavior problems in children to adult criminal conduct. In more recent years, there has been more research done regarding the causes and prevention of juvenile delinquency. The Department of Juvenile Justice lists 3 broad categories with many subcategories to help us understand what contributes to juvenile delinquency (CITE). These categories are listed as Individual, social, and community factors. Similarly, Dr. Alida V. Merlo, at Indiana University of Pennsylvania states that in recent history, the juvenile justice system has moved from a more punitive approach to juvenile justice to more prevention and treatment oriented approach. (CITE). This is a necessary change because as research begins to identify risk factors that may lead a child into the juvenile justice system, it is important to treat the juvenile accordingly. We would not treat a delinquent minor that has been a victim of maltreatment or abuse the same way we treat a child that has outside influences in the community that played a role in their delinquency.