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Mama's Dream In Act 2

Decent Essays

Mama is from the generation that has worked to make a better life for the next generation. Mr. Younger's life has been marked by arduous toil; his death and the $10,000 insurance money provides his promise of affording his children with a better life. Nevertheless, Mama wants to be prudent in dispensing with this hard-earned money, and she does not easily agree with the other members of the family on how it should be spent. Walter Lee, who works as a chauffeur, dreams of being an entrepreneur; he desires are in the direction of owning his own business, specifically a liquor store; moreover, he is selfish in his expectations that Mama should primarily consider his goals.
In Act I, Walter Lee knows that his practical mother will not want to give him the insurance money for his business plans, so he suggests to his wife that she
"just sip your coffee, see, and say easy like you been thinking 'bout that deal …show more content…

Of course, Mama is very angry when she hears this and she then learns that Willy has not opened any checking account as she instructed him. So, in order to recoup his loss, Will says that he will call back Mr. Lindner from the new neighborhood who offers to buy them out so that they will not move into the white subdivision. Now, the family is very upset with Walter Lee for his surrender to Mr. Lindner. But, before the man comes, Mama tells him,
I come from five generations....of slaves and sharecroppers, but ain't nobody in my family never let nobody pay 'em no money tht was a way of telling us we wasn't fit to walk the earth. We ain't never been that--dead inside.
This message reaches Walter Lee and when Mr. Lindner arrives, Walter, as the man of the family, rejects the offer, telling the man that his family does not intend to cause trouble. With this, Mama is proud of her son. Moving day comes and Mama gathers her frail plant and departs for the final

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