Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

He plays the role of the antagonist, pushing everyone else’s dreams to put his forth. Walter thinks her dreams are far too big. In scene 1, she “apologizes” for wanting to become a doctor. “ Well-I do-all right?-thank everybody! And forgive me for ever wanting to be anything at all!...FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE ME, FORGIVE ME!” (37). Even after the feuds with Walter and after all that has happened, family matters more than all the money in the world. Walter gets scammed and loses all the money. Beneatha gets mad but learns that he has been through a lot. She defends her brother from Mr. Linder. The Youngers planned to move there with the money from the insurance check. But, Mr. Linder says that it could be dangerous since where they are moving, there are mostly white folks. Beneatha standing up for him shows that, even though she might not be able to go to medical school anymore because of him, Walter will always be her

The Younger family scrapes through life, each person searching for their own version of the American Dream. Walter clings to the original American Dream of being successful, even if that means going against his mother’s wishes. Mama wants a house for her family, this dream causes her to not fully support Walter’s dream. Walter holds on to his dream of being successful and nothing less, however Mama only wants a home for her family, meaning “Her dream is unacceptable to Walter, who will have nothing less than the complete American Dream, since her version of it only amounts to surviving, not living in the fullest sense” (Washington 94). Their dreams are so different and Mama struggles to support Walter’s risky dream of becoming successful through opening a liquor store. Finally out of the goodness of her heart, Mama gives him the remaining part of the insurance money to start his business, however Walter loses this money to a dirty friend. Thus causing pain to not only himself, but also his family. Barriers and issues constantly block or prevent him and his family from attaining the wealth and success that Walter desires so greatly.

After telling the exciting news of the family moving into their own house, Walter was furiated. Mama found Walter half drunk at the bar later that day, from the aggravation and negative energy the family gave off on him earlier that day. Walter and Mama have a conversation at the bar, and Mama is willing to give him 6,500 dollars and she ask him to promise her he will put half away in the bank for Beneatha's education, giving Walter the rest toward his business partnership. At this part of the book Walter saw that Mama had trusted Walter with the money his father had worked so hard for all of his life. He promised Mama that he would not let her down. Knowing Walter being so tempted by his dream of the liquor business, he finally had a decent amount of money to put him and his family into a good position. Walter no thought in the mind, puts the full 6,500 dollars towards the liquor business leaving nothing for Beneatha. Walter being so greedy, thought he knew what was best, and yet he is running into a bigger problem he would had never

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.

For example, this type of issue would create a myriad of conflicts between Mama and Walter. Walter, a 35 year old living in his mother’s apartment, along with his wife, Ruth, son Travis and sister Beneatha. Mama still considers herself the head of the family, whereas they live under her roof. As head of the household Mama feels it is her duty and responsibility to make all the decisions for the family. Even when the family receives $10,000 in life insurance for her late husband's death, she decides how she will spend the money. In this instance, the conflicts between Walter and Mama begin.

Walter’s mother comes in the room when he receives the terrible news and asks, “ Son… is it gone? All of it? Beneatha’s money too?” which soon leads to Walter Lee’s admittance of the loss saying, “I never went to the bank at all… Yes...All of it… It’s all gone, ”soon ensuring his beating from his mother (Hansberry 561). When the family finds out about this tragedy, the instant instinct of all of the family members was to blame it all on Walter Lee, accusing him of being the reason they will not achieve their dreams. The family does not stop to think about the pain and embarrassment Walter is going through and Lena, the mother of the family, is quick to bring this up saying, “Have you cried for that boy today? I don’t mean for yourself or for the family cause we lost the money. I mean for him: what he been through and what it done to him… Make sure you done taken into account what hills and what valleys he come through before he got to wherever he is,” ensuring that no one person in the family could blame Walter for the deferral of their dreams due to the loss of their money (Hansberry 573). The family has one goal each of them selfishly wants. Each has a different plan they desire with the money they are going to acquire, such as when Beneatha says she plans to become a doctor. The family knows this will be a costly choice and Walter is quick to say, “Have we figured out yet just how much that medical

The younger family needs money they are getting money from a insurance check for the death of mama's husband (Walters father). In the Younger family there is a lot of hate toward each other is because Walter is totally hates his life. He hates it because he doesn't want to disappoint his family by not having money, he also feel like he's not a man because he has to look his son in the face and say no we can't give you money or no in general. The only time Walter seems to get happy is when the money is coming and in his mind he is going to get his dream but in reality it's mama's money and she can do what she wants. For example Mama says “Mama: “Son, how come you talk so much ‘bout money?” Walter: “Because it is life, Mama!” Mama: “Oh—so now its life. Money is

Throughout the play, many conflicts arise between the main characters; Mama, Walter, Ruth and Beneatha. An example of one conflict is poverty, which causes tension to escalate within the Younger family. Everyone in the play has different dreams, yet they have the same goal to overcome poverty. In the opening scene, Hansberry describes the living conditions of the Younger family, who live in Chicago 's South Side in a congested two-bedroom apartment with no bathroom of their own. This location is historic because during the 1950s, it was predominantly a poverty-stricken neighborhood largely populated by African Americans. As a result of “discriminatory real estate practices” and

Ruth is married to Walter Lee, she is frustrated and just plain tire of the way she is living and Walter Lee is treating her and the family. She is tired of her husband’s get rich ideas, but still seeks to please him and

This belief alienates Walter very much from his family, especially Mama. Contrary to Walter’s belief, Mama knows that “freedom used to be life.” Mama has the understanding that while money has the ability to buy the tools one needs to survive, it does not have the power to buy immortality or happiness, and Walter’s dialogue shows that he does not understand that. Towards the end of the play, Walter is presented with a large portion of Mama’s insurance money. His dreams and views on money cause him to be irrational, and he spends his money on a conman. Mama’s reaction to this was shown in the stage direction “Mama stops and looks at her son without recognition and then, quite without thinking about it, starts to beat him senselessly in the face.” (564) That stage direction showed how much focusing on money rather than family and happiness can tear apart a family, as Mama beat her child because he was too caught up in his desire for

Mama's inheritance of ten thousand dollars left by her deceased husband provides fodder for conflict in the family. Each of the family members, envisioning their own American Dream, has an idea of how the inheritance should be spent. All of these ideas, of course, conflict with Walter's "get rich quick" scheme. Mama, Ruth, and Travis all have the dream of moving to their own home with a white picket fence, a garden, a place for Travis to play outside and a bathroom that is not shared by other

When Mama used some of the money as down payment for a house, Walter was noticeably upset by that. Walter wanted to put all the insurance money in the liquor store venture, as he believed the money you invest the more money you get. Walter was getting impatience with the insurance money and he started to emotional blackmail Mama. He talks about his father not being a role model and he wanted to be a role model for Travis. When that did not work, Walter did not go to his job for three consecutive days and instead, he spent his time in a bar getting drunk. Walter wanted to complete his dream so bad that he started to hurt his own family. Walter was willing to pay a heavy price for his dream and he did. Beneatha's dream was sacrificed because of

The Younger family is a black family that struggles to gain middle class acceptance. When the play opens, Mama, who is the mother of the Younger family, is waiting for a $10,000 life insurance check from the death of her husband. Walter Lee Younger who is the son of Mama, shows signs of disappointment with his current living conditions “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…”(1477). Walter was desperate to attain a better live for their growing family that he

In return, Mrs. Young is a wonderful mother; she has suffered and sacrificed for her children. She always explains and lesson to her children instead of making them feel guilty. The Young family starts running into problems when Mrs. Young (Mama) receives about ten thousand dollars from life insurance of her husband. With a poor family likes Young, ten thousand dollars is really a dream, it is a huge amount of money that they could never get for all of their life. The children start fighting over the money; every one has his/her own reason to use that money. Mama must figures out how to keep the family in peace and together. Mama deeply believes in God and lives her life in "cultural and ethnic pride". She usually talks about how her generation has won its freedom and proud to be able no longer be slaves. At the end of the play, even she failed to convince Walter not to put the money in the liquor store but she made her commitment, she has what she has fought for all of her life, her family now all together in love, happiness and forgiveness.

After putting a down payment on the new house, Mama gives the rest of the money to Walter and ultimately gives him the role of the man of the house and to step up to take care of the family. However, Walter goes against Mama and decides to follow through with his dream and invest the money in his potential liquor store business. Although, his plans fall through when Willy, one of the “investors” runs off with the money. Not only Walter, but his whole family lose the chance of a better life and are forced to start back up again. They no longer have the money to put Beneatha through medical school or the money to support themselves. Despite the backfall, the younger family keeps trying. Even though the road ahead may be difficult, the Younger family has each other to support one another and that’s all they need. By picking themselves back up after they have lost everything, it shows that they aren’t ones known to give up at the sight of defeat. They kept trying after they had lost everything because having nothing left to lose means that things can only get better from here on out.