A Raisin In The Sun Character Analysis

Walter Lee is stubborn, very ambitious, and filled with pride at the beginning of the story. He strives for success with the money “Mama,” also known as Lena got from the life insurance from her husband who recently passed away. Walter was so selfish all he wanted was to provide a better life for he and his family because he was not satisfied with their current standards of living. He wants more and wishes to become rich because he believes he never had enough growing up, but at the same time he wants to provide money and societal respect for his family. He put his trust with the money into a person who betrayed him and he ended up losing it all including his sisters schooling money. After this scene in the play Walter was at his lowest point,

Walter believes that money will solve all of their problems and he speaks about money constantly "because it is life [. . .]"(1010). Walter's selfishness can be seen at the climax of the play when the family finds out that Willy has ran away with the money: "I never. . . went to the bank at all. . ."(1032). Consequently, Walter used the money to begin his own business.

Walter seems to be overcome with a search for power and a drive to become wealthy and leave the life of being a worker behind him. It also shows that he cares for his family seeing how he is striving to give them the best, but that aspect is overshadowed by his greed. I feel the scene also shows the Younger family at its lowest point in the movie. Walter is on the complete edge and is thinking of stealing a community's money and the rest of the family, besides Momma, seemed to lose their faith and trust in him. When things seemed hopeless with the loss of the money, they only became worse as a loss in more than money occurred. A loss in their character, faith, history, and respect for each other overcame the family, particularly Walter and Beneatha. Nevertheless, Momma soon sets Beneatha straight with an emotional and positive speech about how there is "always something left to love" and sets the standard that the family should adhere to. It marks the turning point at the end of the movie

In the first act of the play Walter begins to talk about the arrival of the check. He tells his wife Ruth to talk to his mom about the liquor store he wants to start because she will listen more to her than him. In the story Walter says, “Mama would listen to you. You know she listen to you more than she do me and Bennie”. This quote from Walter states that he is using his mother’s loyalty and kindness to his wife to benefit him, he is only thinking about himself. In the play Walter says, “you just sip your coffee, see, and say easy like that you been thinking bout that deal Walter Lee is so interested in, bout the store and all.”

Walter Lee Younger a 35 year old man, who lives in a house with his Wife Ruth, Son Travis, Sister Beneatha, and Mother Lena. Walter is greedy, ambitious, and shallow. He obviously shows these characteristics during the play by the way he act towards his family and outsiders. For example, since Walter is unsatisfied with his life he takes it out on Ruth when she was simply just telling him to eat his eggs because they're going to get cold, “ This morning, I was lookin’ in the mirror and thinking about it… 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 to him is stories about how rich white people live.” Walter says selfishly to Ruth after ignoring what is saying. After Walter complains to Ruth about his life she simply says again to him again, “Eat your eggs, Walter.” He became very angry after hearing Ruth repeat this sentence a few times, jumps up, slams on the table and says, “DAMN MY EGGS-- DAMN ALL THE EGGS THAT EVER WAS! This shows that if Walter is not happy then he will make sure that everyone in his family will know. Also, Working for a rich white man as a chauffeur, puts Walter down because he only wishes he could be the person in the back seat. “Honey, you never say nothing new. I listen to you every day, every night, and every morning, and you never say nothing new. So you would rather be Mr. Arnold than be his chauffeur. So-- I would rather be living in Buckingham

In the beginning Walter is very selfish and only seems to care about the liquor store, he even asks Beneatha why she can’t just be a nurse or marry a rich man. The reason he says this to her is because he wants her to not go to medical school. Walter would rather invest the money rather than use it to pay for her schooling. Walter puts his own selfish needs before his family’s

When Walter loses all his money, he’s willing to lose his dignity and be more aggressive to earn it back. We see this when the money is stolen Walters and how it affects Walters view of manhood when he says, “Mama, you know it’s all divided up. Life is. Sure enough. Between the takers and the “tooken.” (He laughs) I’ve figured it out finally. (He looks around at them) Yeah. Some of us always getting “tooken.” (He laughs) ….But I’ll say one thing for old Willy Harris ... he’s taught me something. He’s taught me to keep my eye on what counts in this world” (141). Walter is willing to go against his morals to get what he wants in life, He takes now and apologizes later, whereas the tooken think through ramifications of their actions and don’t act. After the money is stolen, he is willing to take and win, whereas he had

In the play “A Raisin in the Sun” written by Lorraine Hansberry, she is able to take us to place to see what it was like for an African American family to survive in the mid-twentieth century. The play details how the main characters are going through an evolving social and economic position, as well as the evolving gender roles. Hansberry uses the characterization of Beneatha, Ruth, and Walter in order to show the expectations and assigned gender roles for the characters in the story. In short, Beneatha is depicted as a woman who is challenging gender norms and expectations upheld by her family, whereas Ruth is seen as an example of a submissive housewife fulfilling her expected duties. Using “A Raisin in the Sun,” as well as “Marxists

In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter Younger wants to be a “real man”. His dream is to become successful in business and make his family rich. However, when all his money is stolen, he becomes very pessimistic, abandoning the ideas of morality and dignity. At the end of the play, his son Travis inspires him to value his family’s pride over materialism. Over the course of the play, Walter’s view of manhood changes from someone wealthy and successful to a person who has pride and believes in human dignity.

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,

Beneatha is referring to the fact that Walter plots and schemes get more ridiculous as time goes on. She wonders however, if there will be a limit to just how far he will go to attempt to provide a better life. He plans to go into business with his friends and buy a liquor store. However, furthermore, Mama will not allow him to spend obtained insurance check for 10,000 dollars, and instead plans to give most of her money to Beneatha for medical school. Walter, in a way, is jealous of his sister, for she will be able to fulfill her dreams of becoming a doctor. He, however, will have to keep living a monotonous life, not being able to support his family the way that he would like. He is also angry because Beneatha will get a large sum of Mama’s insurance money, and he will not receive a penny. This dispute leads to general hostility and overall anger in the household. Because of this animosity, there is much verbal abuse that takes place within the household, and also leads to the Walter’s alcohol abuse. Throughout the play, Lorraine Hansberry displays conflict through the lives of her characters.

     Walter dreams of owning a liquor store, and he shows this throughout the whole play. Walter feels that “don’t nothing happen for you in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!” Owning a liquor store is Walter’s American dream, as he believes that it will provide him and his family with a greater income so they will not have to live in poverty anymore. However, Hansberry shows through Mama how they have different views of the American dream when she tells Walter that the liquor store would be un-Christian like and that they should spend the money on a new house instead. Hansberry makes Mama more convincing by showing her carrying a Bible as she comes out of her room in the first scene. Mama also is seen asking God for help and talking about God throughout the play. This is shown when Walter admits that the money Mama gave him was gone because his partner took it and Mama says “Oh, God… look down here – and show me the strength.” Mama is very angry that Walter wasted all of Beneatha’s school money, but she doesn’t let her temper get the best of her and instead goes to God for support.

What makes a person make a good choice or a bad choice? What influences that person? Is it the people around that person? These are all questions to wonder about, and in the end of the script it is all answered. Walter in “A Raisin in The Sun,” by Lorraine Hansbery, is a character surrounded by women who do not understand him. Over the course of the story, Walter makes many choices that change their lives in the story, because of Ruth, Beneatha, and Mama.

In A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family is trying to achieve the American Dream, which is “the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American”(cite dictionary.com). The Youngers are a black family living in a poor part of Chicago. They inherit ten thousand dollars because Mama’s husband died. Mama is the matriarch of the Younger family. Each family member has their own idea about how to use this money to fulfill their dreams, and the play uses the decisions of the family members and other characters to show the reader that people’s actions are not always motivated by what they appear to be. Mama wants to use the money to buy a house in a white neighborhood, because she thinks it is a better environment for her family than their current living conditions and will benefit her family. Although there are a number of people in A Raisin in the Sun who appear too want to help the Younger family, Mama shows through her decision to buy the house that she is the only person that is looking out for the best interests of her family.

There is conflict through the remainder of the play between Mama and Walter because he blames her for the loss of his dream. Walter had a dream of investing in a liquor store. He thought it would make him millions of dollars, and allow him to provide for his family. Eventually, she decides to allow Walter to have control of the remainder of the money. She gives specific instructions to set-aside a portion of the remaining money for Beneatha’s education and the rest was for him to decide (107). She does not exert this control over her children for the sake of maintaining power, rather to continue to provide for them. She willingly relinquishes her power as matriarch and tells Walter “to be the head of this family from now on like you supposed to be” (107). Putting the happiness of her children before her own is what almost any mother would do.