Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

Mama implies that the money was more than just currency, but what is left of her husband’s dream to bring success to his family. She is terribly disappointed with Walter for losing all of the money so easily, and not putting it toward to what he promised. Because of this great loss, Walter is still left with no money. His dream to become wealthy is now at the bottom of the gutter, all over again, and he has to work even harder as well as gain his confidence back in order to fish it out.

Walter Lee Younger, the main character, deeply adores his son and wants to give the best future for him. He risks all his money into a liquor store business, and would even use his sister’s school money, knowing that action would break his mother’s trust. The only reason for him to take such a significant risk is that

The predicament that Walter finds him-self in motivates him to want to invest in a liquor store in order to grasp some type of financial freedom. He doesn’t just want to have enough money to provide for his family, but he tells his mother, “I want so many things” (74). He is obsessed with earning a lot of money. At the beginning of the play Walter is waiting for Mama's check from the insurance company as if it was his own, and Beneathea has to remind Walter that, “that money belongs to Mama, Walter and if is for her to decide how she wants to spend it” (36). Here we see how he is searching for his identity with money. Much of Walter’s dialog is about making money or who has money. When his wife Ruth mentions that his friend Willy Harris is a good for nothing loud mouth, Walter retorts; “...And what do know about good for nothing loud mouth? Charlie Atkins was just a good-for-nothing loud mouth too, wasn’t he! He wanted me to go in the dry-cleaning business with him, and now he’s grossing a hundred thousand a year. A hundred thousand dollars a year! You still call him a loud mouth!” (32) The idea of making a hundred thousand dollars is what he had most on his mind, and to Walter the liquor store is how he will achieve that. The liquor store represents an

Mama does not want Walter to open up a liquor store because Mama is not those kind of people “We ain’t no business people. Ruth. We just plane working folks” (42). Throughout the play Mama and Walter has differences in life about what the want to do with insurance money they got from Mama’s husband that passed away. Mama wants to buy a house ,but Walter wants to invest in liquor store.

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.

Dreams are important to everyone. Some little girls dream of being a ballerina while some little boys and even teenage boys dream of being a major league baseball player for their favorite team. In the famous drama A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, dreams have a prominent role. The title, even though there’s never a raisin in the drama, is important because: it refers to a poem written by famous poet Langston Hughes and it relates to the dreams of each of the characters.

Walter has proven that he is extremely selfish while talking to Mama about why he is so infatuated with money. “Because it’s life, Mama!” (Hansberry 74). Walter refuses to see why opening a liquor store is so bad, as he does not agree that it is a waste of money to just gamble away. He has ultimately blocked out the opinions and views of his family and he only focuses on the life insurance check that is soon to come in. He wishes to put all his blind faith, and money, into his acquaintances which his sister Beneatha has warned him are unreliable. He is extremely carless with the money he has not yet been given. While talking to Beneatha’s date, Asagai, Walter drunkenly slurs that he wishes to talk to Asagai’s father about business. “Big. Invest big, gamble big, hell, lose big if you have to” (Hansberry 84). If Walter is so careless with the money he does not yet hold it in his hands, how would he behave with money he will possess? As Walter continues to express his ideas to the family, it is clear how selfishly invested he is in the liquor store more than he is in his own family’s

Suddenly, things changed, and Walter and his family came into quite a bit of money. Walter’s mama got a check for ten thousand dollars from her husbands life insurance after he passed away, which was a lot of money in that period of time. A nice house or a liquor store could easily be bought with half of the money from the check. Since the check was actually written out to mama, the money was all technically hers, so all that she wanted to do with it was buy her new house for her family, but stubborn Walter, he wanted his liquor store, and would stop at nothing to get it. When he finally realized that his mama was never going to give him the money to get the liquor store, he took it upon himself to get it himself. He eventually stole a portion of his mama’s money to get the store, but he was taken for a fool when the other person that he was making a deal with, stole all of his money. Now he had nothing, and mama had only some of her money.

Mr. Walter Lee Younger is MaMa’s son Walter's dream was to own a liquor store with his friends Mr. Willy Harris and Mr. Bobo. Walter wanted to have a liquor store but he ran into two issue MaMa would not give him the insurance money ,but then MaMa gave it to him towards the end of the story. The second was Bobo and Walter put gave thousands of dollars to Willy to get a permit but Willy ran off with the money. So then MaMa started to beat him because he gave all the money and lost it. It states, “ Willy… Willy… don’t do it…

Walter is the son of Big Mama and the brother of Beneatha. He only likes doing things his way and he often gets in conflicts with his family about not being the “man of the house.” Walter works as a chauffeur to rich white people but his dream is to run his own liquor store. Towards the end of the play, it becomes clear that Walter’s dream was never meant to be. After being given the remaining $6500 from Big Walter’s life insurance, Walter gives the full amount to his friend to fund their liquor store.

Walter lee wants the money for a liquor store, moma wants the money to buy a house to move into at Clybourne Park which is a white community, beneatha wants the money for college, wants to be a doctor, but Ruth knows that it’s Moma’s money to do with ever with. Walter wants the money for a liquor store because he thinks that it would be a good investment for the family but ruth doesn’t see it as a good idea because she thinks it won’t become successful and help the family. Ruth gets mad and tells him he shouldn’t do it because he shouldn’t want his mom’s money for a liquor store.

Throughout Act I, we learn that Walter wants to use the money to open up a liquor store, but Mama does not condone that behavior. “Well---

     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.