The Clerk 's Tale : Self Confidence And Self Respect

Walter struggles in understanding who he needs to be for his family. He wants to take his place as the patriarch of the family, but he feels incapable of providing them with the lifestyle they deserve. This concern is always at the forefront of his mind, and it affects his attitude and outlook. The anxiety that Walter is dealing with creates confrontation with his sister. He fears that her dream will interfere with his own agenda of making a better life for his family. The severity of the tension becomes more and more apparent with Walter’s unwise investment. Walter is dealing with the burden that he has let his family down, while Beneatha is flabbergasted by the reality that her future has been snatched away from her, and she had no control over it. While reflecting on the situation, Beneatha remarks, “ I sound like a human who just had her future taken right out of my hands! While I was sleeping….things were happening in this world that directly concerned me and nobody consulted me—they just went out and did things—and changed my life” (Hansberry 3.15). Walter and Beneatha’s individual issues with the outcome of the situation cause them to find fault with one another during a time when their family needs to pull together to get through such a financial hardship. Walter is in an emotional pit; his turning to alcohol and music instead of his family for support expands the

This only further infuriates Walter. Not only does his mother make a complete power-grab by buying the house; she bought it in a cracker neighborhood! Walter storms out and is almost ready to kill someone over it. He feels he has lost his only shot at power. Walter comes back home screaming at his whole family, they don’t support him, especially his mother. He accuses her of not supporting his dream.

Most people face self esteem problems at different levels. At some point in life people face this problem without realizing it. In the essay The Trouble with Self-Esteem written by Lauren Slater starts of by demonstrating a test. Self esteem test that determines whether you have a high self-esteem or low self-esteem. The question to be answered however is; what is the value and meaning of self-esteem? The trouble with self-esteem is that not everyone approaches it properly, taking a test or doing research based of a certain group of people is not the way to do so.

Self confidence is the foundation of success, achievement, and happiness. Unfortunately, the foundation of self confidence can become shaky and unstable if someone that you look up to as a role model hurts your self esteem and courage. One of the biggest role models in my life used to be my first club soccer coach. He seemed brilliant, passionate, and willing to work with my team. This man soon became the complete opposite of what I hoped he would be. I soon realized that he was a two faced liar and one of the most awful people I have ever met. Little did my ten year old self know he would be the downfall of my self confidence and he would slowly destroy any passion I had for the sport I loved all with only a few words.

Characteristics and Thematic Significance Walter is Lena’s oldest child and is married to Ruth. As the ambitious man that he is, he still caused everyone in his family lots of trouble. With

Because of this Walter has lost his self esteem and will to do anything to make his life better. This is important because it shows that Walter does not have a firm grasp on his own identity.

He is on the most important characters that influenced the plot because of his deportment in the scenes the class has read, deportment is his behavior and manners. Walter became very selfish, he believed that he should have a say with what happens with the insurance money, which accumulates several problems between Walter and all the other characters in the house. In fact, there is a great deal of hostility between Walter, Ruth, and Mama. Walters actions have even threatened Ruth and his marriage. It shows that, as a character Walter is becoming shallow and he is losing family value. In one of his arguments between him and Ruth, Walter exclaimed, “and you turn mine too, baby! That was my biggest mistake.” In these two short sentences Walter is telling Ruth that is biggest mistake was marrying her. With Walter saying this leaves the question, that will Walter and Ruth remain married or are their problems larger than they

Many ways in her behavior indicates Griselda was the perfect wife during the Renaissance, according to Barbaro; firstly, her obedience. Barbaro wrote that obedience to the husband was the most important component in a marriage. In order that a wife does her duty and brings peace and harmony to her household, she must agree to the first principle that she does not disagree with her husband on any point. Barbaro implies stealthily that if a wife does not do her duty in agreeing and obeying her husband, she

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 insignificant. There are many obstacles in the way of Walter?s dream of opening a liquor store, as he tries to explain to his wife, Ruth, about what he has to do, ?Baby, don?t nothing happen for you in this world ?less you pay somebody off!?(Hansberry 33) Walter's determination to open the liquor store can be viewed as means to an end to his family?s hardships.

Walter begins to drink, stay away from home, and to constantly argue with his wife, Ruth. Walter's life is contrasted by the role of his recently widowed mother, who holds to more traditional values of acceptance of life's lot and of making the best of any situation. Walter Lee's "Mama" holds Walter's father up as an example of a man with pride and a man that, despite racial injustice in a dualistic society, worked hard to provide for his family. This adds to Walter's frustration. Walter now feels incapable and small in his mama's eyes.

Then when he does fail he blames his failures on other people who are close to him, this is shown when he makes the remark of, "No thanks to the colored women." (Hansberry 35). Walter fails to understand that his wife gives him continual support, which ties into one of his "harmatias" which is his ability to make rash decisions. Ruth, is a very important character in this story for the fact that she has the opportunity to do something amazing, that is go to medical school. But in Walters' everlasting foolishness invests in a liquor store instead of her college funds. It is this rash decision made by him that causes feuds within the family.

Instead, the death of Walter makes Elizabeth realize that she did not know her husband. They were married, lived together, and had two children and one on the way, but they might as well have been strangers. Each did what they were supposed to do in the relationship, but Elizabeth was high-strung and Walter was on the verge of a drinking problem. This was a couple of circumstance and convenience. “Elizabeth felt countermanded.

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,

It was not until Walter talked back to his wife at the end (5) that readers see the only concern she presents is of worry whenever Mitty does not act in his usual and expected behavior. One can see that because they do not have much in common helps readers see why they have problems in their marriage There is many more intext context that contribute to Walter and his wife in this story; nevertheless, there are many more clues that the reader can conclude when looking on how these two characters think about themselves and each other.

First, Ruth, is one of the women in the house who changes Walter’s decisions in the story. Her relationship towards him is poor. Ruth nags at the beginning, saying “Eat your eggs Walter” (Hansberry 34). This angers him because she repeats it multiple times throughout, not understanding him, showing their strained relationship. Ruth is also shown to not be on Walter’s side on multiple occasions. For example, when Walter finds out that Mama spent the money on a new house, he does not like it. Ruth however is not feeling the same way as him, and tells him “Walter honey, be glad” (Hansberry 92). Ruth tells Walter to be glad, because their views are different. Ruth thinks this was beneficial to the family, yet Walter does not. This hurts Walter throughout the story as he feels alone with no one on his side. Walter know this when he says “Cause ain’t nobody with Me! Not even my own mother!” (Hansberry 85). Since he is alone, and believes no one cares about him, he tries to fix his own mistake when he decides he will get more money saying, “That White man is going to walk in that door all to write checks for more money than we ever had.” (Hansberry 143). Ruth does not like Walter’s idea, but he does not care as no one is on his side, which disappoints Ruth.