The Effects Of Poverty, Racism, And Alcohol Use On Mr. Younger 's Family

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.

The reality of being unable to achieve his dreams burdens Walter and eventually changes him into a greedy and selfish young man who makes poor decisions and hurts those who love him. His obsession with money has caused his family a lot of trouble, especially when it comes to the discussion of the $10,000 insurance check. He denigrates Beneatha’s dreams of becoming a doctor and says, “Ain’t many girls who decide to be a doctor” (36). Not only does he put down Beneatha’s dreams, but he also wants all of the insurance money for himself, so that he can open a liquor store. Ruth thought Walter was a dreamer and tells him to “eat your eggs” (34) every time he brings up his desires. When he realizes that he none of his family supports his wish, he becomes bitter and resentful. This leads to a negative environment in the Younger household. Walter makes up for this later in the play, after the family moves to an all-white neighborhood. After the transition, a white man comes to the Youngers’ new house. He offers them a large amount of money, wanting to buy their house. Walter thinks about how the money could affect his family. If he took the money, there would be enough for groceries, and nobody would have to be so worried about saving; however it would also show Travis that he is okay with moving his family because he was offered money. If he didn’t take the money, Travis would see that his

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

Walter is in for a big surprise. When his mother finds out about his plans, she rains on his parade. She decides to exercise her authority as the holder of the check. She’s going to fulfill her dream instead; buy a house, with a garden, for her family. Walter still thinks he’s going to get the money.

(page 45-46)” In the first act alone, the audience is shown the great disparities between the American dream for a white man and the American dream for people of color. However, now with this insurance money from Big Walter’s death, there is a chance of someone their dream, the problem that the Younger’s face is which someone should get to use the money. Beneatha needs it for college to become a doctor, Walter needs it to invest in a liquor store so he can finally “be somebody.” But Mama wants to use that money to buy a house. She wants to leave their current rented apartment and she wants a nice house in the suburbs where she could have a garden and “with a yard where Travis could play in the summer. (page 44)” Mama believes that a change of scenery is what the family needs and that it will bring them back together. These three characters have the most conflicting wants for the

       Walter was upset when he heard his mother had spent the insurance money on the house and thought it wasn't fair that Beneatha got some of it for her medical school while he got nothing for his liquor store business. Lena, who always wanted her son to be happy, trustingly gave the rest of the insurance money to Walter. Holding the money in his hands, Walter thanked his mother and appreciated the trust she had in him. Walter then gave the money to his buddies to help him getting his liquor license without realizing that they betrayed him. As his dream crumbled to pieces, Walter was regret that he didn't listen to his mother, wife and sister.

Despite increased diversity across the country, America’s neighborhoods remain highly segregated along racial and ethnic lines. Residential segregation, particularly between African-Americans and whites, persists in metropolitan areas where minorities make up a large share of the population. This paper will examine residential segregation imposed upon African-Americans and the enormous costs it bears. Furthermore, the role of government will be discussed as having an important role in carrying out efforts towards residential desegregation. By developing an understanding of residential segregation and its destructive effects, parallels may be drawn between efforts aimed at combating

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

The idea of American prosperity is illustrated through materialism, to own property and live comfortably. Walter is tired of being poor; he would rather be more like his boss Mr. Arnold than to be his chauffeur (1.1). Walter breaks himself down, depressed by his lack of achievement: “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 him is stories about how rich white people live” (1.1). He has the ideas on making money; he just lacks the startup capital and the insurance check is his chance to show everyone he can do something. This is why in the beginning of the play Walter only shows excitement when there is mention of the check. Money is everything to Walter, he goes on to tell his mother that money is life (2.1). Walter sees

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.

For these reasons, Mother bought the family a new house and put it in the name of Walter's son, Travis. In other words, she made an investment in Walter's future and his family. Mother saw the family falling apart and that their feelings of resentment for one another, and general discouragement in their lives, was an effect from living like sardines in their tiny dreary apartment. Walter, however, did not see it this way and felt nobody would listen to what he wanted. He wanted the same thing as his mother, to make an investment in his and his family's future, but he had his own idea of how to do it. As he tries to explain to his mother, "Sometimes I

Martin Luther King Jr.’s failed housing campaign and the Bronzeville Project exhibit this disjointedness through black middle class Chicagoans ignoring the socioeconomic class divisions within Bronzeville by using institutionalized racial barriers as a conduit to produce a narrative of collective discriminatory practices faced by all blacks preventing social and financial equity for the race. However, these

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,

However, his family is not to keen on the idea of investing the money in a liquor store and Walter cannot fathom why. His frustration builds and he eventually releases it against his family: “Walter: Who the hell told you, you had to be a doctor. If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘round with sick people; then go be a nurse like other women; or just get married and be quiet (I.i pg. 38).”