Walter Lee Younger's Characteristics

The American dream has been visualized and pursued by nearly everyone in this nation. Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about the Younger family that strived for the American dream. The members of the Younger family shared a dream of a better tomorrow. In order to reach that dream, however, they each took different routes, which typified the routes taken by different black Americans.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry explores the ideas of the “American Dream” of the American 1950’s. Though the idea of the “American Dream” commonly refers to white suburbia, Hansberry takes a different stance on the idea. Set in the South Side of Chicago, the play details a few days in the life of an African American family known as the Youngers. The Family consists of the grandmother, known as “Mama”, her two children, Beneatha and Walter, and Walter’s wife Ruth and son Travis. The family lives collectively in their tiny apartment, where much of the play takes place. After the Patriarch of the family passes away and leaves $10,000 to Mama, the Younger family debates about what the money should be put towards. Ultimately, though their ideas compete, each individual's goal ultimately aims at escaping poverty and

A Raisin in the Sun, play by Lorraine Hansberry depicts the life of the Younger family. Youngers is an African American family living in Chicago in 1950s, they are struggling for money. As the play proceeds, they run into a plenty of problems. The younger family is slowly tearing apart. Ruth younger the wife of Walter Lee Younger is holding the family from ripping apart. Ruth is the person who supports everyone in the family. Ruth's capability of thinking through and beyond with her fearless and rational nature makes her mature, selfless and loving women.

In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and 1961 movie written by Lorraine Hansberry and presented by Columbia pictures, one of the most important themes is the American Dream. Many of the characters have hopes and dreams. They all strive towards their goals throughout. However, many of the characters have different dreams that clash with each other. Problems seem to arise when different people’s dreams conflict with one another.   Another theme is racism. Racism was rampant during the 1950’s and this often hindered African American dreams.

In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry you go back in time to when segregation was still aloud. In this play you meet a cast of people with dreams of a better life. The American Dream, to be specific. This dream is portrayed differently for each character, all of which impact the play. Two of these character

Lorraine Hansberry’s play “A Raisin in the Sun,” was a radically new representation of black life, resolutely authentic, fiercely unsentimental, and unflinching in its vision of what happens to people whose dreams are constantly deferred.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, centers on an African American family in the late 1950s. Hansberry directs her work towards specifically the struggles faced by African Americans during the late 1950s. Through the dialogue and actions of her characters, she encourages not only a sense of pride in heritage, but a national and self-pride in African Americans as well.

Economic and societal poverty are the key forms of poverty highlighted in the three-act play, A Raisin in the Sun. Lorraine Hansberry, the playwright, discusses the hardships of African-Americans attempting to emerge in society in the 1950’s. The play is staged in ways where the audience can grasp the trifles of an African-American family continuously experiencing setbacks whilst attempting to achieve their notion of the “American Dream”. To Walter Lee Younger, his idea of the “American Dream” is that anything is possible for those who have money. Unfortunately, there is a minor problem: Walter Lee Younger is a working-class African-American man who struggles to make ends meet in the Southside of Chicago, Illinois. The family undergoes

A Raisin in the sun shows the hardship many needed to face in order to attain this notion of the American Dream. The play did more than simply show what everyone faced, she shows the struggles that many African Americans families had to face when trying to achieve the notion of the American Dream. She does this by showing the environment that many African Americans lived in when there was bombing in the neighborhood or when white people would force African Americans who finally bought a home, out. Lorraine also shows the struggles of the characters of the play like Walter who struggles with the decision he makes and the contradictions that stop him from achieving his goals of being wealthy or when Beneatha goes against the norms of society by becoming a Doctor and trying to do activities that men usually do.While American Dream is quintessential to America because you’re able to go from nothing to something, this notion is unique to African-American since the society work against them even with having the same aspiration because of the prejudice they faced from the society.

Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun opened in a New York theater March 11, 1951. This play, although based on Hansberry’s own life and personal experiences was also inspired by Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem”. Hansberry used this play to tell the story of a 1950’s African American family trying to better themselves. She also used this play to shine a light on the issue of racism that were prominent during this time frame. This highly successful play “ran for 530 performances and was nominated for the 1960 Tony Award for best play”, and has had several adaptations made in its honor(Aurora). Despite the fact that these adaptations were made to equal the original play there are many differences between them and their predecessor.

The story of this play is simple and the majority of African-Americans faced such issues in the 1950’s, living on the south side of Chicago, struggles with poverty, dignity and dreams of a better life. Wanting better for your children and trying to fit in, while maintaining family values. A Raisin in the Sun is an excellent example of the relationship between family values and conflict. In this play it portrays: values and purpose of dreams, the need to fight for racial discrimination and the importance of family.

In the 1950’s African Americans faced many hardships like economic problems and racial discrimination against Caucasians. These problems have left many African Americans working for white people as drivers, maids, or butlers to them making them inferior to the white man. In “The Raisin in the Sun” they face the same trial and tribulations that many African American families were struggling with which were economic hardship and racial discrimination in America. “The Raisin in the Sun” is a play about a struggling family trying to make it into a world where they are inferior to others.

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, we see the positive and negative effects of chasing the American Dream. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters and she portrays the daily struggles of a 1950 black family throughout A Raisin in the Sun. In this play, she is able to effectively show the big impact that even small decisions can make on a family. Hansberry shows the many different attachments that come with the fulfillment of this American Dream. Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, each family member has their own pursuit of happiness, which is accompanied by their American Dream.

Walter Lee Younger, Lena's son, is second only to Lena in arousing sympathy and pathos from the audience. The entire play shows the development of Walter's quest for manhood. Similar to Lena, Walter's dream of owning a liquor store becomes hindered by his economic station, or lack of money, and his social position. In the opening scenes of A Raisin in the Sun, Walter does not occupy the position of head of the household. This secondary position to Mama demonstrates his frustration with his limiting environment. Even Walter's job show subservience and inequality as a chauffeur to wealthy white people. Elizabeth Phillips comments, "Consquently, he[Walter] is forever on the lookout for a means of making more money, not only to enable him to give luxuries as well as necessities, but also to satisfy the deep inner need of every man to prove that he is capable of great achievement" (54).

Throughout Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin In The Sun, one is able to see the positive and negative effects that the American Dream has on the Younger family. Hansberry expresses her different views on the American Dream through the characters while portraying the daily struggles of a black family in the 1950’s. Within the play Hansberry is able to effectively show the large impact each member of the family has with every diminutive decision one of them makes. By portraying it through the characters in the play Hansberry is able to convey the message that the American Dream is always achievable.