short story

Walter spoke to Mama, “I want so many things that they are driving me kind of crazy . . . Mama – look at me” (Hansberry 1497, 1.2). It shows that his mother disapproves his idea about setting up a liquor store, because she thinks selling liquor is wrong. His obsession leads to a financial loss; thereby impacting the family’s financial funds. His poor listening skills and greed collapse the family dream as well as his own. His emotions are somewhat aggressive, talking too much about his dream. According to Hughes’s poem, the quotation, “… fester like a sore—,” and “crust and sugar over—,” illustrates the familial argument about money faced by family members who must secure their future funds (Hughes 4, 7). This frustration of the family’s financial struggle is effectively killing the family unit. It also describes as the stench of a dead corpse. Walter’s dream appears to be without honor and collapses upon its selfish

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.

Mama and her late husband had moved into the apartment, the family is still living in, when they had gotten married. They had planned to work and save up money to buy a house a few years later in their life, but the children had come along and things just didn't go as planned. After the death of

This quote talks about mama and money, mama want to use the money for

Just when Mama was beginning to trust Walter and gives him money to take to the bank, he reveals that he “never went to the bank at all” (129). This shocked Mama and asks, “You mean…you sister’s school money…you used that two…Walter?…” (129); Walter realises what he has done and answers “Yessss! All of it…It’s all gone…” (129), in an ashamed and stressed out tone. Consequently, this makes mama extremely upset she says, “I seen him grow thin and old before he was forty...working and working and working like somebody's old horse...killing himself...and you -you give it all away in a day-” (129). This reveals that Walter betrays Mama, because of his want for money, which Mama would not help him with because of their different

“MAMA: (To WALTER) Son- (She goes to him, bends down to him, talks to his bent

When Walter came home one day drunk he had a huge argument with the whole house talking about how they do not listen to him. WALTER Did it come? MAMA (Quietly) Can’t you give people a Christian greeting before you start asking about money? WALTER (To RUTH) Did it come? (RUTH unfolds the check and lays it quietly before him, watching him intently with thoughts of her own. WALTER sits down and grasps it close and counts off the zeros) Ten thousand dollars— (He turns suddenly, frantically to his mother and draws some papers out of his breast pocket) Mama—look. Old Willy Harris put everything on paper— MAMA Son—I think you ought to talk to your wife … I’ll go on out and leave you alone if you want— WALTER I can talk to her later—Mama, look— MAMA Son— WALTER WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE LISTEN TO ME TODAY! MAMA (Quietly) I don’t ’low no yellin’ in this house, Walter Lee, and you know it—(WALTER stares at them in frustration and starts to speak several times) And there ain’t going to be no investing in no liquor stores. WALTER But, Mama, you ain’t even looked at it. MAMA I don’t aim to have to speak on that again. (A long pause) WALTER You ain’t looked at it and you don’t aim to have to speak on that again? You ain’t even looked at it and you have decided—(Crumpling his papers) Well, you tell that

MAMA (quietly): Oh (Very quietly.) So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time

Mama says this after Beneatha tells Mama that there is nothing left in her brother, Walter to love. Mama’s dream of a better quality of life is deferred because she has carry the responsibility of tending to a family with so much indifference and of holding together the few pieces of her family left together.

Mama is stable and solid, unwavering with the winds of change and the force of opposition. She takes charge of the Younger family with the strength and determination of a woman who has the experience and wisdom of living. With this sensibility she will not be challenged in the authority she holds, which is evidenced by the way she speaks also to Walter. "I don't 'low no yellin' in this house, Walter Lee, and you know it" (Hansberry 70). Her strength is also apparent as she refuses defeat even though they face opposition from Karl Lindner and the prospect of hostility and harassment in their new neighborhood. Mama stands firm in her decision to move into Clybourne Park. She is fully aware of the danger that will accompany their move, but says only, "Father, give us strength" (Hansberry 120).

hands and hope my fans feel where I'm coming from. I took the time to

Mama, however, is strong, spiritual and eager to help her children in any way she can. She values family above and beyond all else, but has the deep insight into the other character's motivations even when she doesn't agree. In the middle of the play (at the fuse for the final conflict), she recognizes that Walter is miserable because no one believes in him and his dreams. She gives him a large chunk of the insurance check to invest in a liquor store even thought she doesn't agree with it. She trusts him with it and, when he loses the money to a "trusted friend," she becomes enraged and begins to physically attack him. However, by the next scene she has forgiven him and tells her daughter that she should do the same; "There is always something to love: when do you think the time is to love somebody the most? It's when he's at his lowest and can't believe in hisself 'cause the world done whipped him so!" With those words, Mama seems to symbolize all that is good, solid and peaceful in the world.

One day she was washing dishes and turned to her mom and asked, “Mom are we poor?”

Mama stands outside and waits for Dee to return home. Mama fantasizes about being on a tv program with Dee, where Dee embraces her with tears in her eyes. She then thinks of how she thought Dee hated them until they raised enough money to send her to school. Finally, Dee arrives with a man named Hakim-a-barber. After greeting Mama and Maggie, Dee goes back to the car and grabs a camera. She takes several pictures of Mamma and Maggie in front of the house. She then tells Mama that she has changed her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo because she could no longer bear being named after the people who oppress her. At dinner, Dee asks Mama if she could have the top of the butter churn and the dasher. After dinner, she goes to the trunk in Mama’s room and digs out old quilts made by her grandma. She asks mama if she can have the quilts also. Mama tells her that she promised Maggie the quilts, but she could have the ones made with a sewing machine. As Dee leaves she tells Mama that she doesn’t understand her heritage. Mama and Maggie watch as Dee leaves and sit in the yard until bedtime.

Ruth: Walter going after him will only cause our family more trouble… It’s bad enough that we live in a neighborhood where we aren’t wanted.