Both Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Langston Hughe’s “Po’ Boy Blues” present Walter Lee Younger and the speaker of the poem as men with similar stories, however both reach different conclusions with their struggles. Both men at the start of their stories have hopes and dreams. Later, their trust is betrayed and they lose their thoughts of happiness. However, at the end, Walter is able to regain his determination to keep fighting and surviving, while the narrator of the poem is unable. Both protagonists believe in their dreams, and have high hopes for the future. In the play, Walter’s mother receives a paycheck due to her husband passing, and is unsure of what she should do with it. Walter Lee fantasizes about this money, believing he would become rich once that money was invested into business. However, these fantasies come into conflict with Mama’s when she buys a house with some of the money. The poem’s protagonist also recalls to …show more content…
Due to the loss of his and his sister’s money, Walter breaks down and decides to demean himself in front of Lindner, who wishes for the Youngers to rethink moving into his white neighbourhood. However, right before Walter loses all his dignity from grovelling at the white man’s feet, Mama steps in with Travis. Travis is Walter’s son, who he loves and cares for immensely. With his young son there as witness, Walter is finally able to muster up enough determination to face Lindner and refuse his offer of money for their new home. Due to his family and compassion for his son, Walter is able to face his loses and keep moving forward. However, the poem’s speaker has a different temperament towards his situation, “[he wishes he’d] never been born,” (Hughes 23). This man is weary, and is tired from his struggles in life. He no longer has the determination to keep going, unlike Walter. This is due to the fact that he
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass both use dramatic imagery and powerful stories to exemplify their idea of the "American Dream." However, their ideas of what makes an individual happy, differ. Walter's dream is to be successfull, after numerous events lead him to this conclusion. In contrast, Douglass, who is a slave, concludes that education and freedom are key.
Out of a family of five, three people work: Walter Lee as a chauffeur to a wealthy white family, Ruth as a housemaid, and Mama as a nanny to other peoples children. This is clearly necessary to afford basic needs as shown in their apartment, with “weariness [having], in fact won” (Hansberry pg.23). It is clear in Hansberry’s characterization that the members of the Younger family are dissatisfied with their station in life, albeit to varying degrees; Walter Lee in particular is very vocal regarding their poverty, as he states at one point: “I got boy who sleeps in the living room- and all I got to tell him is stories about how rich white people
During the play, A Raisin in the Sun, the Younger family struggled to become better. Each family member views the world differently and had their own dreams. The son of the Youngers, Walter Lee, was unwilling to sacrifice his dreams for his family at first. Most of his actions hurt the family. Walter did not care and treated his family poorly.
I also choose to write about the play A Raisin in the Sun written by Lorraine Hansberry. My reason for choosing the poem as well as the play. While doing research, its noted that Lorraine Hansberry took the title of the story. From a line in Langston Hughes poem “Harlem”. Both readings were written in a time of immense promise and hopefulness.
Walter feels his job is more than unsatisfying, and can not make Mama understand, since her simplistic views are just like Ruths. In spite of his personal inadequacies with his job fulfillment, Walter shines in the end of the story with understanding and growth of his own fathers not so wonderful job. Walter seems to be reflecting on his own status as a
Betrayals of A Raisin in the Sun One simple act of betrayal can break bonds between two people once one dishonors the other. In the play A Raisin in the Sun written by the playwright Lorraine Hansberry the reader witnesses various acts of betrayal from family members and friends throughout the selection based on a black family living in the South Side of Chicago during the 1950s. After Walter finds out Mama has used the insurance money from Big Walter’s death to buy a house he feels as though she has no interest on his dream in life. Mama feels bad so she trustingly gives the rest of the money to Walter.
In the text “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, the author uses the writing strategy of conflict to develop the central idea of how oneself can become selfish when trying to achieve the American dream. The text shows that the central idea is selfishness because circumstances are presented where various characters fail to take into consideration others while seeking their dreams. For example, Walters says, “ 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…. ’’. This example of greed shows that the ambition to obtain a dream brings out the selfishness is true in the instance of Walter.
The setting is illustrated in Southside Chicago and shows the struggle of a black family trying to prejudices when wanting to become successfully wealthy. Between these 2 excerpts, they show that their lives are similar, but have more differences in fulfilling their American Dream. A Raisin in the Sun and The life of Fredrick Douglass have many similarities in regards to their dream. Fredrick and Walter both find their American Dream through different situations, but have meaning to them.
The main problem Walter deals with in the play is mamas inheritance money from Big Walter ( Their father and Mamas late husband ). Walter wants all the money for himself to open up a liquor store with his friends Bobo and Willy Harris. While mama a devoted christian does not want anything to do with thinking it won’t get her in the pearly gates of Heaven. This causes a lot of arguing in the house Walter saying to mama “ You just don’t understand, Mama, you just don’t understand “ (Page 74) In one of their heated arguments.
The Younger family had been through many obstacles, and purchasing a home seem to be the end of their difficult times. However, this only brought new issues into their lives. They did nit have the finances to pay bills, Walter and Beneatha did not have the means to accomplish their dreams, and they were going into a situation that posed serious danger. At the end of the play, this family was not going into a happy ending. Instead, they were entering into a new series of
In his poem, he asked the question “What happens to a dream deferred?” Raisin in the Sun is an answer to his question. In her play, Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry uses Walter, Mama, and Beneatha to show the negative consequences that occur when you put off your dream. To begin, Lorraine Hansberry uses Walter to show the negative consequences that occur with putting off your dream. Walter Younger is a racist, sexist, selfish, dissatisfied man in his thirties who lives in a small two-bedroom apartment with the rest of his family.
Walter further shows his false pride when he flaunts his newfound sense of power when Mr.Lindner, one of the Younger’s soon-to-be neighbors, offers him an unjust deal. Now that Walter has control over the family 's money, he considers himself the head of the family and decision maker; this plays an important role towards how Walter treats others now that he holds himself to a higher standard. This theme applies to Walter when the chairman of the “welcoming committee” (115) named Mr.Lindner pays a visit to the family a couple weeks before they 're supposed to move into their new home in Clybourne Park. During this visit, Mr.Lindner makes the offer of the Clybourne Park community “buy[ing] the house from [them] at a financial gain to [the] family” (118). Mr.Lindner’s offer represents the racial oppression and how the white community looks down upon and doesn’t want African american people dirtying their communities.
Both characters try to reach their dreams by moving their families and responsibility aside. For example, Walter Lee dreams of opening a liquor store, so to reach his dreams he took his family is money trying to act like a man but then that money was stolen by his friend Willy
It won’t let him get a good job or house, be able to have a car, or allow him to live the way he wants to live. Because of all these stressors, it forces Walter to make a risky business decision that costs him most of his father’s life insurance money. Racism caused Walter to risk every dollar he owned and he lost it all. Later, he almost lost his own dignity by pleading with Mr. Lindner for his money back, but Mama saved him from doing it. Walter and the Youngers decided to move to Clybourne Park to live Walter’s dream of trying to live with the same privileges of white people.
Being the man of the household, Walter dreams of owning a liquor store and plans on using Lena’s money to do so. Walter is always after money and believes that the only way to succeed in life is with money. For example, when Walter is talking about the check, he says, “Mama, sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool, quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking about things, turning deals worth millions of dollars, sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me” (992).This shows how Walter wanted something more out of life and not just be a poor black man. Everyone in this family had dreams but no one supported each other dreams.