Walter Lee is the head of the family and in the beginning of the play he seems to be extremely bitter. He works for a rich white man as a chauffeur. This easily makes him bitter on the inside because he sees everyday what it is like to be rich. You can tell this because he tells Mama that he sees the rich white boys sitting down to eat every day and he knows they are talking about business or something about closing a million dollar deal. Walter Lee has had many business ideas in the past but they all seem to flop to the ground in a hurry like humpty dumpty. When he comes up with the idea of going into partnership with some men to open a liquor store his Mama is upset with him. He eventually convinces her into giving him a cut of the money from the insurance company after she buys a house for them to move in to. When he gives the money to his partner for the business, his partner runs with the money and is not seen again. This makes Walter very upset and he goes off the deep end for a short amount of time. The need of money may be important but it is definitely not worth losing your family over. After the money is lost, Walter invites the white man back to the apartment to discuss his offer and plans to accept the bribe to his family for them not to move. When the man gets to the apartment, Walter changes his mind and tells the…
All people have dreams whether it is to be famous, have a nice family or even just to pass high school. Walter Lee Younger’s dream was to make a lot of money. In pursuit of his dream, Walter let it get in the way of his family and values. In the Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter realizes that his family is more important than his dreams because, in the beginning, all he cared about was money and he was selfish but, in the end, he decided his family was more important than money.…
In the beginning of A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee is trying to convince his family that his dream to invest in a liquor store will help them in the long run. In act 1 scene 1 Walter and Ruth are discussing how they're tired of everything, tired of living in their "beat up hole of a house" (Hansberry 32). Walter states that all he wants is to invest in a liquor store with a couple of his friends and every…
As seen in this dialogue, Willy believes that he has to work harder than other men in order to stay in business. Willy is struggling with feeling worthless. His whole life has been built around his job and building a financially stable household. Now he struggles to keep a…
During the span of the book, Willy attempts to take his life. Whatever motive was behind his actions, one presumes it is almost definitely related to Willy’s. But why? The audience must wonder what horrible thing pushes a man over the edge like that? For willy, his idea of success is unlike many others. He himself believed that he was an above average salesman. Yet, he never exactly “made it big”, much like an amateur actor in Hollywood. Willy never got his hollywood premier no matter how far he traveled or how hard he seemed to work for it.…
As a chauffeur to a wealthy business man, Walter Lee has a greater awareness of opportunity in the world. He is infatuated with the idea of having success and wealth, to the point where it takes priority over…
One of the main slogans we here Willy say repeatedly throughout the play is that he is “The New England man” or that he is “Vital in New England”. Willy often uses this slogan to illustrate himself to his wife Linda and to convince her that he is the big successful salesman he acts to be. Willy is well aware that his career is coming to an end but doesn’t want to come to terms with this reality. Instead of coming to terms with reality he keeps saying and believing that he is “Vital in New England”. If he faced the fact that his career was coming to an…
The plot of “A Raisin in the Sun” often goes in unexpected directions through the decisions of Walter is a middle aged man looking to achieve the rich social status and live the wealthy life that white people do along with his son, Travis, his wife, Ruth, his sister, Beneatha, and his mother, Lena; this is all whilst living in a very racial discriminated society. He is a chauffeur for a wealthy white man, and hopes to improve his family's financial status by investing money into a liquor store. After moving into a house purchased by the mother's insurance check, Walter wrongfully invests the rest of the money into his liquor store business. However the person he gave the money to had ran off. In the story, the check was a symbol of hope for the achievement of every family member's dream. At that point in the story, there was no longer any hope for success.…
In the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the author shows greed by the main character selling his soul for a large treasure, being a cheap and greedy moneylender, and the lack of the main character and his wife sharing the wealth between each other in order to show that people will do anything for money and become rich.…
The character Walter Younger in the play A Raisin in the Sun is a man who believe true happiness is only achieved by living the American Dream to the fullest. Walter’s mind is twisted and warped by society into thinking money is the key to become truly happy in life. He is also living in a home where he is trying to live up to his dead father’s footsteps, which puts a lot of stress on his shoulders and he has a tough time trying to relieve his own self of this stress. Walter Younger is a perfect example of why Lorraine Hansberry used Langston Hughes’ poem, “A Dream Deferred”, to prelude her play.…
This idea clouds his mind and is the catalyst to other mistakes Willy makes in his life. Willy is unable to provide for his family as a salesman because he is paid a very low wage, but he continues to pretend that he is very successful in his firm. Willy’s brother Ben told me he that Willy told him, “Business is bad, it’s murderous. But not for me, of course” (Act 1) Willy’s former boss has also told me that Willy tried to convince him that Willy “averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in commissions” (Act 2). Willy is convinced his sales are so remarkable that he fails to realize he is obviously not doing well enough in his job to support his family. Willy also tries to force his ideas of success on his children which causes conflict within his household. Biff, Willy’s son, does not want to be a salesman, but instead, wants to work on a farm. Willy does not believe that a man can be successful on a farm when in reality he would be able to provide for his family better than he is now if he did a more physically demanding job. Willy’s idea of success also gives him a false sense of pride. Willy is too prideful to take a job from his friend Charlie even though he constantly asks to borrow money to pay…
The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was written to portray the lives of African Americans during the great depression era of the United States. This story is about a family's struggle with money, prejudice, life and how obstacles can get in the way of accomplishing a dream. The story A Raisin in the Sun money has the ability to corrupt people as shown when Walter invests money into a liquor store, when he walks away from his wife when she tells him that she is pregnant, and when he considers selling his mothers” house to Mr. Lindner.…
Willy’s inability to recognize the actual reality of his situation is first seen during the scene where Ben is introduced. In this scene, Ben tells of their father’s success as a salesman and his own rapid success with diamonds in Africa. As a result of this “interaction”, Willy believes that either he or his sons will have a similar kind of success. The confused man does not take into account that Ben happened to be extremely lucky…
Walter in “A Raisin in the Sun” has a problem with his family. Since Walter’s family is going through a depression, the reader can expect the Water Lee family is facing internal conflicts. An internal conflict is a problem that deal’s with a person’s emotions. Walter Lee has a major internal conflict with money which leads to other problems with his family.At the beginning of the play Travis who is Walter’s son wanted an amount of money but Ruth kept refusing to give him that amount of money but Walter gave it to him anyway so he doesn’t find out they’re poor. Walter was a limousine driver for a rich person. Also, Walter’s mom has a check of 10,000 dollars. But she doesn’t want to use it for his dreams. immediately after it receives the check…
During the play the main focus point is Willy’s volcanic relationship with his eldest son Biff, in which he is on the same path as his father. “WILLY: Sure. Certain men just don’t get started till later in life. Like Thomas Edison, I think. Or B.F. Goodrich. One of them was deaf. [He starts for the bedroom doorway.] I’ll put my money on Biff. (Act 1)” Willy sticks to his gut and hopes that Biff will be the greatest major business entrepreneur. He’s desperate for Biff to follow in his foot steps even though his advice is not the reality of the new world they live…