Pride In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

A Raisin In The Sun, a play written by Lorraine Hansberry, follows the journey of Walter Lee as he follows his dream, but ultimately ends up prideful of his family and heritage. Walter has a dream for most of his life, to earn a great profit that could greatly benefit him and his family. Then, Walter gets taken advantage of, and Willy Harris steals all of his money. Because he no longer has any money to provide for his family, Walter becomes filled with dread and great fear for his confrontation with Linder, the white man trying to kick Walter’s family out of Clybourne Park, who will pay Walter’s family to not move into their new house. Walter wants the money so that he can be thought of as the breadwinner of the family, but what he receives in exchange for taking Linder’s money, is something even more
Walter’s newfound pride will turn him against the idea of ever committing any sort of crime that he might want to, to get revenge at Willy Harris; instead Walter has the satisfaction of knowing he is the man of his family and he stood up for his family. Walter is a prime candidate to be taken advantage of, before he finds his pride, however, because he is so ambitious that people, such as Willy Harris can easily take his money, like an animal tricking its prey before the original animal devours it. Although, once he finds his sense of pride, he regains confidence and can easily try again to be successful, this time with a higher chance of succeeding. The organization of events in the play that cause Walter’s dream to turn into pride are thoughtfully put together to show how he doesn’t believe at first, then at some points in the play he seems more confident and has a strong sense of manhood, but that doesn’t last until he utilizes all of his experiences to gain pride; a sense of pride that will hopefully last him