A Raisin in the Sun Summary and Analysis

In every family, each member has their own role to play. Whether it is the supporter, the dreamer, the realist, the dominant and strong head of the family, from birth we are each given a place to fill in our family. The problem comes when we don’t know how to live in our place. Then a person gets lost trying to fill another role because they are not satisfied with where they are. The characters in A Raisin in the Sun are members of a family that have to deal with a member who no longer knows his place in the family and goes on a personal journey to find one. The play’s main character, Walter Lee Younger, is struggling with his identity. Thrashing around drowning in the shortcomings of his life. His main focus throughout the play is getting money. From the opening scenes we see that that seems to be his driving force. The whole family is used to it and even annoyed as whenever he begins to talk about the insurance check or his new idea on how they could earn some great money, everyone brushes him off and tells him to stop thinking about money all the time. Walter Lee can’t stop thinking about money because he feels like a failure, but if his plans worked out he would be rich and that equals success in his eyes. He works a dead end job as a chauffer for a wealthy white family but he has no education, no status, and no money, to help him succeed. He dreams a big dream of putting pearls on his wife’s neck and being able to give his child, Travis, everything he himself was not able to have. Now, this is a dream most parents have for their families. Who would not want to be able to support their families and never have to see their children struggling? My parents have worked long and hard for their whole lives to give my sister and myself a better life so that we would never have to see the poverty they endured. My mother speaks to me all the time about the projects she grew up in and how she and my grandmother had to share a bedroom, just like Benetha and Lena Younger,