Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

1849 Words8 Pages
The play, A Raisin in the Sun, portrays the life of the Youngers’ family; an African American family living in a small apartment in Chicago. The family consists of Mama, her son Walter and daughter Beneatha, Walter’s wife Ruth, and their son Travis. The play outlines the difficulties African American families faced, especially when it came to money and discrimination but it also illustrates the importance of family and sticking together. Walter Younger served as both the protagonist and antagonist of the story. Walter’s meaning of what is important in life from the beginning of the play changes as he faces challenges throughout the story. In the first scene, the Youngers' are waking up and getting ready to go to work or school. Here we start to see that Walter is a dreamer and he wants to use his father's insurance money to invest…show more content…
The Youngers’ receive a call from Walter’s boss who informs Ruth that Walter has not gone to work in three days in which Ruth makes the excuse that he has been sick. Walter explains that he has been driving or walking around way out by the city and has been drinking. Ruth says that he will lose his job if he does not show up to work the next day but Walter does not seem to care. Mama feels as though she is partly the blame for his unhappiness. Mama explains to him that she has never had much of anything and was never interested in having those things. The only thing that was ever important to her was her family. Mama then gives Walter the remaining of the insurance money and asks him to put three grand in a savings account for Beneatha’s medical school. She puts her trust into him and wants him to be the head of the family like he is supposed to be.Walter recognizes that his mother does trust and love him and we can see his attitude change entirely.Walter begins to talk to Travis about how he is going to make a transaction that will make them rich and what their future is going to look
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