A Raisin in the Sun - Research Paper Example

Amid these struggles, hope was the only reason why the middle black class kept up with the struggle. When the Younger family in the play, A Raisin in the Sun, faced with numerous economic challenges receives insurance premiums of their father, it rekindles their hope of having a better life. However, the money comes as a blessing in disguise. Not only does it take the family through a rocky trial, it also revealed of the cracks among the family members. With $10000, they envisioned a full transformation of their lifestyles.

The money overwhelms then in such significant levels that they fall apart on how to use the fortune. Lena, their mother favors the idea of a home, opting to buy a house in a white neighborhood, while Beneatha hoped to receive money for her school. It was however Walter’s idea that pulled them back to their initial economic status, of hopelessness, after losing the rest of the money in a liquor business scum. This essay analyses Walter Lee’s character, a married man full of determination, hard work and highly ambitious, but at the same time, too stubborn and trusting that he cost the family its fortune.

The author portrays Walter Lee as a passionate man bursting with energy, but equally desperate, bound by shackles of poverty (Hansberry and Langston 8). Having tasted the bitterness of poverty, Walter is highly determines save his family form the captivity of poverty. Working as a chauffeur, he holds on to their belief that one day, he would be in a position to transform the family’s lifestyle. He envisioned taking them from a house, squeezed enough that it denied them peace and comfort. He even reveals his dreams and fantasies to the family as he announces, “I have bigger dreams.

I want to be more! When I drive downtown I pass cool, fancy restaurants where boys younger than I am work million-dollar deals.” As he dedicatedly ferried his boss in his errands, he felt much obliged to go by his duties, carrying on with his dreams and hopes. It was however his wife Ruth, who filled his thoughts. He could not understand why she could not wear pearls and have the luxuries that every other women in the United States had. Therefore, his dreams revolved around plans of giving her such life.

The much efforts he puts however does not seem to bear fruits, as he ends up broke. The little salary he receives from his job cannot win the family the basic lifestyle. When news about Ruth’s pregnancy comes, he desperately starts looking for an opportunity to make it in life. His heavy efforts and lack of success makes him a bitter man. Totally, he is disgusted with his life, especially because he works for a rich white man. Consequently, this demeans him significantly, making him feel less than a man.

He even openly shows his dissatisfaction with his job, saying that, “I drive a man around and say "yes, sir" and "no, sir" all day long!” (Piechocki 51). This is his high level of dissatisfaction. At his thirties, an age where men are in total control of their lives, he cannot provide for his family. It is his desire to succeed that pulls him to the edge, making him prone to abuse and misuse. Struggling to find a way of providing for his family, he lands a deal with a number of his friends that appears not only lucrative, but also promising; a liquor business that his family is totally against.

A desperate person would buy any idea coming his way, so long as it shows some hopes of