Discrimination In Ruth And Walter

America has been affected by racism ever since slavery came to be. An example of racism would be a Caucasian man discriminating against an African-American man, solely based on the race of the African-American man. The United States, as a whole, has bettered itself in terms of racism, but this terrible trait has, and always will exist. Quite a few Americans still believe that African-Americans are inferior to Caucasians, and that they should still be slaves. In the fifties, blacks and whites could not even drink from the same water fountain. Schools being desegregated has helped young American people grow together in an educational environment, where they can build friendships with students of other races. Throughout the play, “A Raisin in
Ruth has to make a life changing decision. Not only for herself, but for the welfare of her family, given the circumstances of the racial time period. She has to choose between aborting the baby she is pregnant with, or having the baby and worrying about another mouth to feed. All the way up until the Younger family moves into the prejudiced, white neighborhood of Clybourne Park, Ruth seriously considers aborting her baby. Diana Mafe says, “Although the abortion in Raisin never occurs, the possibility of abortion remains not only a source of conflict for Ruth Younger, wife to the protagonist Walter Lee, but also an indication of her desperate yet no less valid agency as a woman” (Mafe). But after they move in, she realizes that the family has much more room to live than in the old apartment, where the living room couch was Travis’s bed. She also notices that everyone will be out of each other’s hair, which in turn will result in her family being much
She has a few options, but she wants to make sure she makes the right decision on her family’s behalf. She wants so bad to be able to give each family member what they want, but ten thousand dollars is not enough to do that. Mama would need much more money than that to buy a new house, pay for Beneatha’s medical school, and still have enough to give Walter the amount he needs for his potential business opportunity. She rejects the idea of her son owning a liquor store because of her religious beliefs, and with the best interest of her family in mind, she puts some of the money down on a house. When she informs the family about her financial decision, Mama gives the rest of the money to Walter and tells him to put it in a bank account. Her one and only rule was for Walter to make sure that he left enough to pay for Beneatha’s school. Other than that, the leftover money was his. In this racial time, opportunity for the black population was slim, so Walter saw this as his only opportunity to prove himself to his family. Little did he know about where his investment was actually going. Walter gives all of the money, including the money for Beneatha’s school, to his African-American “business partner”, Willy. Willy then leaves town and neither Walter, nor his other African-American business partner, Bobo, ever hear from Willy