Preview

How Does Walter Build Tension In A Raisin In The Sun

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
601 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Walter Build Tension In A Raisin In The Sun
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry takes place in the Chicago Southside between World War II and the 1950s. The Younger family is living in a house that is falling apart, just like their family is, due to the struggles that African Americans faced during this time period. The two characters that have the biggest influence on this plot are Mama and her son, Walter. Walter has a big influence on this plot because he is the most upset about the news on the house and adds a lot of tension at the end of the scene. Walter shows that he is upset that Mama made a down payment on the house by saying, “You the head of this family. You run our lives like you want to.” This line shows that Walter is upset that Mama did not put the money towards …show more content…
She influences the plot by telling the big news about making a down payment on a house located in Clybourne Park. When she announces that she had made a down payment on a house, Walter was outraged. Mama’s response to his fury was, “Son – I just tried to find the nicest place for the least amount of money for my family.” This line and her other response, “Four o six Clybourne Street, Clybourne Park” caused tension between Mama and Walter because the house is located in a white neighborhood and they would be the only African American family living there. The two have a conflict about the house at the end of the scene. Although Mama does not quite argue about the house as Walter does, she gives him her explanation for making the down payment. Her reason was, “We was going backwards ‘stead of forwards – talking ‘bout killing babies and wishing each other was dead…” Mama tells Walter this to try to explain how much she cares for her family and her desire for them to be happy. She also shows her want for a happy family by saying, “When it gets like that in life – you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger…” This shows that Mama thinks that changing their lifestyle will be beneficial to them. Walter gets irritated by this conversation and leaves the scene, leaving Mama alone with tension between the two. In A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Mama and her son Walter have the biggest influence

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Walter Lee is the head of the family and in the beginning of the play he seems to be extremely bitter. He works for a rich white man as a chauffeur. This easily makes him bitter on the inside because he sees everyday what it is like to be rich. You can tell this because he tells Mama that he sees the rich white boys sitting down to eat every day and he knows they are talking about business or something about closing a million dollar deal. Walter Lee has had many business ideas in the past but they all seem to flop to the ground in a hurry like humpty dumpty. When he comes up with the idea of going into partnership with some men to open a liquor store his Mama is upset with him. He eventually convinces her into giving him a cut of the money from the insurance company after she buys a house for them to move in to. When he gives the money to his partner for the business, his partner runs with the money and is not seen again. This makes Walter very upset and he goes off the deep end for a short amount of time. The need of money may be important but it is definitely not worth losing your family over. After the money is lost, Walter invites the white man back to the apartment to discuss his offer and plans to accept the bribe to his family for them not to move. When the man gets to the apartment, Walter changes his mind and tells the…

    • 519 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of the story Walter was trying to pressure his mother into giving him all the money she received from his father’s life insurance policy. “Do you know what this money can do for us Mama -Mama I want so many…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, one way she is paying for the house is with Big Walter’s insurance money, but she only makes a down payment. She feels as if the house will help her family because she sees how they are beginning to fall apart. In addition, Ruth helps Mama when she encourages her to buy a house because there will be more space. She feels jubilant because there will be space for the baby, which means she no longer has to have an abortion. Another way Ruth expresses triumphant is when she says, “HALLELUJAH! AND GOODBYE MISERY…” (Hansberry 93). This shows how much she appreciates Mama’s decision, so they can finally leave this “rat-trap” of a house. As a result, the Younger family do end up moving to Clybourne Park after a crisis that almost stops them from doing so. Walter does the right thing by telling Linder, “My father- he earned it for us brick by brick” (Hansberry 148), which means they will move because his father works himself to death just so they can get this house. At the end, Mama thinks moving once again became a good idea when Walter finally came to his senses and appreciates the house. To conclude, Mama achieves a dream that impacts the rest of the Younger…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story A Raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry is a story about a poor family and how money has caused them to change the way the view life completely. The children of mama have all fallen far from her. she says that life is about being free and having family that cares about you. her kids think it’s all about money. The plot is the same in both. In both walter Lee Younger thinks it,s a good idea to invest the money in a liquor store. Beneatha Younger wants to invest the money in her education. Mama and rose want to buy a house. The story then tells you how each one wants to use and spends the money.…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Younger Family, including Walter, were very unlike other middle-class families. First of all, most of the families that were portrayed had greater economic opportunities. The income of the family was a communal effort, yet it was Mama and her check that established her as the matriarch of the family. Like his family, individually, Walter also suffered…

    • 179 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, she tells the value and purpose of dreams and how oftentimes dreams do get deferred. Hansberry got the title for the play based off of Langston Hughes’ famous poem A Dream Deferred. The language Hansberry uses reflects the deeper meaning of Hughes’ poem. Although the Younger women have lived in the same apartment for generations, they each face their unique trials and tribulations. Mama is faced with the decision of how to spend the money she received from her deceased husband’s insurance settlement; Ruth has to choose if she wants to have an abortion; and Bennie continues her aspirations of being a doctor and young feminist in the 1940s. All three women’s stories fall back on one common factor: a dream deferred.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mama goes out and buys house using thirty-five hundred of the ten thousands dollars. She then gives the rest of the money to Walter and tells him to put aside "three thousand dollars…for Beneatha's medical schooling."(pg 1808) And she told Walter to put the money in a checking account with his name on it, and every penny is for him to spend as he see fit. Mama tells Walter "It ain't much, but it is all I got in this world and I'm putting it in your hands." (pg.…

    • 652 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beneatha Analysis

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Money played a great role, due to everyone having different opinions on how to spend the money, and what to do with it. Along with those being selfish and wanting to spend the money on their personal needs. Beneath did have a right to be upset at her brother, but she needed to understand that his intentions were good. He invested the money to make more, he thought money would solve everyone’s problems, not knowing it could do the opposite, make it worse. The cause of this made Walter loses his pride as a man, and his sister only made him feel worse, when his heart was in the right place. Even mama told Beneath she needs to show her brother love during his time of need instead of bashing him. Expressing to her how she is putting her own selfish concerns over her sibling weakened pride. She encourages her daughter to let go of her hateful rage and display love towards her brother. Mama wishes that her daughter can show love towards her brother by cause of wanting to bring her family together and repair the damages the prejudice world has created for them. Though the family takes pride in their victory of showing they have morals, by Walter not accepting Mr. Lidner’s deal, things still don't look quite well for the relationship of Beneath and Walter, since he insisted she married someone who has money presenting that he has not overcome the understanding that finances…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mama Archetype Essay

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The demand for Beneatha to accept the God which Mama believes in regardless of her own personal views further highlights Mama’s traditional values and her lack of willingness to change them. This allows for Hansberry to show that Mama is not a progressive character which, particularly in the context of when the play was written, was done purposefully to portray Mama as the ‘Mammy’, archetype. Mama is therefore seen as an elderly woman, stuck in old traditions and bound by her past, showing that in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’; stereotypes are fleshed out rather than…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Big Walter Masculinity

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mama says that big Walter “worked himself to death” just so he can support his family. Walter has troubles supporting his family because he is trying to be the best man in his eyes which is hurting the family. Walter wants to be a rich successful man and can give whatever his family wants. Walter sets his mind on his liquor store and he will do whatever it takes for it. Walter wants to have this liquor really bad that the money Mama gave him and spent it all on his store and didn’t even get the store.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Secondly, Lorraine Hansberry tries to give people the inspiration to be proud of who they are. In the book, Walter Younger constantly states how unfair the Blacks are from the Whites. Also, in “Scene Three”, the Youngers put an offer on a new home, but a man, named Karl Lindner, tries to prevent that. Karl is from the town they plan to move to, and is a part of management. He goes on to tell the family that because they are Black, the Whites in the town will not be happy and cause a riot. Walter Younger proceeds to tell him, “This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation our family in this country. And we have all thought about your offer… And we have decided to move into our house because my father—my father—he earned it for us brick by brick.” This was Walter sticking up for his race and his family. Another situation the Youngers have pride in is money. When Lindner offers the family money to not move into town, Mama does not want to take it, unlike Walter. Mama tells Walter, “Son—I come from five generations of people who was slaves and sharecroppers—but ain’t nobody in my family never let nobody pay ‘em no money that was a way of telling us we wasn’t fit to walk the earth. We ain’t never been that poor…We ain’t never been that—dead inside.” Mama shares her pride for keeping her and her family stable, and there being a boundary to asking others. Although Beneatha and Walter are adults, Mama continues to try to teach them life…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At this point of the play Walter is coming to realization that he is doing a lousy job of supporting the family and he truly believes he can do better. He thinks that in order to do better though he needs money and because of this he believes "life is money." Lena replies to Walter shamefully, "You ain't satisfied or proud of nothing we done" (). Obviously, Walter, not being happy about where he is in life, upsets Mama greatly. Lena and Big Walter had worked really hard to provide a future for their children and now Walter is ashamed of their rundown apartment and lower-class lifestyle. Walter longs for a bigger and better future. Even though her children are losing pride of their lives, Lena continues to be proud of where she and her family have…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Raisin In The Sun

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages

    1. When does Act III begin? What are Walter and Beneatha doing? When Asagai ar­…

    • 338 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Picture yourself as a member of the Younger family. You live in a small house, two bedrooms and a bathroom you share with other families. It’s hard to imagine 4 adults and l adolescent living in these conditions, but its how the Younger family lived. When the story begins the younger family is anticipating a huge insurance check from the passing of their grandpa. Living in a racist community, such as the south side of Chicago, affected the Younger family in how they made decisions, thought of people of their own race, and how they treated people of a different race.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Raisin In The Sun

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lorraine Hansberry uses the play, A Raisin in the Sun, as a way to reveal the struggles…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays