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“A Raisin in the Sun” Essay Rafael Cruz, a Brazilian athlete used to say “Only in America can someone start with nothing and achieve the American Dream. That’s the greatness of this country.” Don’t be fooled. It does not sound as easy as it look. Especially for Walter Lee Younger in the play genre book “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry. Took place in South Side, Chicago during the 50s, this novel showed how his dream become “A Raisin in the Sun.” Walter is a very ambitious, passionate man who tries to help his family members but because of the society and Walter’s poor decision, he ends up ruining everything. To begin with, since the story took place in the 50s, Walter’s dream was strongly influence by his race. Back then, guys like Walter doesn’t have a lot of opportunities and respect from the society. For example Walter said “Mama – sometimes when I’m downtown and I pass them cool-quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back and talking ‘bout things…sitting there turning deals worth millions of dollars…sometimes I see guys don’t look much older than me. – (1.2.226)” This shows that Walter is jealous that guys like him at his age can make much more money than him just because of their race. In order to be wealthy like those guys, he decided to invest money to open a liquor store with his friend. Unfortunately for Walter and his family, things went wrong. “Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand each. Course, there’s a couple of hundred you got to pay so’s you don’t spend your life just waiting for them clowns to let your license get approved. – (1.1.79)” This quote shows Walter excitement as he believed investing a lot of money on his liquor store will help him to earn a lot of money. Despite other members’ opinion, Walter is very stubborn about his idea. Unfortunately for Walter, his
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