Always be careful who you trust. In the play A Raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family has a difficult time achieving the most out of their lives. There are many obstacles that keep them from the best future possible. One of the biggest obstacles is the moment when Walter Lee finds out that Willy Harris, a business partner, has scammed Walter and has stolen $6,500, which is supposed to be invested in a liquor business. This unfortunate event affects everyone in the family; consequently, they lose hope about having a better life. They must overcome this crisis and make the most of what they still have. Willy Harris continues to encourage Walter to do business with him; he wants to take his money. This is evident when Walter mentions, “Old Willy Harris put everything on paper-” (Hansberry 70) and when Mama mentions, “You mean that liquor store that Willy Harris want him …show more content…
to invest in?” (33). Walter believes he's doing the right thing; however, the whole time Willy is planning on stealing the money. After Willy steals the money, he then caused the family to lose hope about having a better life. Mama also starts beating Walter senselessly in the face, so Beneatha has to stop it. This shows the first time that Mama loses her her head and gets so angry she must oust it onto someone else; nevertheless, she gains back her sanity. Willy Harris helps depict the theme of being careful who you trust.
Walter trying to convince Mama to agree to invest in the liquor store is an example of him trusting Willy. Walter shows his despair when he felt the betrayal when he shouted, “Willy!...Willy… don’t do it… Please don’t do it…” (128). Because Willy Harris has taken off with Walter’s money, Walter basically cripples and falls to his knees sobbing and clearly discomfited. Mama stands in disbelief and she too starts crying. She asks God for strength showing that even though this has happened, she has not lost her faith in her religion and that at the moment she is frail. Another character who is affected is Walter’s other business partner named Bobo. He shares Walter’s sadness because Willy has also stolen his money. Bobo, like Walter, has staked his whole life on this deal. Another theme that can be extracted from the sequence of events is to always do things the right way, taking shortcuts can lead to serious consequences. Willy stole Walter’s money after he tried to take the easy way to obtain a liquor
license. Willy affects many characters in the play, despite being a minor character. The two characters he most affects is Walter and Mama. This is shown by Walter breaking down, collapsing onto his knees, and crying because he entrusted all of the insurance money to Willy and was betrayed. He begins to break down, which is evident when he starts yelling for Willy as if he is in the same vicinity somehow. Mama is also affected greatly. For the first time in the play she is shown losing her head and not thinking practically. This is evident when she fails to recognize Walter, who is on the ground crying, and starts to beat him in the face senselessly. She is so lost that Beneatha has to stop her from continuing instead of Mama stopping herself. Though Willy Harris is a minor character, his effects on the plot, characters, and theme are anything but minor. He brings out sides of characters we have not seen in the entire play, especially Mama when she did not act ordinarily. Willy Harris’ actions are lessons to the reader to always be careful who or what you trust.
Walter plans to invest in his own liquor store, which he will run alongside his good friend Willy, and plans to do so with his portion of his mother’s insurance check; did I mention that the check was for $10,000! Mama puts down money for a house—a house, in an all-white neighborhood, with a lawn, that her grandson will be able to play on. This has always been a dream of her and her husband, and now that he is gone, she only wants it more. I noticed a few major symbols throughout the scenes in this play. For example, Mama’s plant; this plant never fails to be watered and taken care of by Mama, and this represents not only her caring and compassionate attitude towards a plant but her attitude towards her family as well.
Walter, distraught after Mama had denounced his ambition to run a liquor store, had skipped work for three days, borrowing Willy Harris's car to drive around the city. Mama, seeing Walter so defeated, decided to entrust the remaining 6,500 dollars of her 10,000 dollar check to him, saying, "It ain't much, but it's all I got in the world and I'm putting it in your hands." (Hansberry,) Having incessantly denied Walter's dream,
Trust is given to those who earn it, yet unconditional trust is placed in the family. If that trust is broken, it always hurts the most. The play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry has many different themes and perspectives to look at the play from, but betrayal and hurt are major points in this play.
Willy pleads for Ben’s advice, and is constantly trying to get his attention, even though Ben has to ‘leave’. Ben is Willy’s older brother who has died. He, unlike Willy, has experienced a lot of success in the selling world. Willy is driven by Ben, and therefore tries to extract the keys to his success. Willy feels neglected when Ben does not speak with him, even though he is merely a hallucination.
Lauren Oliver once said, “I guess that’s just part of loving people: You have to give things up. Sometimes you even have to give them up” (Good Reads). This quote connects very well to the play, A Raisin in the Sun, written by Lorraine Hansberry. The quote conveys the message that if one loves someone, one must give things up. A Raisin in the Sun is about an African-American family living in the south side of Chicago in the 1950s. The Younger family is a lower-class family that has been struggling to make their dreams come true. One of the character’s in the play named Walter Lee has been struggling to make his dreams come true. Walter’s changes that are shown tie to the quote written by Lauren Oliver. The changes that are seen in Walter Lee throughout the book, A Raisin in the Sun, reflects the theme that one must sacrifice something for the love and happiness of one’s family.
Where money is but an illusion and all it brings are nothing but dreams, one family struggles to discover that wealth can be found in other forms. In the play "A Raisin in the Sun," Lorraine Hansberry uses the indirect characterization of the Younger family through their acquaintances to reveal that money and materialism alone are worthless.
A Raisin in the Sun is a play telling the story of an African-American tragedy. The play is about the Younger family near the end of the 1950s. The Younger family lives in the ghetto and is at a crossroads after the father’s death. Mother Lena Younger and her grown up children Walter Lee and Beneatha share a cramped apartment in a poor district of Chicago, where she and Walter Lee's wife Ruth and son Travis barely fit together inside. Lena's husband, the family's father, died and his life insurance brings the family $10,000.
After buying a house, Mama gives the remaining money to Walter, telling him to save some for Beneatha’s medical school, and that he can decide what the rest of the money can go to. Walter tells Travis that he is going to change their lives with the money: “One day...I’ll pull up on the driveway...just a plain black chrysler… though I’ll have to get something a little sportier for Ruth---maybe a Cadillac convertible...and I‘ll go inside...to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of the great in America all around you… just tell me what it is you want to be---… and I hand you the world!” (108-109). Walter fantasizes about owning classy cars and being able to pay for his son to go to any of the top-notch schools in America. His visions for the future reveal that his perception of reality is unrealistic and that wealth matters very much to him. He is very confident that he will be able to give Travis “the world”, which shows that he has excessive faith in his business deal. His delusions and excitement can hinder his ability to make calculated decisions. Without saving any money for Beneatha’s medical school, Walter gives the money to his friend, Willy, to invest in liquor stores. The next day, Walter’s other friend, Bobo, visits Walter to tell him that Willy ran off with the money. Walter melts down and yells, “Man, I put my life in your
Willy becomes more and more dependent on his drug as the story progresses. His next allusion to the past was during a conversation with his wife. Willy is downhearted about his failure to provide for his family, his looks, and basically his whole life in general. He begins to see some of the truth in his life: "I know it when they walk in. They seem to laugh at me."(Miller; The Death of a Salesman; pg. 23) By trying to see the reality in life, for once, he depresses himself so awfully, that he has a rendezvous in his head with his women that he sees on the side. He only uses this women to lift his spirits and to evade the truths that nearly scare him into his own grave.
One negative influence in Willy's life is the inability of his friends to confront him about his problems. It is Willy's wife that causes him the most harm. In her vain attempt to protect Willy, she actually allows his eventual death. The first sign of her negligence comes in one of Willy's flashbacks. Willy brags, "I did five hundred gross in Providence and seven hundred gross in Boston"(35). But as Linda begins calculating his commission, the value rapidly diminishes to "roughly two hundred gross on the whole trip"(35). Linda sees what is going on but does not confront him. A very similar situation occurs later in their life when she finds out that Willy is no longer on salary, but borrows money every week from Charley. Again she will not confront him. By not confronting Willy in either of these instances, Linda allows him to sink further into his false reality. But Linda makes an even worse mistake that allows for Willy's suicide. She acknowledges his suicidal tendencies when she says, "He's been trying to kill himself"(58). She tells the boys that she has found the rubber hose in the basement, but she still will not confront Willy. Another character who is unable to be straight with Willy is Willy's boss Howard Wagner. Howard allows Willy to keep his job, but does not pay him. If he had just fired him right out it would of forced Willy to find a new job. By stringing him along, Howard allows Willy to maintain his fantasy world unchallenged. These are examples of the most negative influences in Willy's life simply because they have the ability to help but choose not to.
Consequently, the keeping of this secret affects him since he does not know how to deal with the pressure involved with maintaining such a secret. When asked by Linda why Willy is a fake, he states, “Just don’t lay it all at my feet. It’s between me and him—that’s all I have to say.” As he allows the secret to eat away at his relationship with his father, it in turn creates a gap in his relationship with everyone else. Linda, in turn, has kept the secret of Willy’s suicide attempts to herself for a while. However, at one point she confesses it to the boys by saying, “they have evidence that all these accidents in the last year -weren’t-weren’t-accidents.’’ While she kept this a secret from the boys in hope of preserving the view they had of their father, she unknowingly caused them guilt to a matter they had no control of. Unlike the others, Willy’s whole existence is based on secrets and lies. However, the secret that causes the greatest detriment to the family is
In the words of Jim Cocola and Ross Douthat, Hansberry wrote the play A Raisin in the Sun to mimic how she grew up in the 1930s. Her purpose was to tell how life was for a black family living during the pre-civil rights era when segregation was still legal (spark notes). Hansberry introduces us to the Youngers’, a black family living in Chicago’s Southside during the 1950s pre-civil rights movement. The Younger family consists of Mama, who is the head of the household, Walter and Beneatha, who are Mama’s children, Ruth, who is Walter’s wife, and Travis, who is Walter and Ruth’s son. Throughout the play the Youngers’ address poverty, discrimination, marital problems, and abortion. Mama is waiting on a check from the insurance company because of the recent passing of her husband. Throughout the play Walter tries to convince Mama to let him invest the money in a liquor store. Beneatha dreams of becoming a doctor while embracing her African heritage, and Ruth just found out that she is pregnant and is struggling to keep her marriage going. The Youngers’ live in a very small apartment that is falling apart because of the wear and tear that the place has endured over the years. Mama dreams of having her own house and ends up using part of the insurance money for a down payment on a house in an up-scale neighborhood. The Youngers’ meet Mr. Lindner, who is the head of the welcoming committee. Mr. Lindner voices the community’s concerns of the Youngers’ moving into their neighborhood. Is the play A Raisin in the Sun focused on racial or universal issues?
Throughout the play, Willy can be seen as a failure. When he looks back on all his past decisions, he can only blame himself for his failures as a father, provider, and as a salesman (Abbotson 43). Slowly, Willy unintentionally reveals to us his moral limitations that frustrates him which hold him back from achieving the good father figure and a successful business man, showing us a sense of failure (Moss 46). For instance, even though Willy wants so badly to be successful, he wants to bring back the love and respect that he has lost from his family, showing us that in the process of wanting to be successful he failed to keep his family in mind (Centola On-line). This can be shown when Willy is talking to Ben and he says, “He’ll call you a coward…and a damned fool” (Miller 100-101). Willy responds in a frightful manner because he doesn’t want his family, es...
Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is a play about segregation, triumph, and coping with personal tragedy. Set in Southside Chicago, A Raisin in the Sun focuses on the individual dreams of the Younger family and their personal achievement. The Younger's are an African American family besieged by poverty, personal desires, and the ultimate struggle against the hateful ugliness of racism. Lena Younger, Mama, is the protagonist of the story and the eldest Younger. She dreams of many freedoms, freedom to garden, freedom to raise a societal-viewed equal family, and freedom to live liberated of segregation. Next in succession is Beneatha Younger, Mama's daughter, assimilationist, and one who dreams of aiding people by breaking down barriers to become an African American female doctor. Lastly, is Walter Lee Younger, son of Mama and husband of Ruth. Walter dreams of economic prosperity and desires to become a flourishing businessman. Over the course of Walter's life many things contributed to his desire to become a businessman. First and foremost, Walter's father had a philosophy that no man should have to do labor for another man. Being that Walter Lee was a chauffeur, Big Walter?s philosophy is completely contradicted. Also, in Walter?s past, he had the opportunity to go into the Laundromat business which he chose against. In the long run, he saw this choice was fiscally irresponsible this choice was. In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee's dreams, which are his sole focus, lead to impaired judgement and a means to mend his shattered life.
Dreams of owning a business and having money to accomplish goals are two key parts played out throughout the whole process. Walter Younger is determined to have his own business and he will go to ends meet to see that dream come true. Financial bridges are crossed and obstacles arise when Walter makes a bad decision regarding money that could have helped the family and not only himself, if he had thought smarter. His pride and dignity are tested throughout the story and he is forced to set up for his family. The Raisin in the Sun helps readers to understand the history of racial discrimination and how racial discrimination has an effect on the people in the late 1950s and early 1960s as well as how that has an effect on the characters within the play.