Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

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In “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, Walter develops as a character from always believing that money was the solution to the family’s needs to realizing that family is more important than anything else. In the play, Ruth is talking to Mama about how she went to the doctor when Walter comes bursting through the door to see if the check came. With complete disregard for his wife, Walter starts asking, “Did it come? Ten thousand dollars. Mama look. Old Willy Harris put everything on paper. “I can talk to her later. Mama, look” (Hansberry 70). Walter does not want to talk to his wife because he is so fixated on buying liquor. Walter is so focused on the future and his own needs, rather than the present and what important things are going …show more content…

Later on in the play, Bobo explains to Walter how he has not heard from Willy in a while. Bobo delivers the bad news about the money to Walter which deeply saddens him, “Man. I trusted you. Man, I put my life in your hands. Man. That money is made out of my father’s flesh” (Hansberry 128). Walter shows a shift in the way he sees the world from not worrying about money to enjoying time with family. He realizes that family is more critical than money. Walter is devastated by the thought that Big Walter’s hard-working money has been ripped out of his hands. He regrets ever thinking about buying a liquor store because he did not know that the outcome would be this severe. Water feels mortified because he ruined his family’s future of money and a new life living in their own home. The title of the play relates to this scene because Walter’s dream is fading away and shriveling up like a rain in the sun would do. The raisin will soon disappear and be forgotten, like the dream of the store, once the family moves on with their lives. Walter’s perspective on seeing the world changed by the end of the play when he realized that he was not going to purchase the liquor

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