Insoo Cho
Prof. Raquel Corona
English 102
Choose a character from the play, A
Raisin in the Sun, and create a character map of sorts.
Describe this character and his/her
significance in the play. What do they dream of having? Why did you
choose to discuss this character? What about their personality and
presence in the play spoke to you as a reader?
In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, I was most intrigued in the character of Walter Lee Younger, an immature dreamer who is eager to convince his mother to invest his father’s insurance money into a get-rich-quick business. He lives in a tiny house with a large number of family members: a religious and a strong-willed mother Lena, a doctor-wanna-be and bratty little sister Beneatha, a desperate housewife Ruth, and their little son Travis. With a house so small that his son doesn't have his own room to sleep in, he is eager to escape the poverty. In addition, his dissatisfying and humiliating job as a driver and the missed investment opportunity as an owner of a successful dry cleaning business added fuel to his idea of the get-rich-quick business.
Walter Lee sees his father’s insurance money as the opportunity to achieve his dream of success. However, he never once seemed to put his own time and effort into achieving his goal, but rather chose to blame his mother and his wife for not supporting his dream. I chose to discuss this character because his presumptuous and hypocritical attitude caught my attention. Walter Lee mocked his sister Beneatha for wanting to become a female doctor and labeled her as an ungrateful spoiled little girl for wanting to follow her dream, all because he was wary that his mother may take a few thousand dollars from the insurance money to help her through her med school. Not realizing that it is he, not her, who lost his mind over the insurance money and is demanding the money, with ignorance he even advises her to snap back to reality. Another example of his shockingly hypocritical attitude was when his wife, who shared news of her pregnancy with their child, needed him the most, he simply walked out of his house after complaining to his wife and his family for not listening nor supporting him, when it was he himself who failed to be a good husband nor a good son.
In the play, A Raisin in the Sun, I was most intrigued in the character of Walter Lee Younger, an immature dreamer who is eager to convince his mother to invest his father’s insurance money into a get-rich-quick business. He lives in a tiny house with a large number of family members: a religious and a strong-willed mother Lena, a doctor-wanna-be and bratty little sister Beneatha, a desperate housewife Ruth, and their little son Travis. With a house so small that his son doesn't have his own room to sleep in, he is eager to escape the poverty. In addition, his dissatisfying and humiliating job as a driver and the missed investment opportunity as an owner of a successful dry cleaning business added fuel to his idea of the get-rich-quick business.
Walter Lee sees his father’s insurance money as the opportunity to achieve his dream of success. However, he never once seemed to put his own time and effort into achieving his goal, but rather chose to blame his mother and his wife for not supporting his dream. I chose to discuss this character because his presumptuous and hypocritical attitude caught my attention. Walter Lee mocked his sister Beneatha for wanting to become a female doctor and labeled her as an ungrateful spoiled little girl for wanting to follow her dream, all because he was wary that his mother may take a few thousand dollars from the insurance money to help her through her med school. Not realizing that it is he, not her, who lost his mind over the insurance money and is demanding the money, with ignorance he even advises her to snap back to reality. Another example of his shockingly hypocritical attitude was when his wife, who shared news of her pregnancy with their child, needed him the most, he simply walked out of his house after complaining to his wife and his family for not listening nor supporting him, when it was he himself who failed to be a good husband nor a good son.
I like the way you see Walter. to me he seemed more lost and greedy for the mother's money but I guess when I look at it form your point of view, I see what you see. I think in this play everyone accounted for mama's money secretly before she even did, but Walter was the already counting the chickens before they hatched since he was making business deals with Willie Harris before the check was in hand.
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