Ambitious. Unhappy. Selfish. Think of someone who would be the embodiment of all of these character traits. What would they do? Who would they be? What would they look like? By reading the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, you will begin to picture the protagonist, Walter Lee Younger. Walter Lee Younger, a selfish, emotional, persistent and greedy man, will do whatever it takes to get the money he needs to fulfill his big aspirations of owning a liquor store, and learns a very valuable lesson along the way.
A Raisin In The Sun takes place in the city of Chicago, in the 1950s. The family that the play follows, the Youngers, suffers from poverty. They are so poor that they must share a bathroom with their neighbors. Also, they are so poor that their home does not have enough rooms for Travis, a child of Walter and Ruth, to sleep in his room and thus he must sleep on a couch. Mama acts as the head of household and takes charge of running the home, her child Walter, and his wife, Ruth, live in a room together, while Mama shares a room with her other child, Beneatha. Walter, the protagonist of the story, has an enormous love for money. Walter wants to get money from the life insurance check coming in to Mama in order to own a liquor store and reach …show more content…
While Walter has some negative traits, he grows throughout the play and learns that life offers much more than just money. As Jonathan Swift said, “A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart.” The passion for money left Walter’s heart, and while he still may find money important in life, he finds that family and those closest to you more important. Think again of the traits; ambitious, unhappy and selfish. Do all of these traits still embody Walter Lee Younger after he has grown throughout the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine