Character analysis in A raisin in the sun

¶ … Raisin in the Sun

The search for acceptance is something that the African-American has long been in search of. The African-American experience in America is one filled with the want for social acceptance as well as the need for self-acceptance and self-respect. In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, we can see how Hansberry has reflected the spirit of a time in America where pride, anger, and frustration tormented the African-American experience. The mission that she was on and that has forged a path for many other writers was a mission to illustrate the plight of the African-American experience and to shed some light on the hardships that went along with this experience in a time where racism and inequality still ran rampant. More importantly, what she did is create very real and sympathetic characters that have had just as big an impact on their readers as Willy Loman did in The Death of a Salesman.

In the play A Raisin in the Sun, Walter Lee Younger is a man who is going through a period of change in his life. When we first meet Walter he is a young man who has a lot of growing up to do; we see that Walter's conflict is within himself and that all of his desires come from wanting more. Walter looks for self-respect in the people in his life -- frustrated when he doesn't get it. For Walter, he believes that happiness and human integrity comes from material gains and power over people. We see Walter's frustrations clearly in the text. One day while Walter and his wife are arguing, he says: "This morning I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about it: I'm thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room -- and all I got to give him is stories 'bout how rich white people live" (18).

This quote clearly states Walter's frustrations with himself and with the society in which he lives. He feels old and worthless and that he should have more to give his son, but all he has are stories of people who are better off -- both financially and socially speaking. This quote illustrates the frustration of the African-American man who wants, has the desire, to give his family more, but the things that he wants to give are out of his reach because of the society in which he lives. Walter's desire for financial success and his stories of rich white people are a metaphor for the self-respect he lacks in himself. It's easy to say that Walter should pay more attention to what is really important in life: family, respect, love, etc., but what Hansberry is illustrating is that when one lives in a society that looks down upon a group of people, those people have a much more difficult time seeing themselves in a positive light. This makes it difficult for Walter to develop as a character.