Walter'S Women and His Successes in a Raisin in The Sun

Risk. As the enlightened philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau put it, “Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?” Risk is what must be taken to survive and what must occur in order to change the world. It is within this that we find the struggle that Walter, a character in the play: A raisin in the sun by: Lorraine Hansberry. Walter is an African-American who is looking to start a business in order to make money and thrive in the economy. Walter’s lack of success however comes from the fact that the people around him are incapable of taking risks, domineering in their own interests, and far less inclined about money than they need to be.

Walter’s wife, Ruth, is afraid of taking risks and inhibits Walter’s success by stopping him from taking a risk. To explain further, Walter speaks in the play about a Charlie Atkins who wanted Walter to start a dry cleaning business with him. Ruth found it too risky and told Walter to avoid it, soon after Atkins was grossing a hundred thousand dollars a year. Even though there was the chance that the company could have failed, the chance for possible success is what Walter needed. Additionally this risk could have brought Walter and his family immense wealth but fear held them back from success. In the end, Ruth’s fear of risk and her unwillingness to sacrifice something for greatness held Walter back.

Walter’s sister, Beneatha, takes a major portion of the energy in Walter’s family. Her aspirations to be a doctor and finish medical school in a time when women, let alone black women, barely completed school at all, put a lot of strain on the family. Her brash and abrasive nature leads to Walter and everybody else making sacrifices for her. For example, Walter and his whole family work degrading jobs and avoid buying new things just to pay for her schooling.

Through this, Walter’s own dreams and aspirations are inhibited and pushed back. Moreover, Walter has less chances to succeed because he is less has to take Beneatha’s burden on his back as well. Beneatha’s domineering attitude leads to Walter sacrificing his own success for the success of his sister.

Walter’s mother, Mama, has a mentality of the past and is far less focused on money than one needs to be in order to succeed. To illustrate, when Mama gets her welfare check, she declares that none will be spent on Walter’s liquor shop. She later also clarifies her ideology by saying, “So now it’s life. Money is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life – now it’s.

ney Mama’s old age mentality of freedom over money is incompatible with the modern age In her time, freedom from slavery was the main concern. However, today the slaves are free, but they are poor. Mama’s adherence to the past creates a schism between her and Walter. It is this adherence that causes Mama to not give Walter the money he needs, and because of this Walter loses another chance for success. Mama, as the others women in his life have done so already, thwarts Walter’s dreams by gripping to old ideologies.

In essence, the women in Walter’s life act to slow him down and to lead him away from chances of success, they are too afraid to let him take risks, the make their lives more important than his, and they stay in the mindset of the old instead of adapting to fit the new.

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