Walter Analysis

Walter Analysis

The title of the poem is “A Raisin in the Sun”. It comes from a line in a poem by Langston Hughes, a prominent African-American poet. Hughes asks a question, “What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”. When a dream is postponed for the future, does it shrink and become irrelevant? Walter’s dream is to open up a chain of liquor stores, to better the life of his family. When Ruth shuts him down, and Mama denies him the money, his dream gets shelved in favor of a new home in a white neighborhood. Walter’s dream was deferred, and in Walter’s eyes, his dreams are starting are change.

Walter and Beneatha at the Dining Table (1)

"WALTER: What is it he wants to do?

RUTH: Go carry groceries after school at the supermarket.

WALTER: Well, let him go.

TRAVIS:  I have to. She won't gimme the fifty cents . . .

WALTER: Why not?

RUTH: 'Cause we don't have it.

WALTER : What you tell the boy things like that for? (Reaching down into his pants with a rather important gesture) Here, son. "

In this scene, Walter wants to provide for his son even though he knows that he doesn't have the money to spend on non-necessities. He also makes giving money to his son a big deal but only has eye contact with his wife. This shows his dominance over his wife and that he isn't afraid to go against for his own pride.

Walter and the Damn Eggs (2)

"WALTER: Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost

seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on

the place be 'bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand

each. Course, there's a couple of hundred you got to pay so

you don't spend you life just waiting for them clowns to let

your license get approved—

RUTH: You mean graft?

WALTER (frowning impatiently): Don't call it that. See there, that

just goes to show you what women understand about the world.

Baby, don't nothing happen for you in this world 'less you pay

somebody off!

RUTH: Walter, leave me alone! (She raises her head and stares at

him vigorously—then says, more quietly.) Eat your eggs, they

gonna be cold.

WALTER (straightening up from her and looking off): That's it.

There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His

woman say: Eat your eggs (Sadly, but gaining in power.) Man

say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman

will say: Eat your eggs and go to work (Passionately now.)

Man say: I got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby!

And his woman say — (in utter anguish as he brings his fists down

on his thighs)— Your eggs is getting cold!"

This scene shows that Walter feels that everyone, even his wife is against him. He rants about how women don't understand a man's dream. He implies that they only concentrate on staying the same, not trying to improve themselves. He clearly is biased against women and doesn't feel that the are able to decide what is good for the entire family. Walter believes that men solely know what is good for the family and that men should be allowed to be dominant and rule the household as well as provide for it.

You're A Nut (3)

WALTER: Who the hell told you you had to be a doctor? If you so crazy ‘bout messing ‘ round with sick people- then go be a nurse like other women-or just get married and get married and be quiet. . .

BENEATHA: Well—you finally got it said . . . It took you three years but you finally got it said. Walter, give up; leave me alone - it’s Mama’s money.

WALTER: He was my father, too!

BENEATHA: So what? He was mine, too - and Travis’ grandfather - but the insurance money belongs to Mama. Picking on me is not going to make her give it to you to invest in any liquor stores - (under breath, dropping into a chair) - and I for one say, God bless Mama for that!

WALTER (to RUTH): See-did you hear? Did you hear!

RUTH: Honey, please go to work.

WALTER: Nobody in this house is ever going to understand me.

BENEATHA: Because you’re a nut.

WALTER: Who’s a nut?

BENEATHA: You-you are a nut. Thee is mad, boy.

WALTER (looking at his wife and his sister from the door, very sadly): The world’s most backward race of people, and that’s a fact.

Beneatha argues that the money belongs to Mama and that Mama has the right to decide how it is spent. Walter then leaves for his job as a chauffeur he has to ask Ruth for money to get to work because the money he gave Travis was his car fare.

Financial Issues (4)

"WALTER: You ain't looked at it and you don't aim to have speak

on that again? You ain't even looked at it and you have decided—

(crumpling his papers) Well you tell that to my boy

tonight when you put him to sleep on the living room couch . . .

(turning to MAMA and speaking directly to her)  Yeah—and tell

it to my wife, Mama, tomorrow when she has to go out of here

to look after somebody else's kids. And tell it to me, Mama,

every time we need a new pair of curtains and I have to watch

you go and work in somebody's kitchen. Yeah, you tell me then!"

In this scene, Walter rants about how the money could bring them out of their poor living conditions by investing in Willie but his family doesn't have faith in him and his business schemes. He continues on to remind his mom about what kind of conditions that they live in. He implies that he hates how he has watch his son sleep on the couch everyday, how his wife has to go watch OTHER children to get money, and how he has to watch his mom go work as a cheap labor hand. This expresses the typical traits of a father who wants to provide. Walter is ambitious, dreams big, and can state the painful reality he sees in his eyes.

Money Is Life (5)

"WALTER (quietly): Sometimes it's like I can see the future stretched

out in front of me—just plain as day. The future Mama. Hanging

over there at the edge of my days. Just waiting for me- a

big, looming blank space—full of nothing. Just waiting for me.

But it don't have to be (Pause. . Kneeling beside her chair.)

Mama—sometimes when I'm downtown and I pass them cool,

quiet-looking restaurants where them white boys are sitting back

and talking 'bout things . . . sitting there turning deals worth

millions of dollars . . . sometimes I see guys don't look much

older than me

MAMA: Son—how com you talk so much 'bout money?

WALTER (with immense passion): Because it's life Mama!

MAMA (quietly): Oh —(very quietly) So now its life.  Money is life.

Once upon a time freedom used to be life—now it's money.

I guess the world really do change . . .

WALTER: No it was always money, Mama. We just didn't know

about it."

This scene shows the audience Walter's true, honest side. In this intimate conversation with Mama, we can see how badly Walter wants to be rich. Money to him is not just a social status, but is a way of life. Money to Walter is like a God. It provides for his family, keeps his family safe, and allows them to be fed everyday. Walter is almost a materialistic, money obsessed father, who constantly grows envy of what the other people have, for example in the coffee shops.

Faggotty-Looking White Shoes (6)

RUTH: You get to New York a lot?

GEORGE (offhand): Few times a year.

RUTH: Oh-that’s nice. I’ve never been to New York. (WALTER enters. We feel he has relieved himself, but the edge of unreality is still with him.)

WALTER: New York ain’t got nothing Chicago ain’t. Just a bunch of hustling people all squeezed up together- being “Eastern.” (He turns his face into a screw of displeasure.)

GEORGE: Oh - you’ve been?

WALTER: Plenty of times.

RUTH (shocked at the lie): Plenty! (pause) What we got to drink in this house? Why don’t you offer this man some refreshment. (to GEORGE) They don’t know how to entertain people in this house, man.

GEORGE: Thank you- I don’t really care for anything.

WALTER (feeling his head; sobriety coming): Where’s Mama?

RUTH: She ain’t come back yet.

WALTER (looking MURCHISON over from head to toe, scrutinizing sweater over soft velvet shirt and tie, and soft slacks, finished off with white buckskin shoes): Why all you college boys wear them faggotty-looking white shoes?

RUTH: Walter Lee!

GEORGE MURCHISON ignores the remark.

WALTER (to RUTH): Well, they look crazy as hell - white shoes, cold as it is.

RUTH (crushed): You have to excuse him-

WALTER: No he don’t! Excuse me for what? What you always excusing me for! I’ll excuse myself when I needs to be excused! (a pause) They look as funny as them black knee socks Beneatha wears out of here all the time.

RUTH: It’s the college style, Walter.

WALTER: Style, hell. She looks like she got burnt legs or something!

RUTH: Oh, Walter -

WALTER (an irritable mimic): Oh, Walter! Oh, Walter! (to MURCHISON) How’s your old man making out? I understand you all going to buy that big hotel on the Drive? (He finds a beer in the refrigerator, wanders over to MURCHISON, sipping and wiping his lips with the back of his hand, and straddling a chair backwards to talk to the other man.) Shrewd move. Your old man is all right, man. (tapping his head and half winking for emphasis) I mean he knows how to operate. I mean he thinks big, you know what I mean, I mean for a home, you know? But I think he’s kind of running out of ideas now. I’d like to talk to him. Listen, man, I got some plans that could turn this city upside down. I mean think like he does. Big. Invest big, gamble big, hell, lose big if you have to, you know what I mean. It’s hard to find a man on this whole Southside who understands my kind of thinking-you dig? (He scrutinizes MURCHISON again, drinks his beer, squints his eyes and leans in close, confidential, man to man.) Me and you ought ti sit down and talk sometimes, man. Man, I got me some ideas . . .

In Beneatha and George’s conversation, Hansberry reveals two sets of values regarding education. Beneatha believes in education as a means to understanding and self-fulfillment, while George sees education as a means to get a good job. The difference in their views about education displays a deeper divergence between the two, one of idealism versus pragmatism.

I'll Hand You the World (7)

TRAVIS: What's the matter, Daddy? You drunk?

WALTER: (sweetly, more sweetly than we have ever known him)

No, Daddy ain't drunk. Daddy ain't going to never be drunk

again . . .

TRAVIS: Well, good night, Daddy.

The FATHER has come from behind the couch and leans over,

embracing his son.

WALTER: Son feeI, l like talking to you tonight.

TRAVIS: About what?

WALTER: Oh, about a lot of things. About you an what kind of

man you going to be when you grow up. Son—son ... what do

you want to be when you grow up?

TRAVIS A: bus driver.

WALTER (laughing a little): A what? Man, that ain't nothing to

want to be!

TRAVIS: Why not?

WALTER: 'Cause man—it, ain't big enough—you know what I

mean.

TRAVIS: I don't know then I can't  make up my mind. Sometimes

Mama asks me that too. And sometimes when I tell her I just

want to be like you—she says she don't want me to be like that

and sometimes she says she does . . .

WALTER (gathering him up in his arms): You know what, Travis?

In seven years you going to be seventeen years old. And things

is going to be very different with us in seven years, Travis . . .

One day when you are seventeen I'll com home—home from

my office downtown somewhere.

TRAVIS: You don't work in no office Daddy.

WALTER: No but after tonight, After what your daddy gonna do

tonight, there's going to office —a whole lot of offices . . .

TRAVIS: What you gonna do tonight, Daddy?

WALTER: You wouldn't understand yet, son but your daddy's

gonna make a transaction ... a business transaction that's going

to change our lives . . . That's how come one day when you 'bout

seventeen years old I'll come home and I'll be pretty tired, you

know what I mean after, a day of conferences and secretaries

getting things wrong the way they do ... 'cause an executive's

life is hell, man—(The more he talks the farther away he gets.)

And I'll pull the car up on the driveway . just a plain black

Chrysler, I think, with white walls-no-black tires. More elegant.

Rich people don't have to be flashy . . . though I'll have to

get something a little sportier for Ruth—maybe a Cadillac convertible

 to do her shopping in ... And I'll come up the steps to

the house and the gardener will be clipping away at the hedges

and he'll say, "Good evening, Mr. Younger." And I'll say,

"Hello, Jefferson, how are you this evening?" And I'll go inside

and Ruth will come downstairs and meet me at the door and

we'll kiss each other and she'll take my arm and we'll go up to

your room to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of

all the great schools in America around you . . . All the great

schools in the world! And —and I'll say, all right son—it's your

seventeenth birthday, what is it you've decided? . . . Just tell me

where you want to go to school and you'll go. Just tell me, what

it is you want to be—and you'll be it. . . Whatever you want to

be—Yessir! (He holds his arms open for Travis) just

name it, son ("Travis leaps into them.) and I hand you the

world!

This may be one of the most crucial moments of the play. When Walter expresses what he wants for his blank future, it's ironic because Travis may not be as understanding of what Walter is saying. It's the childhood Walter never got to have. This is when Walter is expressing his ideas of his version of the American Dream. How Walter's hard work and determination can make it a reality.

Lindner Part 1 (8)

LINDER: Well, now we’ve been having a fine conversation. I hope you’ll hear me all the way through.

WALTER (tightly): Go ahead, man.

LINDER: You see- in the face of all the things I have said, we are prepared to make your family a very generous offer. . .

BENEATHA: Thirty pieces and not a coin less!

WALTER: Yeah?

LINDER (putting on his glasses and drawing a from out of the briefcase): Our association is prepared, through the collective effort of our people, to buy the house from you at a financial gain to your family.

RUTH: Lord have mercy, ain’t this the living gall!

WALTER: All right, you through?

This scene presents two conflicts and worries for the Youngers and their future. First, the incident with Mr. Lindner of the Clybourne Park Improvement Association reveals the power of both dreams and racial prejudice. Mr. Lindner’s comments do not intimidate the members of the Younger family. Rather, they seem to expect the conflict.

Lindner Part 2(9)

WALTER (at last crosses to LINDNER, who is reviewing the contract: Well, Mr. Lindner. (BENEATHA turns away.) We called you- (There is a profound, simple groping quality in his speech.)- because, well, me and my family (He looks around and shifts from one foot to the other.) Well, we are very plain people…

LINDNER: Yes-

WALTER (really like a small boy, looking down at his shoes and then up at the man): And-uh-well, my father, well, he was a laborer most of his life…

LINDNER (absolutely confused): Uh, yes- yes, I understand. (He turns back to the contract.)

WALTER (a beat, staring at him): And my father- (with sudden intensity) My father almost beat a man to death once because this man called him a bad name or something, you know what I mean?

LINDNER (looking up, frozen): No, no, I’m afraid I don’t-

WALTER: What I am telling you is that we called you over here to tell you that we are very proud and that this- (signaling to TRAVIS) Travis, come here. (TRAVIS crosses and WALTER draws him before him facing the man.) This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation our family in this country. And we have all thought about your offer-

LINDNER: Well, good… good-

WALTER: And we have decided to move into our house because my father- my father- he earned it for us brick by brick. (MAMA has her eyes closes and is rocking back and forth as though she were in church, with her head nodding the Amen yes.) We don’t want to make no trouble for nobody or fight no causes, and we will try to be good neighbors. And that’s all we got to say about that. (He looks the man absolutely in the eyes.) We don’t want your money. (He turns and walks away.)

In this climactic exchange to Lindner, Walter shows that his dreams have changed. Before, Walter cared about money, and only about money. He wanted to make a quick buck by investing in a liquor store. Then he was devastated by the loss of his investment. Now, he rejects an offer for money. Here, Walter shows that his family is more important to him. He talks about how much his father sacrificed for them, while Walter himself is sacrificing his dreams for his son, Travis. Walter’s dream has changed here at the end of the play, and he takes charge of his own life for the most important thing in his life, his family.