A Raisin in the Sun, a drama written by Lorraine Hansberry came onto the theater scene in 1959. The title is from Langston Hughes poem A Dream Deferred when it asks what happen to a dream that is deferred. The drama tells of a lower class black familys struggle.The family lives in a cramped apartment too small for its five tenants. The primary focus of the story is on how to spend the ten thousand-dollar insurance check from the death of Mamas husband Big Walter. The conflict erupt over the disagreements on how the money should be spent, Mama wanted to by a house, Beneatha needed money for medical school, and Walter had dreams of owning a liquor store. In the end Mamas confidence in Walter to spend the check wisely climaxed his manhood from a desperate family man that is shackled by poverty, to man that obsessed with the dream of succeeding, then to being a real man, a hero to his family.In the beginning Walter presents himself as a very absurd man. In his middle thirties, he is the husband of Ruth, father of Travis, brother of Beneatha, and son of Lena (Mama). Walter works as a chauffeur for a rich white man, he drinks too much, and he is very uneducated. Walter never has enough money to buy his wife fine things or to help his family. He and his wife Ruth and their child live with his mother this living situation contributes to Walters problems. In one scene Walter admonishes Ruth for telling their son that they cannot give him fifty cents. When he is asked Walter gives Travis more than fifty cents; he gives him a dollar, none of which he can afford. Walter does this so that Travis does not see their true economic condition. Walter shows us that he is very desperate when it comes to his family because all he can do is dream about helping them. When Walter discovers that his mother will receive a ten thousand-dollar check from his fathers insurance he becomes obsessed with his dreams of becoming a businessman. Walter feels that hi...
