Raisin in the Sun - Money can break and mend families depending on the usage of money. This is explored in the play, Raisin in the Sun; and Lorraine Hansberry portrays Walter as an obsessed person about money

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Money is Not Everything

Money can break and mend families depending on the usage of money. This is explored in the play, Raisin in the Sun; and Lorraine Hansberry portrays Walter as an obsessed person about money when Mama refuses to give the check to Walter. After, when Walter finally receives the money from Mama, he becomes happy and more positive. Later, when he loses the money, he becomes depressed which shows his need for money. Walters’s true change happens when he refuses the money from Lindner, which shows his pride and his selflessness. Hansberry shows Walter’s change from being engrossed in money to more proud and family centered person through the choices Walter has made.

        In the play, Raisin in the Sun, Hansberry shows Walter’s character as a man possessed by money when Walter is refused money from Mama. When Mama gets a check for her husbands’ death, Walter comes in the apartment excited about the money that Mama had just received. When Walter comes in he says, “Did it come? … Did it come? (Walter sits down and grasps it close and counts off the zeros). Ten thousand dollars – (He turns suddenly, frantically to his mother)” (Hansberry 70).  Using Walter’s actions, Hansberry conveys his excitement for the money he is holding. By ‘grasping it close’, the author easily shows Walter’s enthusiasm for the money that he is holding toward him. Not only that, by repeating his question twice, his eagerness for the check is shown as well. In addition to that, when Walter and Mama is talking to each other after Walter has been denied the money, Walter says, “(With immense passion) Because it is life Mama! … No - it was always money, Mama. We just didn’t know about it,” (74). When Walter talks with ‘immense passion’, Walter stresses how important the money is to him. Saying that “it is life” shows that his life circles around money. In this point of the play, Hansberry concludes that Walter’s attitude approaching money is one of a ‘moneyholic’ and needs money in order to maintain his life.

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        Hansberry presents a change in Walter’s personality and choices after Mama gives Walter the money, and when he loses the money given by Mama. After the money is given to Walter, Ruth tells Beneatha how Walter takes her out. Ruth says, “We went to the movies. We went to the movies. You know the last time me and Walter went to the movies together? … Me neither. That’s how long it’s been” (111). Walter’s drastic change in choices is portrayed through his actions of taking Ruth out. ‘Me neither. That’s how long it’s been.’ Since Walter’s hunger for money is ...

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