A RAISIN IN THE SUN: THE CONTRASTING VIEWS BETWEEN MAMA AND WALTER

Winter and summer, the sun and the moon, day and night. These terms are nearly complete opposites and have almost nothing in common. In our play A Raisin In The Sun, the same is true with two characters we come across. Walter and Mama are tremendously different in terms of their beliefs, views, and philosophy of life. As a mother to son relationship, Walter and Mama are very frank to each other when it comes to their views on money. In Mamas perspective, money is a nice extra thing to have in life, but in reality has no real importance. In Walters point of view, life without money is like scuba diving without an oxygen tank. You cant live without either of them. We see these contrasting views in our play as both of our characters argue as to what should be done with the $10,000 check. For Mama, she says I spec if it wasnt for you all.. I would just put that money away or give it to the church or something. (Hansberry 1.2. 20-22) From this quote, we can see that Mama herself has no desire for the check and that its extra, but because of her family shes been persuaded otherwise. For Walter, he says the minute he walks home Did it come? (Hansberry 1.2. 11)Then soon while in an argument with his mother Do you know what this money means to me? (Hansberry 1.2. 10-11) Notice how Walter talks about himself and that he completely focuses on money other than his family or that his wife is expecting a new baby. In addition to their views on money, Mama and Walter both have different philosophies of life. According to Mama, life is about family, enjoying the beauty in everything and most importantly being alive. We see this as she says to Walter after his speech about money Money

is life. Once upon a time freedom used to be life- now its money..In my time we was worried aboutif we could and how to stay alive. We can see from this quote that Mama is disappointed in Walter and that he should be lucky to be alive. In Walters viewpoint, life is money and is essential to everyone. He feels that as a Negro living during his time period, life is difficult as it is with all of the discrimination and prejudice, and if he could posses more money this would somehow appease all of the discrimination he receives. We notice that Walters philosophy of life is to have money as he says to Mama No-it was always money, Mama. We just didnt know about it. Another example of where we see a proof towards Walters philosophy of money is when Mama asks him why he talks so much about money and he answers Because it is life, Mama! I believe that the reason Walter and Mama have such different philosophies on life is because they come from different time periods. During Mamas early life, African Americans were being murdered left and right along with other racist acts. As a result, she has grown to believe that staying alive should be her philosophy of life. As for Walter, brutal discrimination had ended for the most part but whites were still looked at as better than blacks. To Walter, this was because of the fact that they had money, and if he had that money hed be on the same level as them. Last but surely not least, Mama and Walter are significantly different in their beliefs in the authority of the Younger family. In most families, the father is the head of the household. Unfortunately, The eldest man (Mamas husband) passed away and as a result his wife Mama feels that she is obligated to lead her family just as he had. As a fully grown male adult, Walter feels that he is destined to be the head of authority in the Younger household. We see Mamas thoughts and reasons when she reprimands her daughter Beneatha for questioning G-d as she says There are some ideas we aint going to have in this house. Not as long as I am at the head

of the family. (Hansberry 1.1. 31-32) We can evidently see that Mama controls what goes on in her house and verifies it by referring to herself as the head of the household. For Walter, we can see that he feels that Mama is the head of the family but that she doesnt do a good job and because of this, he should replace. We notice this as he says to Mama when she refuses to invest the money in a liquor store Well, you tell that to my boy tonight when you put him to sleep on the living-room couch.Im a grown man, Mama. (Hansberry 1.2. 7-9, 26) At this point, it has become obvious to us that Walter is upset with Mamas performance as head of the household and that he would do so many things differently but she is his mother and because of that he cant do anything. From the 3 ideas Ive presented you with, it has turned out to be apparent that Walter and Mama are very different in their views, beliefs, and philosophy of life. Ive brought direct quotes from our play supporting this statement as well as an analyzed thought on each one. From the time period of A Raisin In The Sun to now, many things have changed in terms of the relationships between blacks and whites. Today, they are given the same rights and receive a much smaller amount of discrimination than during the times in A Raisin In The Sun. Unfortunately, many people today still are extremely racist and acts towards blacks in a terrible way. We must all learn from A Raisin In The Sun that just like Mama and Walter took action in an appropriate manor no matter how mad they got, so too we should all treat colored people the same regardless of the reason not to.