Raisin Blog Post 2

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorrain Hansberry

9. In literature, as in life, a character might feel trapped. Discuss a character from Raisin who feels trapped and give examples of the ways in which this character chooses to deal with those feelings.

I feel like a character who seems to be trapped a lot already in the play is Walter. The guy seems to have a lot of issues. He seems to be lacking support from his wife and entire family. No one wants to help him live out this dream of financial stability. He needs to begin his own business and wants to use some of the money from his father's passing away to begin a liquor store. He is straining for just a little piece of some support from his wife. Walter says, "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!" (Hansberry 33) Walter does not understand, however, that everyone else thinks their lives are okay. They are content with the way they are living and do not feel trapped.

Another place where I feel Walter could be trapped is in his alcohol abuse. He gets frustrated with his family and immediately says he has to go out. Mama confronts him about this and says, "It's dangerous...When a man goes outside his home to look for peace" (Hansberry 73). She is right. This is dangerous. When someone goes outside of their home to find peace in alcohol there is something seriously going wrong in their lives. To top it all off, Walter finds out that Mama took the money from her husband's insurance and put it into a house for the family. Now he is really trapped. Now he absolutely has no way out of the life he is currently living.