Comp 2 Podcast

In this podcast episode, Leah Tate discusses the character Walter Lee Younger from the drama "A Raisin in the Sun." Walter is a colored man in the 20th century who struggles to support his family as a cab driver. He dreams of being wealthy and opening his own liquor store. Walter faces racism and poverty but continues to support his family. He believes that his wife, Ruth, holds him back and lacks faith in him. However, he also sacrifices his own dreams for the sake of his family. Despite facing setbacks, Walter shows perseverance and grows stronger throughout the story. He feels pressure after his father's death and realizes supporting his family is more challenging than expected. Hi, my name is Leah Tate and welcome to my podcast episode about the drama A Raisin in the Sun. Today we are going to focus on the character Walter Lee Younger. Walter is the son of Lena and a brother to Benita. Walter is also married to Ruth and they have one son named Travis. Walter provides a perspective of a 20th century colored man. He doesn't find much luck within the story. He struggles to support his family off his job as a cab driver. But that not only includes his wife and son, but also his mother and sister as well. All five of them live in a small one-bedroom apartment. Throughout the story he learns the most of any other character and also develops the most of all of them. Walter has been put down in his life by racism and poverty when his main dream in life is to be wealthy enough to provide for his family while also dreaming to open his own liquor store one day. These ambitious dreams of his do, however, come back to him by the end of the story. Walter is able to be the protagonist and the antagonist of the story. The plot centers around him, his actions, and his character. When his father died, Walter had to take on all of the responsibility of the family, which caused him to need to grow into a man quickly. He has had a desire for success and he's very prideful, which leads to some of his questionable choices within the drama. Because of this, his antagonist traits can be seen. Walter is the villain within the story. However, he thinks that the women that surround him are the villains. He believes that his wife, Ruth, holds him back and is stopping him from taking the steps he needs to reach his goal of creating a better life. Walter also thinks that Ruth has no faith in him and that starts to crush his pride that he carries. This is clearly seen when Walter is in an argument with Ruth and he states a man needs a woman to back him up. Also, in that same argument, Walter tells his wife, colored women in this world don't understand about building their men up and making them feel like they somebody. With Ruth being a colored woman, Walter is talking down on his own wife to her. This argument represents how Walter thinks no one has faith in him, but he also has no faith in himself either. However, Walter is also the protagonist of the story. He faces the most struggle of all the characters, but continues to support his family throughout all of it. Like I mentioned before, racism and poverty are the two main setbacks that Walter faces. All that he wants is to be able to achieve the same that white men around him have achieved. So, he doesn't let racism stop him from attempting to pursue his dreams. Poverty also has a lot to do with Walter's character. He has to solely support his family, but in hope of receiving his father's insurance check, he dreamed of opening his own business to bring in money to provide a comfortable life for him and his family. However, everyone in the play has expensive plans for the check. So, Walter's dreams get set aside for the rest of his family members to be able to achieve their own. Him stepping back from his own dreams for family shows his protagonist characteristics. Lena, his mother, was able to finally get the house with a big backyard she always dreamed of for her family. He then was able to use the leftover money to invest into a liquor store with his friend. However, he loses all the money when his friend runs off with it and says nothing. This shows he has a strong sense of perseverance. He continued to support his family even after the huge loss of his own personal dream. My own personal reflection of Walter Lee Younger is that his character shows fiery and persistent traits at the beginning of the drama. But, by the end, he has become a stronger man that has been through so many struggles in such a short period of time. He has major doubts in his own manhood and doesn't believe in himself very much. He feels at a disadvantage and faces disappointment of a deferred dream. Walter even talks about himself saying, bitter, man, I'm a volcano. As he says this, he knows he's almost to a point of eruption. I feel that he is a man who needs time to slow down so that he can figure out all of his troubles before the time to do it runs out. I feel bad for Walter because he feels major pressure all of the sudden once his father is gone. He didn't expect supporting his family the way they needed to be supported to be so difficult and challenging.