Final Project: Podcast

Walter is a middle-aged black man in the 1950s who works for rich white men. He envies their lifestyle and wants to provide for his family. He plans to use his father's life insurance money to start a liquor business with his friends. However, his obsession with money leads him to act selfishly and hurt his family. He even considers accepting a racist offer for money. Eventually, he realizes that integrity and dignity are more important than wealth. He learns to cherish his family and embrace his identity. Hello, my name is Olivia Travis, and I'm going to be analyzing the character Walter from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Walter is a middle-aged black man in the 1950s. He lives in his mother's house with his wife, Ruth, his son, Travis, his sister, Benita, and his mama. He works at the shop floor for rich white men, and he makes a small wage. Having this job of driving wealthy people around every day makes him envy their life. He realizes that he wants to live like they do so that he can provide for his family and give himself a better life. I also believe that he wanted to be admired and respected just how he admired and respected the men that he worked for. One example of this ideology that Walter has is shown at the beginning of the story, when Travis asks for money for school. Ruth immediately turns him down because she knows they don't have the money. Walter goes on to say, What you tell the boy things like that for? Reaching down into his pants with a rather important gesture. Here, son, he hands the boy the coin, but his eyes are directed to his wife. Ruth watches both of them with murder in her eyes. Walter stands and stares back at her with defiance and suddenly reaches into his pockets again after a while, without even looking at his son, still staring hard at his wife. In fact, here's another 50 cents. Buy yourself some fruit today, or take a taxi cab to school or something. Walter also knows that they didn't have the spending money, but he often fantasizes about the idea of being able to spoil his son and his wife with whatever he feels like it and not having to worry about the financial consequences. Walter plans to become rich by using his father's life insurance money and investing it into his liquor business with his friends, Lily and Bubba. Walter has big aspirations and drives, but his dream for money almost becomes an obsession and he acts in selfish ways to achieve this dream. After Mama finally agreed to give him a portion of the money for his liquor business, he promises to leave some aside for his sister, Benita, to go to medical school. However, Walter's need to satisfy his dream makes him take all the money for himself, which he ends up losing. He has no regard for his sister's dream or any of the dreams of his other family members, and he does not take them into consideration. He ends up hurting them in the long run for his own selfish desires. Towards the end of the story, Walter almost completely loses himself. He calls Mr. Linder to come over and Mama asks him why. He says, I called him to tell him to come over to the show. Gonna put on a show for the man, just what he wants to see. You see, Mama, the man came here today and he told us that them people out there where you want us to move, well, they're so upset they're willing to pay us not to move out there. Walter is willing to completely throw his pride and self-respect away by agreeing to comply to these completely racist and outrageous requests to stay out of the white neighborhood. And he did this all in exchange for a little bit of money. Luckily, at the end, Walter snaps back into reality when he's talking to Mr. Linder and he rejects the offer. He realizes that integrity and dignity is far more important than status and material wealth. In conclusion, Walter goes through a profound transformation throughout the story. In the beginning, he is so concerned with the money and providing for his family that he forgets what is really important in life. He rejects any connection to his race because he believes that is the root in which all his problems stem from. However, at the end, he is able to accept his current financial state and self-identity and he stops worrying so much about the money and starts to cherish the memories that he will continue to make with his family. Thank you. That's the end of my podcast.