Lorraine Hansberry”s play “A Raisin in the Sun” focuses on a poor black family living in Chicago during a time when racism was strongly present. Walter Lee, the man of the family, resembles qualities seen in the American rebel Randall Patrick McMurphy. In the novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, McMurphy gave the men on the ward the confidence to stand up for their rights. Just as McMurphy did, Walter Lee showed his son how to do what is right for him and his family by buying a house in an all-white community and showing him race is not important. McMurphy was a leader to the men and an example of what to be, of which the men followed just as Walter Lee’s family followed him. Walter Lee said “what I mean is that we come from people who had a lot of pride. I mean - we are very proud people . . . And we have decided to move into our house because my father . . . he earned it for us brick by brick” (Hansberry 148). Just as McMurphy passed the fight down to his men, Walter Lee’s father passed the fight down to him and Walter Lee continued to show his family how to stick up for their rights. Walter Lee possesses qualities of the American Rebel by going against the standards society sets.
Another character who goes against racial standards in society is Huckleberry Finn: