Walter Lee |
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 tragic hero Willy Loman. Both Walter Lee and Willy Loman believe that in order to be truly living you need to make something of yourself. It was this built belief that caused them to be pushed to delusion. This shows that as time goes on the need to be successful and known changes beautiful dreams into delusion. Walter Lee extends Arthur Miller’s idea of the tragic hero because he is not only concerned about making an image for himself for himself and his family, but he also adds the concept of the American dream to the character of a tragic hero. Although Walter Lee may not truly be a tragic hero because as far as the play goes, he did turn out fine in the end and he did not do anything which showed he would die for his personal dignity or self-image, he still possesses some qualities of the American tragic hero. In the play, Walter Lee says “seem like God didn’t see it fit to give the black man nothing but dreams” (Hansberry 45-46). Walter Lee and his family all dream of moving out of their small apartment and into a house somewhere as soon as they receive the insurance check from Big Walter’s death. The dreams of characters in this play have all been deferred and their deferred dreams correspond to an extent with the american dream.
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The extent to which the character's dreams have been deferred align with Langston Hughes' poem “Harlem”: