One of the most defining features of a man is his sense of pride. Pride is a person's self respect, and how much you have and how important it is to you can change your whole life. One must have pride and confidence in order to succeed, but false pride can be worse than no pride at all. In Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, the Younger family is struggling due to their overwhelming self pride. The main character of the play is proud of being a provider to the family and ends up making irresponsible decisions because of this. His poor decisions lead the family down a slippery path of blame and anger. Not until the end of the play does he realize that before he can be proud of himself, he must learn to be proud of his family. Thus, A Raisin in the Sun shows us that having pride in others allows us to have pride in ourselves so we can achieve our dreams.
Walter is also too proud to take responsibility for his problems, so he pushes them off on other people. From the beginning of the play, we see that from the moment Walter wakes up, he is arguing with Ruth. When Walter decides to go to the bathroom, Ruth tells him that Travis is in there. Frustrated, Walter says "He just going to have to start getting up earlier. I can't be being late to work on account of him fooling around in there." (p. 26) This situation clearly illustrates that Walter blames others for his problems. When he is late for work, he blames his son for using the bathroom when he should be blaming himself for keeping his son up late with his friends and then not getting up early enough. Walter must learn to take responsibility for his faults in order to help his family.
Early in the play, Walter's struggle to find pride in himself leads him to develop a false sense of pride. One morning before school, Travis is asking Ruth for some money which he was told to bring to school. Ruth denies him the money, stating that the family can not afford it. Walter walks in on this conversation and wants to make sure that Travis sees him as a provider. He responds to Ruth "What you tell the boy things like that for?" (p.31) and proceeds to give Travis twice as much as he had asked for. Walter needs to appear as the strong provider in the family. By doing things like giving Travis money that he doesn't have, he convinces himself that he is providing for his family. A short time later in the story, Walter reenters the room after storming out. "I need some money for carfare," (p.39) he says, clearly embarrassed and with hurt pride. Walter did not have the money to pay Travis, but it was more important to him to proudly give his son money. These events show that Walter's pride revolves around his image that a strong man should be able to provide for his family. Walter is constantly searching for ways that he can earn enough money to help his family, such as acquiring the liquor store, but until then he deceives himself to help boost his pride.
As the man of the house, Walter feels that he should he should be able to achieve his dreams without he help of others. After Walter's father died, the family was told that they would be receiving an insurance check. Although the money is Mama's, Walter wants the money for himself. He would use the money to start a liquor store with his two buddies, Willie and Bobo. We see how self centered he is when he complains to Mama, telling her "Mama- I want so many things..."(p.73) This shows that Walter is focused on achieving his own dreams, when he should be caring for his family and trying to help them achieve their dreams.
Later in the play, we see how important pride is to Walter. After Mama spends the insurance money from her husband on a new house, Walter is crushed, as his dreams of spending the money on a liquor store are now gone. Mama knows this, and to help her son, she gives him what is left of the insurance money, telling him to put half of it in the bank for Benetha and to keep the other half. "You trust me like that, Mama?" (p.107) Walter asks after he is told about the gift. Not only is Walter excited to have the money, but his pride is boosted by the fact that Mama would trust him with so much money, including money for his sister's schooling. Out of this excitement, Walter dreams up a scenario in which he becomes rich using the money and is a successful provider to the family. "I'll hand you the world!" (p.109) he states when talking to Travis. Walter's pride is so important that a simple gesture sets off visions of him becoming rich.
We first see Walter beginning to develop pride in others towards the end of Act II. The family has a visitor while Mama is out, a Mr. Lindner. He is a white man from the neighborhood where Mama has purchased her house. Mr. Lindner greets the family respectfully but nervously, and the family treats him well at first, but his true intentions soon become clear. Mr. Lindner has been sent to try to purchase the house back from the Youngers because they are black. "We don't want to hear no exact terms of no arrangements," (p.118) yells Walter in the middle of their conversation. This racism appears to have brought out pride in Walter's family. It seems that Walter is trying to protect his mother's dream, but we soon see that it is more personal than that. "Get out of my house, man," (p.119) he states to Mr. Lindner. Although the apartment actually belongs to Mama, Walter feels that he can be the man of the house by being strong and addressing this problem. Walter is gaining more pride in others, but still has strong pride in himself.
Walter wants to help his family, but with only self pride, his attempts to help the family end up hurting it more than it helps. Walter's self pride drives him to make extreme decisions with his life, rather that take pride in his mother fulfilling her dream. Mama had given Walter some of what was left of the insurance money after buying the house, and she told Walter to put the rest of the money in the bank for Benetha's college. We assume he did, until Bobo comes over and tells Walter that Willy has taken all the money after Walter gave it to him for their liquor store. Even in this situation, Walter still blames Willy rather than himself, shouting "NO WILLY!... WILLY DON'T DO IT!... PLEASE DON'T DO IT." (p. 128) When Walter gave away the money, he was focused on reaching his dreams when he should have been appreciating the fact that Mama's dream of owning a home was about to come true. Walter has still not fully changed and only thinks about his wrongdoing when questioned by Mama. "Mama- I never- went to the bank at all," (p. 129) he says when she asks him. Walter still blames others, but he is starting to see the faults in himself, thanks to Mama. Unfortunately, he did not see this when he gave the money to Willy.
By the end of the story, Walter has changed from a self absorbed man to a true, caring father and son. This change is clear when Walter talks to Mr. Linder. Walter had originally called Mr. Linder over in a moment of weakness to make a deal to sell their house. As Mr. Linder attempts to start the paperwork for selling the new house, Walter interrupts him. "That's my sister over there and she's going to be a doctor-and we are very proud-." (p.148) Walter is finally able to respect his sister and her difficult struggle to be a doctor. This is an enormous change from earlier in the play when Walter blamed Benetha for the family's financial problems. As Mr. Lindner tries to continue, Walter interrupts him again. "This is my son, and he makes the sixth generation of our family in this country," (p.148) Walter proudly announces to him. Walter no longer blames others for problems that are his fault, and he now takes pride in those around him, in this case, Travis. This sense of shared pride makes him even more proud than he used to be. Walter proudly turns down Mr. Lindner's offer to not move into the house, and by this act, Walter has given the family their dream. It is clear that he has won the respect of the family when Benetha responds to one of Mr. Lindner's questions "That's what the man said." (p.148) By showing pride in his family, Walter was able to have pride in himself as the provider of the family.
Throughout A Raisin in the Sun, we see the gradual yet complete transformation of Walter's perspective from a self absorbed man to a supportive father and husband. His dream had been to own a liquor store, boosting his pride and making himself the provider for the family. Walter gave up that dream for the dream of his mother: to own her own house. By having pride in his family rather than himself, Walter became a true provider by giving his family the house of their dreams.
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