Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun: The Conflict Between Walter and George

The scene from Act 2, Scene 1 of A Raisin in the Sun in which George, Beneatha's uppity, educated boyfriend, is confronted by the perpetually unsatisfied, and partially drunk, Walter, has remained in my mind since first reading this work as a very powerful, and perhaps well-needed, reality check for Walter, ever the idealistic dreamer.

Walter's major fault, or maybe weakness is a better term, is that he is a dreamer, always conspiring with his friends on various schemes to make them rich; his attitude, which is not a negative thing in itself, it is actually a wonderful attitude for one to have, is that other people have done it, so there is not reason why he can't.

Walter's dreams are his world, he believes in himself and his ideas with an almost fanatical zeal, and, though he has not been formally educated, he knows that he could do great things if only given the opportunity; in Walter's case, the "opportunity" means the money to actually pursue his goals, which he lacks. Walter sees himself as a man of action, a man's man, so to speak, a blue-collar, beer drinking man who earns his money through working with his hands; he is not given anything, and is largely responsible for his family's financial stability.

Enter George, who is, at the same time, both the embodiment of everything Walter wants to be, and the personification of everything he resents about the upper class. George's wealthy parents provide him with fine clothes, "them faggotty looking white shoes" (259), cars, theatre tickets, and a first class college education, and George never had to do a thing to earn them. Walter's son sleeps on the living room couch in Walter's mother's aging, run-down house, which his family shares with both his mother and sister, they have no car to speak of between the five of them, and what little money he has left over after paying the bills usually goes to a few nights of drinking with his friends.

Though he works like a dog, he has very little to show for it. Walter sums up his own attitude perfectly, "Bitter? Here I am a giant-surrounded by ants! Ants who can't even understand what it is the giant is talking about." (260). In this scene, Walter appeals to George to provide him with an opportunity to make his ideas heard; he wants to talk with George's wealthy father about all of his big plans, in the hope that maybe he can receive some support from a man with the ability to make his dreams a reality. He has ideas- big ideas.

Far from being welcomed, George, the boy who never had to work for anything in his life, meets his pleas with mocking indifference; this cuts Walter where it hurts the most. George effectively tells Walter that he is not a man, his ideas do not matter, and, worst of all, that he is not going to receive any help from George or his father. Another door has been slammed shut in Walter's face. This incident, and the resulting confrontation, provide Walter with the motivation to risk all of his money on a venture with his friends, Willie and Bobo.

The message Walter takes from his exchange with George is that no one is going to help him, so if he wants to get anywhere it will have to be he that takes charge, which he attempts to do by risking all of his money, money that the entire family is depending upon both for their new house, and for Beneatha's college education. Walter knows with no uncertainty how important this money is to the family, but he sees this as his only chance to make his dreams come true, and so he takes his risk, hoping to one day look down at George from the stuffed leather chair of his office, and remark indifferently, "Yeah- sometimes we'll have to do that, George".

This scene also demonstrates the main issue of the story, that of staying true to one's self, and to one's heritage, or of simply taking the money and assimilating quietly. Walter (as well as Beneatha) sees George as a sell-out, an "oreo cookie", who has sold out his race to fit in with the upper class; George's indifference to Walter cements this impression. Walter expects empathy as a fellow black man trying to make something of himself, but George has none for him.

As Walter is contemplating Mr. Lindner's offer, George no doubt stands out in his mind as the type of man that he does not want to be, and the fact that he takes the opposite path that George did, that of not selling out, shows us the effect that this incident had not only on Walter, but on the entire family.