Deceased and Significant: How "A Raisin in the Sun" Portrays the Father and His Impact Anonymous 10th Grade

Lorraine Hansberry’s play ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, first debuted in the year 1959 on Broadway, depicts the life of the Youngers, a fictional African-American family, in the 1950’s, who live in Chicago, USA. Hansberry delineates the deceased father - Big Walter, also known as Walter Sr. - as having a significant impact on both the characters and their actions. This was conspicuous on numerous occasions throughout the play. By portraying Big Walter as a stereotypical middle-aged man, a man who loved his children, and who always wanted what is best for his family, Hansberry accentuates the importance of the deceased father of the protagonist as having a significant impact on the characters and their actions. The deceased father symbolizes both the typical, loving father and husband, and concurrently a hard-headed, stereotypical middle-aged man.

Hansberry displays Big Walter as a stereotypical, middle aged man through the depiction of his drudgery and yet, at the same time, adventurous characteristic. She depicts Big Walter as “... [a] hard-headed, mean [man]...”, and makes it seem that, albeit the fact he is generally portrayed as a loving man, Big Walter can be mean and unrelenting at times. Big Walter was also “kind of wild with...