A Raisin in the Sun is a play written by Lorraine Hansberry in 1959. It was the first play by a black woman ever to be produced on Broadway (Carter 19). The play won the New York Drama Critics Circle's award for the Best play of the year beating A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O"Neill, Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams, and J.B. by Archibald MacLeish (Carter 19). The play is about a struggling black family living in Southside Chicago between the late 40's and the early 50's. This was a very hard period for black people to be upwardly mobile in society. The play focuses on the families struggles as they try to get out of their small apartment in the ghetto. Walter is one of the main characters in the play. His dreams are to move out of the ghetto and pull in enough income to fully support his family. Walter feels like he is stuck in life and is looking for an opportunity to move up and this opportunity is coming for him in Mama's insurance check Walter wants to use this check to invest in a liquor store. He makes a bad decision and loses most of the money, still feeling stuck in life. Walter cannot make it in life because he is a victim of forces beyond his control and his lack of motivation to go out and try to reach his dreams. The fact that he cannot change his situation in life makes him sympathetic but his lack of motivation makes the reader feel he is just a dreamer. .
Walter's inability to change certain unfavorable aspects of his life make the reader feel sympathetic toward him. One thing that Walter cannot change in his life is the fact he is a black man living before the civil rights movements of the 60's. In this time period it was hard for blacks to go make progress because of white oppression. During this time period it would be nearly impossible for a black man without education to go anywhere up in life. His lack of education is another aspect he cannot change.