A Raisin in the Sun

“Baby, don’t nothing happen in this world ‘less you pay somebody off!”

The importance that Walter places on money as a method of social advancement sets him up for his near downfall. While financial privilege certainly opens doors, he discovers that money can disappear as easily as it arrives. Money can allow a person to rise quickly, but it is also impermanent. He defends to Ruth what he perceives as a bribe necessary to receive a liquor license quickly. At the end of the play, Walter demonstrates that a payoff is for the unscrupulous. When Lindner tries to pay the family off to keep them out of Clybourne Park, Walter is prepared to take it because he believes that money is life. But when Walter locates his inner pride and dignity, he announces that those things cannot be bought. 

“That’s it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say: I got to take hold of this here world, baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I’m choking to death, baby! And his woman say—Your eggs is getting cold!”

Walter takes out his aggression and anxiety about his social stagnancy on his wife. While Walter acts impulsively and is willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of his dreams, Ruth must hold the family together. He criticizes her for responding to his frustration with the directive to eat and go to work, but in order to survive, Walter must eat and go to work. Both life and Walter’s restlessness have beaten Ruth down.