Walter Lee Younger
The field of mythology is a fascinating area of study. Several scholars invested time and resources, exploring the difference in myths from one culture to another. Joseph Campbell too took part in this exploration. However, instead of exploring the several variations between religious stories and cultural tales, he sought for their similarities. His studies led to the creation of the monomyth, that is a universal structure adopted by a story. That is a type of a story that moves a character through several stages throughout the play. The main character in a monomyth is a heroine or a hero. The hero or the heroine is not an individual but rather an archetype. Usually, the producers enact the film’s storyline to portray the archetype’s journey. As a Campbell studied the monomyth, he discovered similar sequences in several religious stories, including the narrative of Buddha and Moses.
In the end, Campbell devised the following twelve steps that characterize a hero’s journey. The first is the ordinary world; this stage is a reference to the hero or heroine’s normal life as the story begins before the unfolding of the adventure. Next is the call to adventure. At this stage, the hero faces a daunting task that is either a challenge or a problem he has to overcome. This challenge kickstarts his adventure. The third step is the refusing to heed to the call. The hero considers turning down the adventure due to his fears. After this stage, the hero encounters a mentor who offers him advice and necessary training to prepare him for the task ahead. Next, the hero crosses the threshold by leaving the ordinary world. The next step involves encountering tests, foes, and allies as the hero comprehends the rules of his new environs. At this level, the hero undergoes severe tests, establishes new friendships, and encounters his enemies.
After knowing his new surroundings, meeting new friends as well as enemies, the hero faces further setbacks that make him try new ideas or approaches. Afterward, the hero encounters a critical obstacle or hurdle, for example, a life or death challenge. However, after overcoming the crisis, the hero accomplishes his mission or receives his reward. Once the task is over, the hero starts his journey back home. The next step is the resurrection hero where he undergoes one final trial where everything is on the line, and he must exercise all the knowledge he acquired on his journey. The last stage is the return with the elixir. The hero brings the elixir or the knowledge gained to the ordinary world and applies it to improve the lives of those he left behind. The literary community praise and consider this idea of a hero’s journey in most artworks. One such example is the story of Walter Lee Younger, the hero in the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry.
According to Hansberry’s play directions, as the play unfolds, the action is set to sometime between post-world war two in the 1950s. The setting is an urban ghetto and addresses the challenges faced by a low-income African American as they cope with the harsh realities of living in South Chicago. The play highlights the devastating impacts of oppression and poverty on the black family. The tone and substance such as the furniture as the play begin, suggest the degree of the catastrophic effects. In essence, the environment the family lives reflect the survival struggles they have to encounter every day.
As the head of the family, Walter Lee Younger fights against evils of poverty and social as well as racial injustice that troubled his father and now appear to have a hold of him. As the play proceeds, it is his dream and ambition that explode out of control and deals a devastating blow to his entire family. In essence, Walter desires to rise above his social status and class to gain pride, respect, and dignity. He envisions setting a liquor store as the way to achieve his dream through joint investment with some of his friends. Presently Walter is a chauffeur to a white man. As a such he believes that working under someone else can never bring any sense of worth to a person and the individual will never receive their due respect. Walter perceives himself as a volcano as conceptualizes his pipe dreams and other regrets.
In the end, Walter becomes frustrated by his day-to-day job as a chauffeur and seeks alternative sources of income. That is because he realizes that his salary is not sufficient to improve his family’s living standards. At the present rate, Walter perceives that all he has to offer his son Travis are narratives of white life and how life is better for other communities. He desires to give his son the best things in the world and all its possibilities. He was glaring at his future full of emptiness and recognized that it did it have to end that way. Unfortunately, pursuing his dreams as well as his material obsession cloud his reasoning and judgment. As he watched it all slipping away, he exclaimed at his mum for snatching the only chance he had for having a future with money and opportunities. His hurtful words tore his mum’s soul.
In response, she gave offered him three thousand dollars from the insurance money to invest in ambition, but unfortunately, his dream was too to postpone. As a result, he gave the cash to a dishonest friend to spend on his behalf. Frustrated by the devastating realization that he had wagered his future on the deal and was burned, he becomes aware that the loss of his dreams also buried his sister’s college dream. His physical response to the news in the film is illustrated by the actor grabbing his stomach and curling into a defensive fetal demonstration in anguish and confusion. In an attempt to correct his illegal use of the insurance money, eh almost explodes the dream of the family owning a house. Instead, he appraises the family’s struggle to obtain a house and declines to sell it. In the consummation of his pride, it is evident in several ways that the wrong concept that materialism is the sole means of achieving his goal defines Walter’s ambition of becoming a man. He is attaining the status of heading the family and showing his worth as man reveals to Walter the several ways that he can improve his son’s future. But for now, he can be contented to serve as a worthy and decisive leader and a role model to Travis and the entire family.
The play depicts Walter as a gentleman but not in all instances. He is the main character in the play, and his decisions affect everyone around him. The play mirrors the struggles of a black family in the 1950s South Chicago. Walter turns out to be an unconventional hero. As the play begins, it is clear that he does not get along with his family members, that is, his mum, his wife, his sister, and his son. His familiar strained relationship arises from his unhappiness and dissatisfaction with his life. As an African American man in his mid-thirties, he sees himself as a failure because of his low-paying job and poverty. He persistently makes several decisions that negatively impact his family, but towards the end of the play, he regains their recognition and respect.