A Raisin in the Sun

The word "Prometheus" fits Walter's fiery personality. Prometheus, the god who was punished for bringing fire to mortals, was chained to Mt. Caucasus, where every day an eagle tore out his liver, which grew back each night. Prometheus' suffering lasted for thousands of years — until Hercules killed the eagle and freed Prometheus. As a parallel, Walter, too, is chained, and likewise, his obsessive dream restores what his frustrations devour. Sadly, Walter never sees any way out of his economic distress other than the liquor store, which his mother opposes solely on moral grounds. Nowhere in the play does Mama indicate that she would not give Walter the money for some other business idea; it's just that she resists the idea of his selling liquor. Walter's singular obsession causes him to lose sight of his possible alternatives and of a compromise that might have led to his goal of economic independence. Walter's chauvinism is evident immediately when he tells his wife, Ruth, that for a fleeting moment, she "looked young . . . real young . . . but . . . it's gone now." Walter Lee is older than Ruth, but, to him, looking young is important only to a woman. However, it is, perhaps, the disturbing realization of his own aging that prompts his sarcasm, for shortly after these remarks to both, he admits that he has been contemplating his own aging, without having realized any of his dreams, when he says, "This morning, I was lookin' in the mirror and thinking about it. . . . I'm thirty-five years old; I been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in the living room."