After Mrs. Johnson leaves and Mama learns that Walter has not been to work in three days, she feels responsible for his despair ("I been doing to you what the rest of the world been doing to you"), so responsible, in fact, that she gives him $6500, all that's left of the insurance check after her downpayment of $3500 on the Clybourne Park house, so that he can feel that he is the "man of the house." She stipulates that $3000 is to go in a savings account for Beneatha's medical schooling, but it is not clear that he even hears Mama. He is overwhelmed and his sudden exuberance over this financial windfall leads him to share some of his many fantasies with Travis.
Walter's already exaggerated dreams, however, suddenly turn into an avalanche of pitiful prattle. He says, for example, that one day he will come in from work, "home from my office downtown," and even Travis is incredulous as he reminds his father, "You don't work in no office, Daddy." Walter cannot seem to stop, though, and the more he talks to Travis about his dream, the bigger the dream gets. The bigger the dream gets, the more preposterous it sounds because Walter soon begins to talk about his future gardener, to whom he has given the first name of "Jefferson." It is then that we realize that Walter has reached a "point of no return." He must either take action now to make his dream a reality or just give up on his dream altogether.
