Intro to Multicultural Literature

Throughout The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston highlights the influence of Chinese culture on the lives of Chinese-American women growing up in the United States. The title, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, is representative of the overall themes presented within the work. Stories from the past, treatment of women, and ghosts all play a large role in describing the struggles of Chinese girls growing up in American society.

In the chapter titled Shaman, Kingston introduces several stories told by the narrator’s mother. These stories serve as a glimpse into the mother’s life in China, which allows the reader to compare and contrast the narrator’s childhood with her mother’s. In one of her stories, she recalls an encounter with a ghost while she is on her way back from doctoring. This battle with a ghost, and the others revealed afterwards, imply the negative connotations that the Chinese associate with the term ghost. It shows that those immersed in Chinese culture believe that ghosts are haunted creatures that need to be defeated. The narrator goes on to explain that she knows her mother was victorious in her encounter with the ghost, because she can eat anything. She states, “Big eaters win” (90). This reflects the value placed on eating in Chinese society: those who can eat an obscure variety of foods are seen as strong and admirable, capable of overcoming the evil spirits known as ghosts. These stories give the readers insight into Chinese culture by painting an image of the life of narrator’s mother and therefore making it easier to envision Chinese practices and ideals.

Not only are ghosts presented in the story of the past, but they also play a role in the narrator’s modern life. The narrator recalls, “Once upon a time the world was so thick with ghosts, I could hardly breathe; I could hardly walk, limping my way around the white ghosts and their cars” (97). In this statement, the narrator is referring to White Americans as ghosts. She is characterizing them in this negative light because they are foreigners who discriminate against Chinese immigrants. She is implying that these ghosts were everywhere during her childhood; they were unavoidable. Her diction makes the reader feel as if the ghosts are restricting her from reaching her full potential. The use of the word “limping” suggests that the narrator was forced to live her childhood in the shadows of these white ghosts. While growing up, she continued to try her best to please her parents, but had to do so with discrimination from Americans. This idea is backed up by historical context, for example, the Chinese Exclusion Act prohibited Chinese from immigrating to America.

While the narrator struggles with injustice from Americans, she also has to deal with the burden of rigid Chinese ideals. She describes the situation of her childhood household, “I could feel that clamping down and see how my mother had pulled the blinds down so low that the bare rollers were showing. No passer-by would detect a daughter in this house” (101). This statement reflects the concept that most Chinese felt ashamed to have daughters. The narrator uses descriptive language to show the intensity of her mother’s shame. She pulls the blinds as far down as possible to hide the fact that she has a daughter. Although girls were often looked down upon in Chinese society, women were responsible for many important roles. The narrator’s mother explains, “I shouldn’t have left, but your father couldn’t have supported you without me. I’m the one with the big muscles” (104). This quote is representative of similar ideas presented in A Raisin in the Sun, ideas that women are inferior to men even though they are just as hard working. This unjust viewpoint is present across cultures: it is held in both Chinese and American cultures. However, at the time the narrator is speaking, women’s’ rights were more widely accepted in America. This allows for another conflicting value between Chinese and American cultures for the narrator. The two cultures contrast and make it difficult for the narrator to establish her own identity.

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you feel that there are any specific stories shared that have a significant impact on the narrator’s life? If so, which one(s) and why/how?
2. What literary elements does the narrator use in describing the “ghosts” and how does this use reflect her viewpoint of Americans?
3. How do some of the values introduced in The Woman Warrior relate to values presented in A Raisin in the Sun? (For example: treatment of girls/women). In both works, how do these values shape or inhibit the identities of the main characters?

In The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, and the memoir “No Name Woman,” the theme of ghosts in Chinese culture portray a complicated history of the narrator’s family. Shaman includes the story of her Mother experiencing smoke spindles appear, acting as the ghosts her Mother talks about. She goes on to assign the word “Ghost” as a title to describe people. For example, Kingston writes, “America has been full of machines and ghosts- Taxi Ghosts, Bus Ghosts, Police Ghosts… There were Black Ghosts too, but they were open eyed and full of laughter, more distinct than White Ghosts” (97). This shows how the narrator’s perception of people in America are inherently negative as she compares them to ghosts. She has been told so many stories about ghosts from her ancestors that she does not know what is real or not anymore.

Kingston is shows how difficult it can be for the children of immigrants to balance the lifestyle of America with her Mother’s stricter Chinese traditions. The narrator wants to please her Mother, but struggles to make her happy while falling short of actually feeling like a part of her families’ culture. Tying into the theme of food, Kingston writes, “Oh, the shame of it- a whole family of skinny children” (102). Her Mother uses this as a reason to not leave leftovers on the plate, as a way of bringing her Chinese heritage into light. These traditions are fundamental in Chinese culture. The Chinese believe in pride of providing for the family, as in the necessity to put food on the table. This also contributes to China’s values of harmony and keeping the traditional family mindset.

What was alarming about this passage was not the startling of her Mother with the smoke spindles, but the connection Kingston makes between ghosts and food. Kingston states, “now I see that my Mother won in ghost battle because she can eat anything” (88). It was interesting to me how the narrator believes hunting for food and battling ghosts go hand in hand. She follows this up with stories from the Chinese Academy of Science of old servants and hunters that are heroes because they are eaters. Kingston writes, “All heroes are bold toward food… The most fantastic eater of them all was Wei Pang, a scholar-hunter of the Ta Li era of the T’ang dynasty” (88-89).  I thought of this as another meaning to the word “warrior” which is also a reoccurring theme in the text because the narrator is exposed to the importance of pride, hunting, providing, and tradition.

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think the title “Ghost” means in the context of society? Is this label about occupation, race, or specifically Americans? What was strange about this section?
2. The phrase, “All heroes are bold toward food” (88), stuck out to me because of the power behind the word “heroes.” This section caught my attention because it allowed me to think deeper about the seriousness of Chinese perception. What phrase or section stood out to you and why?

While I rudely walked into the conversation about fifteen minutes late, due to having to move my car to try to save some money, I am glad I decided ‘better late than never.’ The discussion panel event in the fireplace lounge, “Teacher-Scholar: A Conversation with New Faculty in the English Department” was as entertaining as it was informative.  The professors on the discussion panel were Jeff Jackson, Katie Ahern, Laura Dunbar and our professor, Danica Savonick. I wish I could have been there in time for the introductions, especially if they mentioned which classes each of them taught. When I walked in Professor Savonick was talking about how “the classroom can be this transformative space where we can leave the room thinking something differently than when we walked in,” and that was something that really resonated with me as a non-traditional student; a twenty seven year old who hated reading and writing in high school, now loves to read and wants to be a writer. I am now trying to get my third college degree, and when I was in high school I had no desire to go to college whatsoever. There are certain professors that have an ability to really have an impact on their students, and without either of them really knowing it, one semester could change a student’s life. Being passionate about what you are studying is am extremely important part of the college experience, I believe. The professors on the panel today were certainly passionate about their careers. Prof. Savonick briefly discussed her research and the book she is working on about education and methods and ideas on how to improve teaching. Professor Savonick also talked about how she relates poetry to teaching, in that moments of silence are important in poetry, as they are in the classroom to let students process and take their time to speak. Professor Ahern talked about how her background was classically trained in music and music theory and then she switched gears to creative writing and applied her prior knowledge to the classroom in creative ways. She was able to pick up on if the acoustics in a room were too dry or too wet, (referring to certain factors in the room absorbing sound to a certain degree) then it affected student’s ability to use their voice in a certain way, and she was able to take sound into consideration and how it plays a role in the classroom, which I found fascinating. Laura Dunbar gave some insight on the cultural differences and expectations she had coming here to SUNY Cortland from Canada. She talked about how she encourages students to “relax into incoherence, incoherence is disorderly and disorienting,” I think what she meant by that was that you need to really relax and focus on what the point is you are trying to get across and let the words come to you, (but I am not really sure.) Professor Jackson talked about how for him, learning and teaching was like a video game, when you learn something new you get experience points and you level up. As someone who has played a lot of video games and Dungeons and Dragons for twelve years, his idea connected with me a lot as I have always used a similar mind set as motivation to exercise. It was great to know that there are so many different approaches to writing and that there is no right or wrong way to be a writer, you just need to find what works for you.

I had a question that I posed to the panel which was: “What books have had an impact on you as a writer that you would recommend to young writers to improve their skills or draw inspiration from?”  Danica expressed that a book that really helped her as a writer in editing her own work is called “The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing Yourself,” written by Susan Bell. She said that this book has helped her in the editing process in creating distance between yourself and your writing, but she is a firm believer that you should read what you like and write about what you like to read. That really connected with me because I want to be a fiction writer, and when I like a story that I just wrote it can be hard for me to proof read it because sometimes I get too excited that it is finally on paper and out of my head. Jeff Jackson said that comic books inspired to write stories about heroes as a kid, but as an adult a book that really stuck with him was “Writing Analytically” by David Rosenwasser. Katie Ahern said she was always drawn to the horror genre so the book “Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film” by Carol J. Clover was a book of note for her, as well as the work of Stephen King. Laura Dunbar offered some interesting insight that you go through a whole PhD program, just to read one book; for her that book was an essay about organizational learning, distributive cognition and universities, unfortunately I couldn’t quite make out for certain the author of the essay (something like Angstrom.) There were so many great questions in the audience and all of the speakers had wonderful responses and very intelligent things to say. Overall, the discussion was fascinating and went beyond my expectations. I am quite grateful to know we have such passionate professors at SUNY Cortland.

On September 27th I attended an event called Teacher-Scholar: a Conversation with New Faculty in the English Department.” This event took place in Corey Union’s Fireplace Longue and allowed me to talk and connect in an informal manner with members of SUNY Cortland’s english department. The panel consisted of four members of the school’s faculty that are new to campus this year. Laura D, Danica Savonick, Jeffrey Jackson, and Katie Ahern provided me, as well as the rest of the group, with extensive information on what it means to truly be a teacher let alone a professor. Each spoke of how they incorporate their own interests into the classroom and implement them into certain aspects of their class. For example, Jeffrey Jackson talked of his passion for technology and how some semesters he aims to be paperless. Specifically he used technology in an experiment in the posting of his assignments on blackboard. Jeffrey made it so that in order to do one assignment, you must do all because the next assignment would only appear and unlock after the previous one was completed. This showed his implication of his interests into how he runs his classroom. This aso represented building towards a goal. By locking the assignments Jeffrey said it was “as if one must get over one hurdle before they take on the next one.” I thought this was a brilliant idea in that it allowed him to incorporate his own personal interests into the classroom in a way that teaches students a bigger life lesson.

 

Jeffrey Jackson specifically stuck me as extremely interesting in providing his insight about teaching as a whole. He stressed two particular ideas that I believe are extremely essential in being an educator. The first was the idea of failure. Jeffrey stated that failure is a learning experience and teachers “must recognize failure and provide students with room to fail, learn, and come back stronger on the other side of it.” Although failure is  an extremely frightening idea in a public classroom setting, without it students would not personally experience the idea of continuing on in hopes of preserving next time. In addition to failure Jeffrey also stressed the importance of an instructor multitasking. He said that “teachers are seen as just providing information to students, but it is so much more that that. One must gather information about their students and their trend/vibe as their teaching in order to find methods that work best for these individuals. This leads to experiments in lesson plans with the notion that this technique may very well fail completely.

 

I thought that all these speakers gave us as students amazing insight as to how much work they do behind the scenes of the classroom. I also was fascinated in how they discussed confidence in the sense that they know that there is realistically a possible chance that their lesson plans could fail completely, or their interactive activities may fall apart. The message that I truly got from this seminar was that educating others is all about trial and error, and working with students in ways that is best for their learning. All in all I thought the discussion was extremely enlightening and I am grateful that these are the types of people SUNY Cortland is bringing into their faculty year after year.

The Woman Warrior, by Maxine Hong Kingston, starts with the first chapter, “No Name Woman”, with Kingston’s Mother telling her about the Aunt that was never spoken of.  Her aunt brought shame to the family because of adultery and was pregnant with a child that did not belong to her husband. Her mother proceeds to emphasize on the consequences of violence the village had brought to their family on the night the baby was due to be born.  The villagers raided their house, destroying absolutely everything valuable to them while the family stood their helplessly watching. The aftermath left her shunned by the family, as they said, “Aiaa, we’re going to die. Death is coming. Look what you’ve done. You’ve killed us. Ghost! Dead ghost! Ghost! You’ve never been born” (14).  Her aunt ran off that night, and was left alone to give birth in a pigsty because “old fashioned women gave birth in their pigsties to fool the jealous, pain-dealing gods, who do not snatch piglets.”(14). The morning after, Kingston’s mother went for water and found her sister in-law and the newborn child plugging up the family well.

While Kingston questions her aunt’s actions, it seems like she is trying to uncover valid excuses as to why she did what she did.  An example of this would be on page 6, where Kingston says “Some man had commanded her to lie with him and be his secret evil. I wonder whether he masked himself when he joined the raid on her family”.  Kingston is looking at her aunt’s actions in very different ways from the family and is thinking deeply into how her aunt could have met this man, or if she was in need of something in return. The thought of her aunt drowning herself and her newborn child in the family well seems selfish, or out of spite but Kingston then says, “Carrying the baby to the well shows loving. Otherwise abandon it.  Turn its face in the mud. Mothers who love their children take them along. It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys.” (15).

The reason Kingston’s Mother is telling her this story is to warn her and says, “Now that you are starting to menstruate, what happened to her could happen to you. Don’t humiliate us.”(5) This is seen as what she calls, “…a story to grow up on” (5).  The story leaves Kingston with curiosity and fixation about her aunt who was never spoken of; what really happened to her, and why she is never allowed to ask. Kingston recreates this story of her aunt deciding if it will bring her mind at peace or if it will haunt her.  She ends by writing “The Chinese are always very frightened of the drowned one, whose weeping ghost, wet hair hanging and skin bloated, waits silently by the water to pull down a substitute.” (16) This gives us the idea that her aunt is in fact haunting her and influences her way of thinking.

 

Questions to think about:

1. Towards the end of the chapter, Kingston writes: “My aunt haunts me-her ghost drawn to me because now, after fifty years of neglect, I alone devote pages of paper to her, though not origamied into houses and clothes.” (16). Do you think Kingston’s curiosity of the disgrace her Aunt brought upon her family is a good thing? Why or why not?
2. Do you think the Chinese cultural beliefs had an impact on the families’ perception of her Aunt’s actions? Why or why not?

 

In the book The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, the theme in the story of the “No Name Woman” is shame. The opening statement from the author’s mother is, “You must not tell anyone… She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born” (Kingston 8). This theme of shame/humiliation on a family is seen multiple times throughout the chapter. “Don’t humiliate us. You wouldn’t like to be forgotten as if you had never been born” (Kingston 10). In the Chinese culture, the worst thing a child can do is do something foolish that would reflect badly on their family. This can be anything from not getting good grades, affairs, and a pregnancy prior to marriage.

As an Asian-American myself, I can relate to Kingston’s story about how much your actions can reflect on your family. A female family member on my mother’s side had a child out of wedlock, she was disowned by her parents and the rest of my family pretends like she never existed. This is very similar to Kingston’s story of her aunt, they both became outcasts in their families. I was a child when my mom told me that story and I thought nothing about it. “But there is more to this silence: they want me to participate in her punishment. And I have” (Kingston 20). Kingston’s aunt was deliberately forgotten by her own family.

There is a Chinese tradition that usually takes place on Chinese New Year where fake paper money, clothes, and other material items are burned for the ancestors to spend and use in the afterlife. Food is placed out for these ancestors so they can feast with the living. “Her betrayal so maddened them, they saw to it that she would suffer forever, even after death. Always hungry, always needing, she would have to beg food from other ghosts, snatch and steal it from those whose living descendants give them gifts,” (Kingston 20). They are so ashamed, so humiliated by her having another man’s child and for committing suicide that it is easier to forget her existence.

In the United States, we still face judgments of our actions but not as drastic as Kingston’s family. People outside of the Chinese culture will think that is cruel and unusual punishment, but this is completely normal to me. But as I grew older, I’ve realized that it isn’t normal at all, that practices my family have aren’t normal. “Chinese-Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what is the movies?” (Kingston 10). This is a struggle a lot of Asian-Americans face, an identity crisis of not feeling completely Asian because of growing up in the U.S. and assimilating to a “white culture”.

Questions:

Is there anything in your culture or lifestyle that can be seen as “not normal” in today’s society?

In what ways have some cultures assimilated to what can be expressed as “white culture”?

One of my favorite things about this story is how everything comes back around in the end. The play starts out with Walter and Ruth arguing. At one point Ruth calls Willy Harris a “good-for-nothing loudmouth” (32) and then as you all know, Willy Harris ran off with the Youngers money. Early on in the story Walter is harassing Beneatha about wanting to be a doctor and then the play ends with Walter poking fun at Beneatha telling her to marry George Murchison. In the second scene Beneatha says “I’m not worried about who I’m going to marry yet – if I ever get married” (50) and then in the third scene Asagai asks her to marry him and move to Nigeria, where she wouldn’t need the money that Walter gave away.

Like Meagan mentioned, another good example of this is Mama and her plant. One of the first things Mama said was “Lord, if this little old plant don’t get more sun than its been getting it ain’t never going to see spring again” (40). The play then ends with the plant in Mama’s hands, on its way to the new home where it’s going to get planted in a garden and live a good life, just like Mama.

In the beginning of this, the entire family is desperate for money. Ruth tells Travis that she can’t give him 50 cents, although the value of money has inflated over the years that’s still wasn’t a lot of money. In the end, the family turns down Mr. Lindner’s offer for the second time, although they still don’t have a lot of money, they still have each other and a fresh start ahead of them; which is more important than material things like money, and a nice Chrysler with black wheels or a new Cadillac. I feel like these are the values mama wants her children to be instilled with. Throughout the book she’s constantly bringing up how her children are always talking and thinking about money and how much she doesn’t like it.

 

Questions:

What are some other examples of things coming around full circle that you noticed when reading or watching the movie?

One thing I noticed that was different about the movie was that the scene with Mrs. Johnson was left out. What are some differences between the book and the movie that you noticed?

 

Symbolism, the use of symbols to represent ideas, has been a common use of figurative language in writing for many years. Lorraine Hansberry uses this type of visual description throughout the play. The main example of this is the way the author uses the image of MAMA’s deprived and “feeble” plant to illustrate a deeper connection to MAMA’s dreams.

When MAMA first enters the play, the first thing she immediately does is tend to her plant in the window. The author wants the reader to understand that although the small plant is considered almost dead it is persistently attempting to grow with the little amount of sunlight that it receives (39, 52). The dream that reoccurs in the play is MAMA’s hope of moving out of the apartment, that she and Big Walter bought right after they got married, and move into a two-story house with a garden (45). Hansberry’s use of symbolism is interesting here. The lifeless plant, that is barely surviving from lack of nourishment, represents MAMA’s dream garden. MAMA didn’t have the opportunity to fulfill her dreams due to putting the needs of the family first but, she still cares for the plant every day. The plants’ purpose of representing the dream of a garden/new home is illustrated in Act 1 Scene 1. The author writes “Well I always wanted me a garden like used to see sometimes at the back of the houses down home. This plant is close as I ever got to having one … Lord, ain’t nothing as dreary as the view from this window on a dreary day is there? (53)” The last sentence in this quote has many possible meanings, but the view that strikes me is that MAMA is describing the “view” from the perspective of looking at the window not out of it. The barely living plant sitting on a windowsill, getting little to no light, and fighting to survive is a depressing sight for MAMA. The lifeless presence of the plant reminds her of the dream “deferred” or, in other words, a dream put on the shelf untouched.

When Big Walter passed MAMA made the decision to use a big portion of the insurance check for a down payment on a house, she was one step closer to achieving her and Big Walter’s dream until the rest of the money was stolen from them. The loss of the money deterred MAMA and the Younger family from moving into the new house. Hansberry describes this scene, “MAMA enters from her bedroom. She is lost, vague, trying to catch hold, to make some sense of her former command of the world, but it still eludes her… She goes to her plant, which has remained on the table, looks at it, picks it up and takes it to the windowsill and sits it outside, and she stands and looks at it a long moment. (139)” Distraught and emotionally drained from the emotional rollercoaster that is her life, MAMA puts the plant back into its usual spot. It is portrayed that by putting back the pot, MAMA is giving up on the dream once again, confident that it will likely not happen and that her life will remain the same. In the last stage direction of the play, Hansberry closes with MAMA packing up the last of the house, “MAMA stands, at last alone in the living room, her plant on the table before her as the lights start to come down … The lights dim down. The door opens and she comes back in, grabs her plant, and goes out for the last time. (151)”  MAMA grabbing the plant at the end is so important to this figurative theory behind the symbolic purpose of the plant. MAMA going back in the house to grab it and take it with her to the new Younger residence represents the conclusion of their life in the apartment and symbolizes the fulfillment of her and Big Walter’s dream.

QUESTIONS TO PONDER:

Having read and watched A Raisin In The Sun, what purpose do you think Lorraine Hansberry had when she decided on the title of this play? What message was she trying to portray?

How can we compare the imagery of Langston Hughes’ a raisin in the sun to Hansberry’s symbol of MAMA’s beloved plant?

There has been many themes that I have noticed not only in Act II of A Raisin in the Sun, but throughout the whole text. One theme that has really stuck out to me though, is that many people in the text live off of each others approval in the Younger family.

Beneatha is an extremely strong and powerful woman. Although she has no problem making decisions on her own, getting the approval from her mama means absolutely everything to her. In the text during Act II, Beneatha is trying to enjoy her time with George. As George wants to do more than just talk, we see that Beneatha wants to only communicate in interesting conversations with him. Not anything more than that. Later on as George storms off, Beneatha takes a moment to explain to her mom that George is a “fool”. Mama then says “Well- I guess you better not waste your time with no fools” (98). Beneatha continues on with showing she is thankful and grateful but Mama is then confused why. Beneatha then states “For understanding me this time” (98). Just with something that small, Beneatha expresses with a very limited amount of words, how thankful she is for how her mom reacted. That for once her mom agreed with her and believed that she was making the right choice and assumption about her relationship with George.

Walter seems to struggle with how to love his life and how to have self confidence. How the cards have been dealt to him, do you blame him? Not only does he want to own a liquor store and make money, but he truly wants (and NEEDS) someone to believe in him and what he can do to make the life for his family members a more enjoyable life to live. Think about the way he reacted when George was at the house while he was drunk. Walter had some ideas to share with George and George’s dad (and seemed to be very excited about it), but George answered sarcastically like it didn’t matter. He at that point wanted someone to believe in him. Later on in Act II, (as read by everyone) we now know that Mama is going to give some of the money she has to Walter for him to do what he wants with it and what he thinks is best for the family. What was his reaction to this? “(stares at the money) You trust me like that, Mama?” (107). Just in that sentence it was clear that it was not the money he was concerned about (at that point), but it’s him knowing that his mom believes in him. Her approval for him to do something and make changes for his family was now showing the faith she had in him.

There has been so many themes that have caught my attention throughout A Raisin in the Sun. As shown, one that has really stood out to me is that the people who are apart of the Younger family really like the approval and support from other people. Not just that, but for their family members to believe and have faith in them.

Some questions to think about:

What is another time in the story where someone believed in another and it meant the world to them?

If Walter makes something good come out of the money for his family, is his mom believing him in a big part of why it happened? Why or why not?

 

 

 

 

In Act II of A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, there are so many important things happening in the plot line.  We are fully now in understanding what the family dynamics are and what kinds of things all of the characters are struggling with.

We now know that Mama has decided what to do with the insurance money that she received. There is one theme that I keep seeing in this text and it is becoming more and more apparent as I read on. That theme relates to gender roles and the function they play in the family dynamics and even in society as a whole.

Walter is the prime example of an African American male that is struggling with his identity as a man, as a husband, and as a son. Walter talks about how much he hates his job and how frustrating it is for him not to be able to fully support his family and how unfulfilling his job actually is to him. It really highlights the internal struggle that must be going on inside of him every day.

I want to draw attention to a specific part of the Hansberry text where she writes “(He makes his weaving way to his wife’s face and leans in close to her) In my heart of hearts (He thumps his chest) I am much warrior!”(78) . This is a scene where Walter is taking on the persona of a an African warrior man who is prideful, fierce, and protecting of his family and his life. I don’t think Walter feels that kind of passion at all in his real life as it is, and that is HIS dream. Everyone has their dream in this play, and dreams are very important to understanding the text.

Perhaps Walter’s struggle is the reason that he has become an alcoholic and is so down on his life. He feels his dreams are slipping away day by day and he can’t do anything to control or stop it. That feeling of helplessness leads to shame for the fact that he can’t even take care of his growing family and support his wife the way he thinks a man should, which in turn may make him resent his wife and the other women in his family in one way or another.

 

I will leave you all with some questions to think about in relation to this topic:

What could happen if Walter continues on the bad path that he is on? Consider the example he is setting for his son and the cycle perhaps continuing with Travis.

Can you think of present day issues or examples that are similar to what Walter is going through?