/Matthew Cason
English 112
Thomas Hyder
11/12/2013

A Compare and Contrast of Characters

In life when comparing things they either have something in common or not. I'm comparing both the similarities and differences between the characters Walter Lee Younger from “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry and Tom Wingfield from “Glass Menagerie” written by Tennessee Williams. Although these characters personalities are different, they do have many things in common such as they both have their own dreams or wants in life. Each character also as well has their own different set of problems or conflicts to deal with going on in their lives. Family plays a key role in both of these plays, by the end of “Glass Menagerie” Tom leaves his family behind to pursue his own life just like his father did. By the end of “A Raisin in the Sun” Walter Lee finally realizes what he must rightfully do for his family which is moving into the white neighborhood despite the communities efforts and Mr. Lindner's offering of money to keep his family out of the area.
Tom Wingfield has dreams of not working in the warehouse anymore and moving on with his life by becoming a poet. His constant hobby of writing poems and reading all the time got him the nickname Shakespeare from one of his fellow co-workers. Tom also wants adventure, excitement, new settings and new experiences. On the other hand, Walter Lee has the aspiring dream of opening up his own liquor store. In doing that, he hopes that it will make him more financially stable in providing better for his family. It seems that both of these characters have the biggest dreams out of all of the characters in the two plays.
Although Walter and Tom both share big dreams, their motivation towards achieving them are for different reasons. Tom wants to get out on his own and quit his job working down at the shoe factory. Walters inner drive comes from within his hopes of owning his own liquor store, in which he feels his life will be perfect then.
Walter wants the best for his family. He thinks the liquor store will provide him the financial security needed to boost them out of their current state of poverty. "I'm thirty five years old; I've been married eleven years and I got a boy who sleeps in living room” best describes the sympathy and compassion Walter feels for his son. Walter displays a selfless characteristic which later becomes overshadowed by unwise decisions in the play. In one particular scene, his son Travis asked both parents for money. Travis's mother Ruth tells him they don't have any extra money. Walter on the other hand acts out of pride by giving Travis his last bit of pocket change. This to me symbolizes Walters willingness to be a moral father. In “Glass Menagerie” Tom lives with both his mother Amanda and sister Laura in an apartment complex in the 1940's. His father happily disappeared on the family years ago when Tom and his sister were little. This basically left Tom to grow up to work and act as the man of the household to support his family. The conflict with Tom is established early on in the play; he is at odds with his mother because he hates his job and wants to leave, but has a the responsibility to support the family. His mother calls him selfish for his constant activities of drinking, reading, and going off to the movies with friends. Although at the end of the play Tom leaves for good, he feels guilty for leaving his sister behind so
During “A Raisin in the Sun” Walter lives in a rather small apartment with his mother Lena, sister Beneatha, wife Ruth and his son Travis. Walter is the man of the household but early on in this play comes off as arrogant and mean. All the hostility towards his family seemed to come from the fact that Walter was totally disgusted with the way his life was going. His job is working as a chauffeur for a rich white man and has him totally dissatisfied. There's no room for advancement, and he hates having to suck up to his boss all the time. Basically, Walter feels like less of a man because he's in his thirties and can still barely provide for his family.
In conclusion, I feel that both of these two characters had more things in common that I first had originally thought. How they went about achieving their dreams and goals were completely different. Tom Wingfield decided to leave his family behind to pursue his dreams, which in my eyes lost respect because he proved that he was just like his father. Walter put his dream of owning a liquor store behind for what really mattered to him in the end, which was his families dignity. Walter made the biggest transformation in my eyes from only being concerned about get rich schemes to a man worthy of complete respect.