Mama vs. Walter

At one point in Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, Walter is clearly a foil character to Mama, and vise versa. Hansberry directly juxtaposes their ideas and beliefs. Mama even explicitly states that she doesn't recognize the person Walter has become. "No...something has changed. You something new, boy. In my time we was worried about not being lynched and getting to the North if we could and how to stay alive and still have a pinch of dignity too...Now here come you and Beneatha-talking 'bout things we ain't never even thought about hardly, me and your daddy....You my children-but how different we done become" (74). This difference is partly caused by the generation gap between Walter and Mama; the two hold different values. Mama's satisfaction with freedom in the north is equal to Walter's would-be satisfaction with becoming a wealthy business man. However, Mama sees this mindset of Walter's as ungrateful and uncharacteristic of how she and Mr. Younger raise their children. Thus, two have conflicting views. Hansberry reveals this to the reader through the above excerpt where Mama clearly juxtaposes the two viewpoints. This part of the story sets up for Walter's transformation later on in the story, which proves to bring he and Mama back together.