Prosperity The Ideas of American Dream as the Main Characters’ Motive of Life
Walter : Yeah. You see, this little liquor store we got in mind cost
seventy-five thousand and we figured the initial investment on the place be ‘bout thirty thousand, see. That be ten thousand
each… Hansberry, 1994: 33.
Walter knows that he has to do something to achieve his goal. He needs a lot of money for his business. He sees that the insurance money is the key to achieve his
goal of opening his own business, a liquor store. From this point, Walter becomes an ambitious man Hansberry, 1994: 73. Walter always influences the members of the
family in order to make them agree to invest the insurance money in the liquor store. He influences his wife, Ruth, to help him to influence Mama so that Mama will give
the money for the business. It can be seen in the part when Walter has conversation with Ruth during breakfast time. As the line states “Mama would listen to you. You
know she listen to you more than she do to me and Bennie. She thinks more of you. All you have to do is just sit down with her when you drinking your coffee one
morning and talking ‘bout things like you do and … you just sip your coffee, see, and say easy things like that you been thinking ‘bout that deal Walter Lee is so interested
in, ‘bout the store and all, and sip some more coffee…” Hansberry, 1994: 32-33. Walter also describes his ambition in a descriptive way to his son. Walter describes to
his son how Walter is going to be in the future after he starts his own business. As stated in the following statement,
Walter : No – but after tonight. After what your daddy gonna do tonight,
there’s going to be offices – a whole lot of offices. Travis
: What you gonna do tonight, Daddy? Walter
: You wouldn’t understand yet, son, nut your daddy’s gonna make a transaction… a businesstransaction that’s going to
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change our lives… That’s how come one day when you ‘bout seventeen years old I’ll come home and I’ll be pretty tired, you
know what I mean, after a day of conferences and secretaries getting things wrong the way they do… ‘cause an executive’s
life is hell, man – The more he talks the farther away he gets And I’ll pull the car up on the drive way… just a plain black
Chrysler, I think, with white walls – no – black tires. More elegant. Rich people don’t have to be flashy… though I’ll have
to get something a little sportier for Ruth – maybe a Cadillac convertible to do her shopping in…Whatever you want to be –
Yessir You just name it, son… and I hand you the world Hansberry, 1994: 108-109.
According to McClelland, one of human motives is the motive of achievement. He defines motive of achievement as a desire to be successful 1985:
46. By having prosperity or being financially successful as his ambition and motive of life, Walter’s dream of a better life through success in business and become rich
comes out as a form of struggle to have a strong dignity and pride. Furthermore, Matthew Warshauer in his article “Who wants to be a
millionaire: Changing Conceptions of the American Dream ”, stated that Americans
are captivated by what many consider as an easy avenue to achieving financial success, the “rags to riches” legend has and continues to be a cornerstone of the
American Dream. He said that, the traditional message taught that through hard work, frugality, and self-sacrifice one could achieve financial success and social mobility.
This thought seems to be appearing in Ruth. Idea of American Dream can also be seen in Ruth’s character. Ruth is a wife
and a mother who has dream of a better life. For her, the most important thing that is needed in achieving something such as to have a better life is hard work and sacrifice.
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Maslow in Atkinson, Atkinson, and Hilgard, 1983: 317 in his Hierarchy of Needs stated that the basic motive in human life is to fulfill the physiological needs like
hunger, thirst, and others which are homeostatic and organic. In Ruth’s mind, to achieve the fulfillment of these physiological needs people need to work hard and
able or ready to sacrifice themselves. Mama
: … Ruth Younger, what’s the matter with you today? You look like you could fall over right now?
Ruth : I’m Tired.
Mama : Then you better stay home from work today.
Ruth : I can’t stay home. She’d be calling up the agency and
screaming at them, “My girl didn’t come in today – send me somebody My girl didn’t come in” Oh, she just have a fit…
Mama : Well, let her have it. I’ll just call her up and say you got the
flu— Ruth
: Laughing Why the flu? Mama
: ‘Cause it sounds respectable to ‘em. Something white people get, too. They know ‘bout the flu. Otherwise they think you been
cut up or something when you tell ‘em you sick. Ruth
: I got to go in. We need the money Hansberry, 1994: 42-43. Ruth’s characteristic as a loving and patient woman has made her able to
sacrifice herself to go to work although she is not in a good condition. Ruth insisted to go although Mama asked her to stay home and take a rest. She argues with Mama
that she might lose the job if she does it and she absolutely hopes that it never happens because she knows that the family needs the money.
Ruth’s will of hard work can bee seen in “… I’ll work twenty hours a day in all the kitchens in Chicago…I’ll strap my baby on my back if I have to and scrub all
the floors in America and wash all the sheets in America if I have to – but we got to move We got to get OUT OF HERE” Hansberry, 1994: 140. It is fine for Ruth if
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she has to work very hard like working twenty hours a day or washing all the sheets in America just to achieve her dream of a better life which in this part is moving into
a better house in the nice and safety place. According to Maslow, when somebody has fulfilled the physiological needs, he or she will move to the next step of fulfilling
another level of needs in Atkinson, Atkinson, and Hilgard, 1983: 317. In this case, Ruth’s dream of moving into a better place is part of another level of needs to be
fulfilled. The idea of hard work that American Dream taught has motivated her. The Idea of American Dream about a better life has become her motive and she knows
exactly that a dream will cost a hard work and sacrifice in achieving it.