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Emily Gott

Meyer

English I

28 May 2019

How Schizophrenia affected Walter

Did one know that almost 2.4 million adults have schizophrenia? Walter from A Raisin in

the Sun is one of the people who has this disease. It is important to know so information about

this disorder, so this disorder affects the way that people behave and think (PsychCentral). Some

important information to know about Walter is that he has a lot of outbursts, social withdrawal,

mood swings and has hallucinated a few times which are all symptoms of schizophrenia

(NIMH). Walter has schizophrenia because many of the symptoms that he has relate with this

disorder.

Walter shows mood swings throughout the whole book by going off and then being really

nice to his family. One example of him getting mad at Ruth is, “DAMN MY EGGS.”(Hansberry

37). An example of him being nice to Ruth is, “You such a nice girl.”(Hansberry 40). This shows

that randomly he can be really mean to people but a few minutes later can be so nice to them.

Walter did this so many times throughout the story especially to Ruth that everyone can tell that

its most likely not just outbursts. Throughout this whole story it mainly deals with money when

he gets mad and when he is happy. In addition to mood swings he also gets hallucinations which

further proves that he has schizophrenia.

Walter shows hallucinations especially when he is drunk because he is talking about a lot

of random things. An example that shows him doing this is, “THE LION IS
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WAKING.”(Hansberry 80). Another part when Walter was going crazy is, “OCOMOGOSIAY,

FLAMING SPEAR!”(Hansberry 80). For the first one Walter talks about a lion waking when

there wasn’t even a lion in the room, and for the second one he is saying some random word and

talking about a flaming spear and this also wasn’t in the living room. This shows that Walter is

hallucinating because he is saying that he sees all this stuff, but none of this stuff was ever going

on. Despite all the evidence that has been researched about schizophrenia some people may think

that Walter has a different disorder.

Despite the evidence demonstrating schizophrenia many people believe that Walter could

have depression, but fail to see that he doesn’t have a lot of the symptoms for depression. Those

who believe that walter has depression may think that he is always sad because he is yelling at

his family a lot and always seems to keep to himself (Hansberry 74). Although aspects of this

argument are enticing, it ultimately fails to be a stronger argument because at many parts in the

story Walter is excited especially when it comes to the check and when he is talking to his son

(Hansberry 34). To further the argument Walter doesn’t talk slowly, he has never been in pain,

he gets excited about many things, he may go off on his family but he never truly means it and

he is more angry then he is upset. People can tell that Walter cannot have depression because he

is mad, and he has happy moments and someone who has depression is always upset and never

happy and always feels horrible, and Walter doesn’t feel upset and like no one ever listens to

him..

As everyone can see Walter has schizophrenia because he can get mad at someone

randomly and doesn’t really think before he speaks, and he has hallucinated randomly. He can

deal with schizophrenia by going to therapy, but it will never be cured (NIMH). People can see
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that he could have this because he doesn’t think through everything and doesn’t behave right in a

lot of situations. He also has behavioral issues and isn’t always thinking straight (PsychCentral).

This impacted him in many different ways but more importantly impacted his family because of

the ways that he treated them. A connection from something else is that Jesus from The Fosters

had either schizophrenia or a disease like schizophrenia and had many of the same symptoms as

Walter. Walter did have schizophrenia because he never thought through everything clearly and

had many outbursts. With the addition of treatment Walter’s life could become more tolerable,

but he will always have to live with this disorder.

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Works Cited:

Grohol, John M. “Schizophrenia Guide: Symptoms, Treatment & More | PsychCentral.” ​Psych

Central​, 18 May 2019, psychcentral.com/schizophrenia/.

Hansberry, Lorraine. ​A Raisin in the Sun​.

khdzamlit.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261956/a_raisin_in_the_sun_-_lorraine_hansbe

rry.pdf.

“Schizophrenia.” ​National Institute of Mental Health​, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml.