What Really Happens After A Raisin in the Sun

The end of A Raisin in the Sun was a little unsatisfying for me as reader, not just because it left the story feeling somewhat incomplete, but because it was deceptively hopeful. After reading three acts of endless turmoil and conflict within the Younger family, it just seemed very abrupt and unrealistic for this narrative to end on such a positive note.

For the entirety of the play, Walter obsesses over getting the money he needs to invest in the liquor store which he believes will help him achieve his dreams give him a better life. This obsession sends him on a downward spiral, ending in him losing all of the money that he invested and losing the respect of his entire family.  However, this dramatic chain of events seems to all be magically wiped away in the end of the third act.  After refusing Lindner's offer, an act that realistically should not make up for the fact that they he lost almost all of Mama's money, everyone instantly forgave him.  Mama even tells Ruth, "He finally come into his manhood today, didn't he? Kind of like a rainbow after the rain..." then proceeds to grab her plant and leave the stage, an ending that really felt more like a bad sitcom finale than the ending of a classic American play.

What angers me most about this ending, though, is that it suddenly seems to completely ignore the grim reality that is sure to follow the Youngers' move to their new neighborhood. Even though Walter has restored his "manhood," and everything seems like it's going to work out, the fact still remains that America is deeply segregated, and the Youngers will not be welcome in their new community.  They are likely to be taunted, threatened, attacked, and at the very least forced out of their neighborhood without too much physical damage done to them.  The real end of this story is inevitably a harsh and discouraging one, but one that would've much more accurately represented the injustice that a black family would've faced at the time.

Damn All the Eggs That Ever Was

After reading even just the first scene of A Raisin in the Sun, I noticed a symbol that I knew would be even more significant than the noses in The Great Gatsby: Walter's Eggs. From the very beginning, the eggs caught my attention, specifically when Ruth asks Walter how he wants his eggs cooked. Despite the fact that Walter replies "Not Scrambled," Ruth proceeds to make her husband scrambled eggs. When first reading this, it caught my attention because of the irony and humor that is created in this moment, but after reading further I noticed that it represented much more than that.

As Act I goes along, it is revealed that Walter has missed out on a very lucrative business oportunity, but is hoping that he will be able to get a second chance when his friend approaches him about investing in a liquor store. However, Walter's Mama, the clear matriarch of the household does not allow him to invest her newly aquired money in this store, as she feels it is too risky. After reading all of that, I looked back on the eggs, and saw them as yet another thing that Walter does not get his way with.

But the eggs represent even more than that. They represent all of his hopes and ambitions, and how they can never be achieved because of his race and his crippling poverty. Walter angrily tells his wife, "Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs. Man say I got take hold of this here world baby! And a woman will say: Eat your eggs and go to work. Man say: I got to change my life, I'm choking to death, baby! And his woman say- Your eggs is getting cold!" Walter takes a look at his life and is bitterly disappointed. He dreams of a life where he and his family can live comfortably and doesn't have to worry about things like aborting their second child just because they can't afford it. But he knows that all of his hopes and dreams will never be achieved because society, including his own family, will never let him. He badly wants his eggs to be cooked the way he desires, but Ruth will never let him have his way. So time goes by and the eggs get cold, and the Youngers still live in poverty.

It Takes Two

After finishing The Great Gatsby, there are many passages that seemed to be more meaningful once I had a chance to think about them in the context of the entire novel. One passage in particular that seemed to change in this way came near the beginning of the story when Nick had just started spending time with Jordan. He writes:

‘You’re a rotten driver,’ I protested. ‘Either you ought to be more careful or you oughtn’t to drive at all.’

‘I am careful.’

‘No, you’re not.’

‘Well, other people are,’ she said lightly.

‘What’s that got to do with it?’

‘They’ll keep out of my way,’ she insisted. ‘It takes two to make an accident.’

When I first read this passage, I read it as just a small fight about Jordan's driving skills. What I thought then, was that it was just meant to be an example to further prove what Nick was saying about her dishonesty and careless attitude. However, after reading the entire novel, I realized that this section, especially the last line, seems to as a perfect representation of the car crash that happens at the end of thetory.

When taking it in a literal sense, this line foreshadows how it took the carelessness of both Daisy and Myrtle to cause this accident. If Daisy had been sober and less distracted, and if Myrtle had not let her emotions get the best of her, the crash would not have occurred. 

However, I believe that this line has a much greater symbolic meaning as this line is not just referring to the literal car crash that occurs, but also to the horrific breakdown of Daisy and Tom's marriage. When it comes to their love, it really did "take two" to make it all fall apart.  Tom had been unfaithful in their marriage almost since it began, which indeed put a strain on their relationship, but it wasn't until Daisy and Gatsby reignited their love that the relationship truly crumbled.  It took her affair to spark Tom's anger which led to him humiliating Gatbsy, causing her love for both her lover and her husband to fade once and for all.  Also, if it weren't for Tom's affair with Myrtle, she never would come running towards the car. And if it weren't for Gatsby and Daisy's affair, Daisy never would've been driving Gatsby's car, and the crash would've never occurred. Because of both of their unfaithfulness, Daisy is forced to live without the hope of one day reuniting with her true love, because, ever since their "accident," he has been as dead as Daisy's love for Tom.