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.