The Deeper Meaning In The Life Of The Younger Family
Lorraine Hansberry, a black poet and playwright, once said in a speech, “It grows out of a thought of mine, as I study history, that virtually all of us are what circumstances allow us to be and that it really doesn’t matter whether you are talking about the oppressed or the oppressor” (“In”). Lorraine Hansberry wisely expresses her ideas about how one becomes who they are according to their position, which is a common theme in many of her works of writing. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry published the play, A Raisin in the Sun, which was later performed on Broadway. While the play focuses on the Younger family, who lives in poverty in a small apartment on the South Side of Chicago, the play directly correlates to Hansberry’s experiences growing up in the same part of the city.
After the death of Mama’s husband, the family of five receives $10,000 in insurance money, which ends up causing strife within the small family over how to spend the large sum. In the play, A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, the Younger family’s struggles are shown with the inclusion of the symbolism of scrambled eggs as a conflict about whether or not to step out of poverty and take a risk, as well as the use of personification to create a vivid image of the family’s struggles. Moreover, with Walter upset about Mama not giving him the money and him constantly leaving to the bar, Mama says to him, “Something eating you up like a crazy man. Something more than me not giving you this money” (Hansberry 72). Here, personification is used to show internal conflict
In the play A Raisin in the Sun, symbolism aids in explaining the relationship between Ruth and Walter with Ruth repeatedly telling Walter to eat his eggs, which symbolizes a struggle for normality. Symbolism is giving significant meaning to objects that are different from their literal idea (“Symbolism”). Ruth making scrambled eggs for Walter to eat symbolizes a routine she is not willing to let go of for Walter’s erratic ideas. When Walter walks out of his bedroom, Ruth asks him what kind of eggs he wants, and he replies, “Not scrambled,” which is followed by the stage directions, “Ruth starts to scramble eggs” (Hansberry 26). Ruth is scrambling the eggs out of habit and is unwilling to reconsider, meaning the eggs symbolize a way of life in which Ruth is rooted. This symbol affects the play, because, like the eggs, Ruth is not willing to open her mind to Walter’s outrageous intentions.
Later, Walter wants to open a liquor store and she is steadfast in her opposition to the idea. Furthermore, after Walter explains to Ruth how he deserves money from Mama for his business, and Ruth tells him to be quiet and to eat the eggs, Walter says angrily, “Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs” (Hansberry 32). When Walter argues a response to a man’s dreams is to tell him to eat his eggs, he means that he feels that sometimes a person in a relationship is unwilling to let their partner take a risk to be able to build a better life, because they are afraid of losing something, such as in the Younger’s case, their money. The use of the eggs symbolizing normalcy affects the play, because it illustrates a central conflict between the couple, with Ruth wanting Walter to continue with his steady profession and Walter wanting to take a risk; therefore, the idea about their separate ideas of how a man and a woman of the family should support each other come to light. The conflict between Ruth and Walter is exemplified by the symbolization of the scrambled eggs as routine or normalcy, and the couple’s disagreement on whether to continue how they had been, builds throughout the play with the addition of other literary devices, including similes, which add to the description of Ruth and Walter’s differing views.
Throughout the play, A Raisin in the Sun, personification is a prominent example of figurative language, and it dramatically portrays hardships within the Younger family. Personification is using human qualities to describe an object or idea (“Meaning”). The stage directions describing the Younger’s apartment at the beginning of the play says, “Its furnishings are typical and undistinguished and their primary feature now is that they've clearly had to accommodate the living of too many people for too many years-and they are tired” (Hansberry 23). As a human, someone that is tired is worn and not at their best, and when the furniture is described as such, it is obvious that it is no longer new and could stand to be replaced. From the furniture, it can be proven that the Younger family doesn’t live with any extra luxuries, which sets up the idea of an oppressed family, which continues throughout the play. Moreover, with Walter upset about Mama not giving him the money and him constantly leaving to the bar, Mama says to him, “Something eating you up like a crazy man.
Something more than me not giving you this money” (Hansberry 72). Here, personification is used to show internal conflict within Walter because he is struggling to grapple with the fact that his mother doesn’t trust him with the money, which builds the external conflict between Walter and the rest of his family who aren’t convinced that his liquor store will be successful. The growing hardships that the Younger family are faced with are shown through personification, beginning with their furniture showing their poverty, and later in the story showing Walter’s struggles with himself and his family.
With the use of symbols, such as the scrambled eggs that Ruth continuously tells Walter to eat, and the use of personification that descriptively portrays the struggle of the Younger family, Lorraine Hansberry tells a poignant story of an oppressed family in her play, A Raisin in the Sun. The play begins with a scene depicting Ruth forcefully trying to get Walter to eat his eggs instead of longing to open a liquor store. The eggs symbolize the daily life the Younger family is used to, even if it is impoverished, and how Ruth isn’t ready to risk their small fortune to have a chance at success. Another key piece of figurative language in the play is the use of personification, such as giving human qualities to the worn furniture, showing that the family lives in poverty. Additionally, the use of personification when Mama asks Walter if something is consuming him illustrates Walter's sorrow at not being able to be the head of the family and how he copes with not being able to support them. The eloquent addition of figurative language in the play establishes a heart-wrenching story that requires a reader or audience to take a moment to fully wrap their head around the complicated reality of relationships within a family, especially one living under financial pressure.
Works Cited
Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Random House, Inc, 1958.
“In Her Own Words.” Lorraine Hansberry Literary Trust, 2019, www.lhlt.org/quotes.
Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.
“Meaning of Personification in English.” Cambridge Dictionary, 2019,
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/personification. Accessed 2 Oct.
2019.
“Symbolism.” Mirriam-Webster, 2019, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/symbolism.
Accessed 30 Sept. 2019.
