The play "A Raisin in the Sun", by Lorraine Hansberry, is set in Chicago's Southside in the late 1940's. A rasin in the sun demonstrates the everlasting fight for a small black family's struggle to keep their dreams alive through to the end by the practice of family values and morals against poverity and prejudice. The title a rasin in the sun originates from Langston Huges" poem Harlem (A Dream Deferred) "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" A dream deferred is a dream put off to another time. The main character, Walter Younger from A Raisin in the Sun had a deferred dream; their dreams become dried up like a raisin in the sun. His dream, and his struggles to achieve his dream have intent to basically conquer hem. He feels that every dream he has had has been taken away from him, either by bad timing or by the white man in general.
In the beginning of the play Walter Younger and his wife, Ruth, are observed of having a fight over Walter's dream: to become a 'mover and shaker' in the business world. Walter intends to accomplish his goal by using an insurance check as a down payment on a business venture. Walter tells his wife that, "I'm trying to talk to you 'bout myself and all you can say is eat them eggs and go to work"(1.1.993). The eggs is a symbol of Walter's recurring feelings that if someone in the family would just listen to him and put forth their trust his dreams would come to its fulfillment. The eggs she makes everyday symbolize her mechanical approach to supporting him. She provides him with food to give him strength to go on each day. Walter doesn't realize that she isn't supporting him. It's not the way he wants her to. In contrast when Ruth said " Walter leave me alone! Eat your eggs they gonna get cold" (1.1.993); this shows that his wife is trying to control his destiny and he does not have eany thing to say about it. Furthermore, "eat your eggs" points out how women keep men from achieving their goals.
