Walter Lee Younger, is a limousine driver, and is not liking his job, he wants to own and operate a liquor store to get more money, and to have a better life, every morning, his wife Ruth makes him eggs. Every time Walter brings up his dream, Ruth quiets him with “Eat your Eggs.” Walter says that this is her way of saying ‘Shut Up’. Being quiet and eating your eggs represents an acceptance of the troubles that Walter and the rest of the Youngers face in life. Walter believes that Ruth, who is making his eggs, keeps him from achieving his dream, and he argues that she should be more supportive of him. The eggs she makes every day symbolize her approach to support him.
Beneatha Younger is in college, and dreams to be a doctor. Later in the story she meets a boy named Asagai and he talks to her about Africa, and about their heritage. After Asagai questions her hairstyle, she cuts her Caucasian-seeming hair, into a crazy afro Beneatha’s cutting of her hair is a very important example of symbolism, Rather than force her hair to transform to the style society expects, Beneatha go’s with a style that enables her to more easily choose her identity and her culture. Beneatha’s new hair is a symbol of her anti-assimilationist beliefs as well as her desire to shape her identity by looking back to her roots in Africa.
Mama Younger has a dream of making her family happy, and to make them care for each other more than themselves. Mama Younger had a plant throughout the story, this plant symbolizes her family. Her care for her plant is similar to her care for her children, unconditional and unending despite a not-so-good environment for growth. The plant also symbolizes her dream to own a house and, to have a garden and a yard. With her plant,