Monday, May 18, 2015

What does Walter want from Ruth, which he tries to explain to her over breakfast?

The most important thing that Walter wants from Ruth is support. He feels trapped in a limiting job and hopes for more for himself (and for his family). 

Many of the requests Walter makes early in the scene are reciprocated by Ruth and they are somewhat trifling quibbles and repeated remarks. Ruth offers to make Walter eggs and he asks for them not to be scrambled. She scrambles them. Ruth asks Walter not to bother her about the same old things. He insists on bringing up the same old things. Walter asks if the insurance check has come and Ruth tells him not to talk about money in the morning. 


All this builds up to a conversation about Walter's dream of going into business. He complains that Ruth does not respect his friends and does not believe in their business plan as a realistic idea. 


At one point Ruth responds to Walter's plans by telling him to eat his eggs. He sadly comments on this exchange.



"That's it. There you are. Man say to his woman: I got me a dream. His woman say: Eat your eggs."



Walter implores Ruth to take him seriously and to support his dreams.



"That is just what is wrong with the colored woman in this world...Don't understand about building up their men and making 'em feel like they somebody. Like they can do something." 



During this scene, Travis asks for money for school. Ruth refuses the money saying that the family does not have fifty cents to spare. To prove a point, Walter gives Travis some money. After Travis is gone, Walter laments the fact that in raising his son he has so little to offer him beyond "stories about how rich white people live." 


The conflict here is financial but goes deeper than that. Walter and Ruth are at a crossroads. She knows that she is pregnant. Facing this reality with a husband who is now profoundly embittered, Ruth seems to have lost patience with her husband. And he has lost patience with her. They crave a change but cannot agree on how that change should be wrought. 


Walter is asking out loud for support from Ruth in his efforts to build his vision of change. Ruth, for her part, has come to a desperate place. 



"She realizes that her husband’s feelings of inadequacy and lack of self-worth have contributed to the deterioration of their relationship. She is willing to do anything to alleviate their desperate situation, even if it means the abortion of their unborn child."



The bombast and likely impracticality of Walter's hope to buy a liquor store with two questionable friends leaves Ruth in a position where she cannot even ask Walter for what she wants. She can only tell him to eat his eggs. 

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