The Younger's apartment serves as a major symbol in Hansberry's play. Within Act I, one can tell the apartment is symbolic of the family. The apartment is falling apart and will not be able to support the family all together much longer. Similarly, the family's structure is beginning to display "cracks". The relationship between Walter and everyone else is slowly deteriorating. Ruth has become indifferent, and Mama is surrounded by worries. As much as they want to hide it, the cracks in the wall and the roaches on the floor do not lie: they cannot stay here much longer. Likewise, the family will not last much longer in this condition either. This presents Mama's main reason for purchasing the house. "I--I just seen my family falling apart today...just falling to pieces in front of my eyes...We couldn't of gone on like we was today. We was going backwards 'stead of forwards--talking 'bout killing babies and wishing each other was dead...When it get like that in life--you just got to do something different, push on out and do something bigger" (Hansberry, 94). From this, the reader concludes the family would not have survived if they had not moved.
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