How are some of the characters symbols? What do they represent?

In
literature there is a fine line between saying a character is a "symbol" and
recognizing that authors always useto express ideas and to represent concepts that are part of a
work's . is not anin which the entire construct of the work is
metaphorical, as, for instance, an Ayn Rand novel is in which the characters clearly represent
good and evil. Still, there are several straightforward ideas relating to the African American
(and more, broadly, anybody's) experience that are embodied in the characters themselves.

Though the principal action centers around the Younger family's move to a
new neighborhood and their encounter with bigotry, perhaps the relationship betweenand Asagai is
more relevant to your question. With all ethnic groups in the U.S., there
has historically been a conflict or tension between loyalty to Americanism and loyalty to one's
roots, the ancestral culture. Asagai, as a native African, represents to Beneatha the culture
she is trying to recapture and to take pride in. As with her personality overall, the other
family members have little understanding of her in this regard. At the same time, Beneatha
herself is a symbol of the new generation's wish to free itself from the constraints of the
past, specifically religion and the dominance of the parents. One of the most striking moments
occurs when Beneatha says she's tired of hearing about God, and that man is the one who makes
miracles. Mrs. Younger slaps her face and forces her to repeat that "in my mother's house,
there is still God."

Mrs. Younger represents the unyielding human
spirit. Regardless of the oppression of her family and of African Americans in general, she
keeps going, refusing to be defeated or to allow her family to accept the fate that American
society has planned for it. This quality carries its own authority with it, and this is why
Beneatha, despite her independence, yields to her mother at that crucial moment. It's also the
quality that enables the family to succeed in the end and to resist the bigotry leveled at them.