Chicken Soup with Barley was written during the Cold War and presented shortly after the Hungarian uprising. At this time, communism was held with suspicion and hostility in the West. It is surprising, then, that Wesker might choose to paint it in such a sympathetic light. However, much of this play is autobiographical. Sarah and Harry are loosely based on Wesker's parents, both poor Jewish immigrants to Europe and members of the communist party.

However, the play also emerges out of a time of general disillusionment. World War 2, with new technologies and unbridled violence, gave the world pause around the idea of progress. It seemed possible that progress was damaging, and various political ideologies did not seem to be living up to their promises. Here, Ronnie's dispossession with communism may represent the way many felt in the decades after the war. He says he understands his father's lack of conviction because there is nothing worth committing to. While communism is the specific ideology addressed in the play, the final moments between Ronnie and his mother seem to be the most important. She tells him that he has to care for something, or he will die.

Communism here may represent any kind of conviction. In this way, the play is not necessarily about communism itself but about committing to something personally meaningful.

Still, one must not get overly carried away with one's commitments. Nearly every character in the play represents commitment (to politics) to a different degree and for different reasons. At the beginning of the play, Monty seems to represent a blind commitment to communism, romanticizing the Civil War in Spain.

In the second act, Ronnie also seems to fall into this category; he wants to be a writer, sharing the news of socialism and communism, but his motivations do not seem entirely clear. By the end of the play, however, he has become painfully aware of the limitations of his political beliefs and blames his mother.

Harry, on the other end of the spectrum, represents no commitment whatsoever, and by the end of the play, he is soiling himself and nearly unable to speak. Prince may also fall on the "less committed" end of the spectrum with Harry, as he seems to question the point of the war against the fascists early in the play, and by the end, he is a capitalist.

Arguably, a lesson of the play is that one must commit to meaningful causes with a degree of temperance. While Ada seems to blindly adopt communism as a teen, she espouses more agrarian views by the second act of the play. Dave, her "pacifist" husband, seems to do the same, and by the end of the play, they are living in a rural area, making furniture by hand, having started a family of their own. This may be as close to a happy ending as we get for one of the family members.