#4: My people over me?
I’ve noticed over the course of reading “A Raisin In The Sun”, that most of the characters are flawed. Not just small flaws, no. I mean characterized-by-the-time-period flaws. Walter has shown (more in acts 1 and 2) his belief that every household needs a dominant male. Lindner? Definitely racist. Asagai- wait. Asagai has been (basically) nothing like the other characters in the novel! Didn’t Asagai literally say he’d go back to Nigeria and help his people instead of staying in the US and getting rich?
Asagai, instrument Nigerian friend from school, has proven his selflessness through his compassion multiple times. His “fight” with Beneatha is just one. The (later coupled) individuals’ argument resulted in Asagai cathartically explaining why he wants to go home.
“ASAGAI
I was stunned reading this. I felt weirdly refreshed knowing that there was a compassionate character who would rather give up wealth for their people. In my opinion, Asagai was my comfort character. I am glad he was an important character in this play.
I've honestly never thought too much about Asagai, but your blog post gave me a lot more insight into his character! He really is great, and this is probably the first post I've read that talks only about him and his selfless qualities. Thank you for writing this!
ReplyDeleteI like that you separated Asagai from the batch of characters because I also made the connection of his optimistic and somewhat less problematic tendencies. Wrapping up the piece with the comfort character comment was a great way to draw your blog back to the rhetorical questions that originally introduced your realization!
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