A Raisin in the Sun Joseph Asagai Quotes

ASAGAI
Then isn’t there something wrong in a house – in a world – where all dreams, good or bad, must depend on the death of a man? I never thought to see you like this, Alaiyo. You! Your brother made a mistake and you are grateful to him so that now you can give up the ailing human race on account of it! You talk about what good is struggle, what good is anything! Where are all going and why are we bothering? (3.1.39)

Asagai urges Beneatha to live her dreams instead of depending on someone else to make them possible. He admires her independent spirit and hopes to ignite it in her again.

Joseph Asagai

Quote 2

ASAGAI
(Shouting over her) I LIVE THE ANSWER! (Pause) In my village at home it is the exceptional man who can even read a newspaper… or who ever sees a book at all. I will go home and much of what I will have to say will seem strange to the people of my village. But I will teach and work and things will happen, slowly and swiftly. At times it will seem that nothing changes at all… and then again the sudden dramatic events which make history leap into the future. And then quiet again. Retrogression even. Guns, murder, revolution. And I even will have moments when I wonder if the quiet was not better than all that death and hatred. But I will look about my village at the illiteracy and disease and ignorance and I will not wonder long. And perhaps… perhaps I will be a great man… I mean perhaps I will hold on to the substance of truth and find my way always with the right course…(3.1.41)

Asagai explains his vision for the future. He sees it as difficult and not always immediately rewarding, but ultimately he knows it will be for the betterment of his people. Asagai will actively pursue his dreams even when the going gets rough.

Joseph Asagai

Quote 3

ASAGAI (He smiles)
…or perhaps I shall live to be a very old man, respected and esteemed in my new nation… And perhaps I shall hold office and this is what I’m trying to tell you, Alaiyo: Perhaps the things I believe now for my country will be wrong and outmoded, and I will not understand and do terrible things to have things my way or merely to keep my power. Don’t you see that there will be young men and women – not British soldiers then, but my own black countrymen – to step out of the shadows some evening and slit my then useless throat? Don’t you see they have always been there… that they always will be. And that such a thing as my own death will be an advance? They who might kill me even… actually replenish all that I was. (3.1.43)

Asagai isn't certain about the future, but he is determined in his dreams for a better Nigeria. In order to achieve his dreams, he is willing to put his life at stake. We find it really poignant that he has already forgiven his would-be murderers – as long as his death is for the good of his country.