"A Raisin In The Sun", Lorraine Hansberry
... and writers who were encouraged and motivated by her work. Her contributions came to a sudden halt when she died at the young age of 34 from cancer. Hansberry shows an inclination toward celebrating African heritage through the character of Asagai. Critic Alonso Alejandro declares, “Asagai doesn’t have any American Dreams. He knows he is simply an African studying in Canada, but only visiting America” (Alejandro). Hansberry was very intelligent for a black woman in this era. She was an intellect, just as she portrays her character, Asagai. He was also an idealist, a romantic, comfortable with his identity, and familiar with the struggles of Africans. Asagai is introduced in Act I. Beneatha is on the phone with him and appears to be excited to talk to him. She doesn’t seem to be the type of girl to go crazy over guys, but with Asagai it is different because he is different. When she gets off the phone with him, she tells Mama that he will not care what the house looks like because he is an intellectual, “Asagai doesn’t care how houses look Mama- he’s an intellectual” (1.2.45). In Act III, Asagai comes in asserting, “A household in preparation for a journey! It depresses some people…but for me… it is another feeling. Something full of the flow of life, do you understand? Movement, progress.. It makes me think of Africa” (3.14). Also in Act III, Asagai says, “Children see things very well sometimes- and idealists even better” (3.60). Asagai wants to help bring about positive change for his country much in the same way Hansberry wants to further herself as an independent, black, female author and to bring about equality in America. “I was born black and female” (Lorraine) is one of Hansberry’s most famous quotes. She tries to free herself through her writing and her activism from the prejudicial stereotypes of race and gender at a time when the world didn’t understand diversity. In Act II of the play Asagai gives Beneatha some records and Nigerian robes from his native land to try to help educate her about her African heritage. He teases her about mutilating her hair and thinks it is unnatural. “You wear it well…very well…mutilated hair and all” (1.2.132). Asagai blames Beneatha’s hair processing on assimilation, which is “so popular in America” (1.2.156). Sternly, Beneatha replies that she is “not an assimilatist” (1.2.157). Asagai is in love with her, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for Beneatha. He asks her, “How much time does one need to know what one feels?” (1.2.167). Beneatha struggles throughout the whole play to combine her roots and her future. I believe Beneatha is the character most like Hansberry herself. Hansberry seems to predict the anti-colonial struggles is African countries as well as the necessity of integration. In a biography article, Jane...