Quote 7
ASAGAI
For a woman it should be enough.
BENEATHA
I know – because that’s what it says in all the novels that men write. But it isn’t. Go ahead and laugh – but I’m not interested in being someone’s little episode in America or – (With feminine vengeance) – one of them! (ASAGAI has burst into laughter again) That’s funny as hell, huh! (1.2.114)
Asagai argues that love should be enough for women, but Beneatha argues that she needs more – a career, for instance. She is determined to find her fullness as an individual and to not be defined by the man she marries.
Quote 8
ASAGAI
It’s just that every American girl I have known has said that to me. White – black – in this you are all the same. And the same speech, too!…It’s how you can be sure that the world’s most liberated women are not liberated at all. You all talk about it too much! (1.2.115)
Asagai suggests that liberated people do not need to flaunt their freedom. In his mind, if American women were really as free as they say are then it would no longer be an issue. Therefore, it just wouldn't come up so much in conversation. This is an interesting point, but it's not like Beneatha is arguing that American women have nearly enough freedom. To her, women still have a long way to go in America.
Quote 9
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 describes how fighting the good fight is a process of sacrifice. Hopefully, though, it's a struggle that will eventually be rewarding.