Although most ethnic groups do not like to be thought of as different, they do come to enjoy the benefits that come with being labeled as a minority. Affirmative action is a program initiated to try and bridge the gap between white Americans and the minorities that reside in America. In addition, bilingual education is constantly an issue in Southern California, especially when choosing political candidates. In the two books I will be examining, Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, both characters in the stories are criticized by their own ethnic groups for not following the path that their parents have laid out for them. Protag, the main character in Invisible Man, chooses to join an organization called the Brotherhood, instead of a similar organization which is made up of all black men. Rodriguez decides to take a stand against affirmative action and bilingual education, two issues which Hispanics have almost always been in favor of. However, the decisions by these two characters to go against the values widely held by members of their ethnic groups causes a great deal of tension. People want to question how devoted the characters are to the cause. Both characters went against the norm and made ch

Upon his arrival in Harlem, Protag was able to witness the day to day hardships that black people faced as they struggled to survive. More specifically, he was exposed to Lucius Brockway while working at the Liberty Paint factory. While working in the far reaches of the factory basement, Brockway and Protag were enemies at once. Brockway feared Protag was going to overhaul him and make him become part of a union. Brockway becomes even more defensive when he finds out Protag walked in on a union meeting on the way to get his lunch. "I knowed you belonged to that bunch of troublemaking foreigners! I knowed it! Git out of my basement," screamed Brockway (Ellison 224). Once again Brockway was seen by Protag as another black man who failed to cooperate with the white men he worked with. He feared them and his worries were for the most part unfounded. He failed to listen to the union and their only concern was looking out for workers and making conditions safe. Instead Brockway choose to hide out in his basement and not come in contact with anyone who wanted to help him. Now Protag began to see the big picture. Bledsoe was the one successful black man he knew and he kept up a good relationship with his white partners (not necessarily as friends). Trueblood and Brockway failed to establish a relationship with the white man, and were both considered failures by society.

The first event in Protag’s life that can be said to have influences his decision to join the Brotherhood was his experience while at college, most notably his interactions with Dr. Bledsoe. Take his job for example, Protag was appointed to drive around Mr. Norton, a white trustee to the college. Dr. Bledsoe continually emphasized the critical role that trustees play in the college. Without them and their donations, it seems the college would no longer exist. Dr. Bledsoe, who is a black man, also lets Protag know the importance of maintaining a good relationship with the white trustees. This is why Dr. Bledsoe reacts so violently to the incident involving Mr. Norton and the Golden Day. However, Protag also begins to realize that the relationship Dr. Bledsoe has with the trustees is not always based on trust. When reprimanding Protag for the Golden Day incident, Bledsoe says "the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie" (Ellison 139). The entire process of going to college and interacting with trustees and Bledsoe has shown Protag the black man is reliant on the white man to succeed. After all, Bledsoe has continuously stressed the importance of the trustees, of which presumably most were white. Instead of looking at white people as the enemy, for a black man to succeed he needed to maintain a busine