idual or his culture: "He had the feeling that being was important, and he was---so he knew that he would never succumb to foolish social pressures again. . . . He thought of . . . all the people who tried to tell him how to live the good life" (de Dwyer 141). Richard is avoiding the hatred which Michael Nava warns about with respect to those who are hated so much they return the favor to their tormentors. Gradual assimilation allows the individual to avoid at least some of this hatred, and thus focus on opportunity: "Blinded by hatred, one not only loses sight of one's goals, but also the ability to distinguish between friend and foe" (Nava).
2. The most pressing social problem is racism. One way to reduce racism, if not solve it, is to devise an educational approach which would allow every child at an early age to experience what it feels like to be the recipient of racism. It is not enough to teach the effects of racism on an abstract or literary level. We can read Naylor's stories and feel the suffering of the characters, but there is always an emotional distance between the characters and the
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