Minorities in America Depicted in My Name is Asher Lev, Joy Luck Club, and Black Like Me Conflicting values ​​are a constant problem in society. In several civilizations minorities end up being governed by the majority. In twentieth-century American culture there are many difficulties in existing as a minority. The books My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok, and Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan, describe what being torn between two cultures looks like as a conflict for minorities today. Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin, examines the difficulties of a minority by progressively revealing them. The life events of the three authors reflect how they portray the common theme of hardship for a 20th century minority. My Name is Asher Lev demonstrates that the appearance of the protagonist torn between two cultures is a difficulty for minorities in America. Asher Lev was torn between being an artist and his Jewish community. In the novel, Potok details the "feelings, dilemmas, and questions that [minorities] come across as they try to obey their traditions and passions at the same time" (Chaim). The main character, Asher Lev, chooses to be an artist and ends up having to part with his life. He explains, "I am a traitor, an apostate, a self-hater, an inflictor of shame on my family, my friends, my people; moreover, I am one who scoffs at ideas sacred to Christians" (Potok 1). Choosing the life of an artist, Asher faces a life of constant pain due to his betrayal of his family. The protagonist's painting of the Brooklyn Crucifixion "raises disturbing questions about anti-Semitism, the conflict between Christians and Jews, and the tension between artistic conventions and religious imperatives" (My Name is Asher Lev 2877). It contradicted everything his family had made him believe. He never adapts to society as he challenges his people and mocks the majority in this painting. Asher describes how his dual culture life is doomed. "Asher Lev... was the son of the Master of the Universe and the Afterlife. Asher Lev paints beautiful pictures and hurts the people he loves" (Potok 348). Asher moves from the religious to the secular world over the course of the novel. This is because Potok's novels "presuppose the impossibility of existing in both the religious and secular spheres" ("Potok, Chaim" 339).