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surrounds and covers Kwang, Henry sees only a broken, dismayed man who suddenly

"looks much older" and "as if diminished" (268). In addition, Henry also finds out about

Kwang's improper liaison with his female staff member and observes his licentious and

questionable conduct at a Korean bar, which belies his professed claim of being a good

family man. In revulsion and disillusionment, Henry decides to leave Kwang by refusing

to be "a necessary phantom in his house" (312) and delivers the list of Kwang's ggeh

members to Hoagland. Although Kwang has a truly ambitious utopian dream, he falters

under the mounting pressure he has to bear as a minority politician. Thus, when he abuses

his power and loses control in his public and personal life, he brings upon himself his

own political demise.

 It is a painful irony of Lee's novel that Henry comes to understand and appreciate

his father's struggle as an immigrant and belatedly learns to respect him only via the

downfall of his surrogate father Kwang, who gets stripped of dignity and power in the

wake of the highly publicized report about his ggeh, his association with illegal

immigrants, and his dubious personal conduct. Overnight Kwang falls from a promising

politician and a guiding light for the multiethnic America of the future to a suspicious

"foreigner" who draws a vigorous protest from whites rallying outside his house,

chanting the threatening message that they want to deport every last one of illegal

immigrants "back to where they came from, kick him back with them, let alone drown in

the ocean with 'Smuggler Kwang'" (331). Once fallen off the pedestal as a respected city

councilman, Kwang is just another Asian-American who makes white Americans raise

their eyebrows in disapproval and suspicion. The general public's radically changed

stance toward Kwang shows that, regardless of his achievement and years of public