I believe Billy is the protagonist of Tribes. Billy wants to feel like an active part of his family, not just someone who sits on the sidelines and observes. Billy has grown up with parents and siblings who all can hear and therefore can communicate with each other in a way that Billy can’t. Billy was taught how to read lips and was never taught how to sign. Billy has also only had one encounter with a deaf person and he did not get along with him because of the face that Billy could not sign. It made Billy inferior. Billy lacks the courage and support system to stand up to his family. Billy feels like his family can’t be bothered with him and this upsets Billy, but Billy feels he can’t speak up because of all of the chaos and problems his family members are all going through.…show more content… “I'm going to jump from one guess to the other, why should they be the ones to show off and tell all the stories? ‘Thirty-five computers. We'll make a killing if we can just bring in the stuff in time. We're made.’” (Raine, 61) The Avowed Action Why is that Billy wants to “write his own story” and did it for Sylvia to be with her. “You're just... it's writing your own story.” “Why shouldn't I write my own story.” “I did it for you.” (Raine, 61) The True Action Why is also the Avowed Action Why. Billy wants to have power and have his voice be heard. He lies about what is said on the tapes because he feels it is unfair that he himself as a deaf person doesn’t get to “show off and tell all the stories” (Raine, 61). Based on this Action and why Billy did it, we can infer that Billy is looking for any sort of outlet to be able to say how he feels and have someone listen. Billy does not have physical motivation for lying about the tapes, which leads us to believe Billy is the type of person who is looking to make a statement. He is clearly tired of being ignored and
