Reactions to the Finale

IT'S OVER!! And what an interesting turn of events...

I thought the finale was very good,a happy ending! Although the beginning and the middle of this novel was a very slow read, the ending turned into quite a thriller. John Kwang confessed his feelings and secrets to Henry which came as a shock to me as a reader because I was not expecting that at all.

""I didn't give him any money!" he yells, slamming his glass on the table. "How many times do I have to repeat myself? He worked for me for nothing, the same as you. For nothing, except for what I might show him about our life, what is possible for people like us. I though this is what he wanted. Was I crazy? I would have given him anything in my power. But he was betraying us, Henry. Betraying everything we were doing. To De Roos, I must think! Reports! You see, there is horror in your face. Think of mine when I found him out. i loved him, Henry, I grieve for him, but he was disloyal, the most terrible thing, a traitor. I left it to Han and his gang. I didn't know it would happen like that, and with Helda. You are the only one who knows now" (311).""

This happened after a bomb accident occurred in the buildings John Kwang worked in, killing two people: one was a maid while the other one was a young college student who John was very close to. Through this confession, I learned two key points which are 1. Eduardo was a traitor and 2. John ordered a Korean gang to punish him, but didn't expect their deaths. For point one, I think Eduardo being labelled as a traitor paralleled with Henry and his job. Henry is very close to John Kwang now, even thinking of John as a friend like he did with Dr. Luzan. Eduardo being exposed as a traitor could have scared Henry because he is also a traitor. Both Eduardo and Henry were giving out information on John Kwang to others in secret. Also, Henry must have felt alot of guilt because he was like Eduardo in such a way. After John Kwang got into an accident (another unforseen event), he seemed to have disappeared for a long time. I think part of that reason was because of point number two. John felt this massive wave of guilt for being indirectly responsible for the deaths of two people, so much that it sucked the life out of him. This reminds me of The Scarlet Letter when Dimmesdale's guilt just deteriorates his physical condition as well as his mental condition. Later on, John Kwang finally reveals himself and allows the massive (and angry) crowd to pummel him. In this scene, Henry shows for the first time his courage and his first action towards protecting a friend of his. "And when I reach him I strike at them" (343) is when he starts to attack the crowd because John was in danger. I think it's interesting how after this scene, John disappears from the storyline; i think that is because Henry finally realized who he was at that point of the story.

The ending to this book had a very light mood which contrasted with the falling action of the novel. The falling action was when John Kwang showed himself to the crowd after vanishing for awhile. The ending to Native Speaker was a completely different mood. It paralleled with Henry's decision in quitting his job which seemed to bring out his once hidden emotions. He is now spending a lot of time with Lelia, helping her with the speech impaired students and focusing on family. In some way, even though they aren't talking to each other while helping the students, the two seem to share a stronger connection at the end of the novel.

"Lelia gives each one a sticker. She uses the class list to write their names inside the sunburst-shaped badge. Everybody, she says, has been a good citizen. she will say the name, quickly write on the sticker, and then have me press it to each of their chests as they leave. it is a line of quiet faces. I take them down in my head. Now, she calls out each one as best as she can, taking care of every last pitch and accent, and I hear her speaking a dozen lovely and native languages, calling all the difficult names of who we are" (349).

This last paragraph of the novel wraps up how Henry feels now. Looking at the cultural diversity in the kids they are teaching, Henry now sees all the beauty in different languages and different looks. Before, Henry was very focused on finding out who he was. He wasn't sure whether he was Korean, American, or neither, but he wanted to fit into some category; he wanted to know where he fit in society as a whole. He gradually learned that the different languages show different identities and that in the end, his identity might actually be expressed in mulitiple cultures; that is the beauty of it. I think identity and figuring out your worth in this world is one of the biggest themes in Native Speaker. I think what Chang-Rae Lee is trying to say is that everyone has a reason to why he/she is here, and by going through obstacles (maybe not as dramatic as Henry's obstacles), there is a chance to find a person's true emotions and reason to live.

Rhetoric Study

"I used to love to walk these streets of Flushing with Lelia and Mitt, bring them back here on Sunday trips during the summer. We would eat cold buckwheat noodles at a Korean restaurant near the subway station and then go browsing in the big Korean groceries, not corner vegetable stands like my father's but real supermarkets with every kind of Asian food. Mitt always marveled at the long wall of glassed-door refrigerators stacked full with gallon jars of five kinds of kimchee, and even he noticed that if a customer took one down the space was almost immediately filled with another. The kimchee museum, he'd say, with appropriate awe. Then, Lelia would stray off to the butcher's section, Mitt to the candies. I always went to the back, to the magazine section, and although I couldn't read the Korean well I'd pretend anyway...Eventually I'd hear Lelia's voice, calling to both of us, calling the only English to be heard that day in the store, and we would meet again at the register with what we wanted, the three of us, looking like a fmaily accident, gathering on the counter the most serendipitous pile. We got looks. Later, after he died, I'd try it again...but in the end we would separately wander the aisles not looking for anything, except at the last moment, when we finally encountered each other, who was not him." (345)

The impact of this passage from the novel is mainly shown through the extensive use of imagery. In this specific passage, he describes every action that the family took as well as descriptions of places and things. He uses long sentences which makee it seem like he is writing this from whatever he's thinking instead of proofreading what he just wrote down. The long sentences with the multiple commas give off a feeling that the whole passage is an ongoing process of reminiscient thinking. It helps the readers to picture the whole setting with the restaurant, the street, and obviously the supermarket. The use of transition words also help to not only picture the setting but also the sequence of events. He kindly uses these transition words to help guide the readers through his day at the supermarket with his family.

Although this passage may seem to be just about a day at the supermarket, it has a much more deeper meaning as a whole. The last sentence that starts with "Later, after he died, I'd try it again" really shows part of his emotions that Henry didn't really express in the beginning of the novel. I can see that he is really suffering from Mitt's death and both he and Lelia are still hoping that it's not true. This scene is one of those instances when Henry goes into a flashback and shows how much he regrets or misses something. He really misses his son, obviously, but this goes back to the whole idea of how he regrets not saving Mitt. He has this guilty conscience that keeps piling up, and I think his thinking about the past and all the good memories help him to lower the guilt a bit. Really, the last sentence is what helps the author achieve his purpose of showing how much Mitt meant to Lelia and Henry, and how they are suffering even to this day.

Identity: American or Korean?

The most conflicting question for the main protagonist of this novel is "Who, or even What, is he?"

As the story begins, Henry shows us the list of descriptions that Lelia jotted down for him and gave to him before she left for the islands. It mentioned descriptions such as "emotional alien," "stranger," "traitor," and "spy" (5). This note made Henry realized that he doesn't truly know who he was, whether he was an American or a Korean. The main conflict with this question was that it seemed, to him at least, that he belonged to neither one. He was an American citizen, but only because his mother gave birth to him after the plane ride from Seoul, Korea. "I wondered if I could ever desire as much from this land. My citizenship is an accident of birth, my mother delivering me on this end of a long plane ride from Seoul. In truth, she didn't want me to be an American" (334-335). Part of his skepticism on his identity could stem from the fact that his mother didn't want him to be an American, but his father loved the thought of him being an American.

Another reason could be because of the language barriers. Henry's English was pretty good, but it took a lot of though and calculation for Henry to say something. He was NOT a "native speaker" because some words could not come out of his mouth naturally. On the other hand, his Korean was horrible; he couldn't speak the language very well, preventing him from communicating efficiently with other Korean people. "If I had the sentence, the right words, I would ask her about her family and she could tell me about her daughter and her son. If I were able with my speech..." (316). His inability to speak Korean fluently is keeping him from discovering and exploring the Korean culture and his roots, which is making him question his Korean identity. On the other side of the wall, he is an American citizen, but he is not white, so that makes him feel different; it makes him feel uneasy calling himself an American because Americans are usually associated with white people. Not to mention, he will never be able to speak perfect English because he is also Korean. "I thought English would be simply a version of our Korean. Like another kind of coat you could wear. I didn't know what a difference in language meant then. Or how my tongue would tie in the initial attempts, stuffen so, struggle like an animal booby-trapped and dying inside my head" (233). Henry realizes that English is not like Korean and Korean is not like English; in a certain way, Henry can't speak neither Korean nor English perfectly which makes him feel like an alien from both of his so called cultures or roots. In this way, he doesn't really belong in the American or the Korean cultures.

"I told him how I didn't know the subtle nuances of meanings of Korean names, even though I knew quite a few, that it would have been like naming someone purely by sound. And he wouldn't want an American name, because everybody else had one, because it was all so ordinary...He knew karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, jujitsu. He could be up the big black kids if he wished, the tough Puerto Rican kids, anyone else who called us names or made slanty eyes...He knew all about science, about model rocketry, chemistry sets, baseball cards, about American history. He was the lead in the school play. He spoke a singing beautiful English...He was perfect" (205).

This passage on page 205 was one of the few passages that actually revealed who and what Henry wants to be. This is when Henry is talking to Luzan about his "invisible brother." He mentions how he didn't know Korean enough to name his "brother" with a Korean name that had a special meaning, but he didn't like American names because they were too ordinary. This goes along with the idea that he is split between Korea and America and quite possibly, he could fit under neither of the two. The description of this "brother" is an ideal image of someone who Henry wants to become. This imaginary person is smart, athletic, strong, courageous, popular, and any other positive adjective you could think of. He's merely perfect and that is what Henry wants to be, perfect. Even though it's just one small part of the whole passage, the part where he says this person sang in "beautiful English" stood out to me because I knew that one of the few things Henry wishes he could do was speak perfect English to be part of at least one group. This ongoing conflict is solved at the end when he realizes that he might just be part of both of them, but it doesn't matter as long as you know what you're doing, but this question of his identity is one of the key points of the novel.

The Past

One of the key things I've noticed throughout the novel was the constant shift between the past and the present. There is some great significance in Henry's constant flashbacks because I think the past represents everything he regrets whereas the present is full of conflicts and issues he deals with that makes him a stronger person in the end. It pulls the whole "live in the present" and "learn from your mistakes" aphorisms together throughout the novel.

One place where I see the past being a time of regret is when he talks about his son, Mitt. "You suddenly notice that all of his friends are wild, bad kids, the kind that hold lighted firecrackers until the very last second, or torment the neighborhood animals. Mitt, the clean and bright one--somehow, miraculously, ours--runs off with them anyway, shouting the praises of his perfect life" (100). This goes back to the whole idea of how Henry regrets not being able to prevent Mitt's death either by stopping the kids from crushing Mitt or by stopping Mitt from continuously hanging out with these children who were horrible examples to follow. He always describes Mitt as an angelic type of kid who was "clean and bright," but several instances in the book, Henry mentions the kids who contrasted with Mitt's character. I can take this further and say that holistically, the relationship between the bad kids and Mitt might be a microcosm for Henry's relationship with the world. Henry can be seen as the caring and nice man who has this horrible job of basically ratting out bad or even good people like John Kwang and Dr. Luzan. The world is this horrible, dark place where Henry is forced to continue to do this job that he feels uncomfortable doing. The only difference between him and Mitt is Henry was able to overcome the world and fight for his idenity (identities) whereas Mitt was not strong enough to fight off the other children.

Henry may regret the past, but in the present he starts to realize who he is and what he has been doing wrong. "And the more I see and remember the more their story is the same. The story is mine. How I come by plane, come by boat. Come climbing over a fence. When I get here, I work. I work for the day I will finally work for myself. I work so hard that one day I end up forgetting the person I am. I forget my wife, my son. Now, too, I have lost my old mother tongue. And I forget the ancestral graves I have left on a hillside of a faraway land, the loneliest stones that each year go unblessed" (279). Henry is somewhat of a workaholic; he concentrated so much on his work that he did not spend enough time with his son and his wife. He regrets doing that to his son the most because now, although he has the chance to spend more time with Lelia now that he realized this, Mitt is long gone, and he will not be coming back. This adds to the pity that I feel for Henry and for Lelia as well. Also, Henry sometimes forgets about his parents; now that he is reflecting on some of the actions his parents did, Henry feels like he should have treated his parents, especially his father, with a better attitude. Although he always listened to his father and what he ordered Henry to do, it seemed like Henry felt servile under his father. Now, he realizes that what his father did (giving up his succes in Korea to work hard in America) was one of the biggest things that Henry took for granted.

Character Study

Henry Park: Henry is the main protagonist of Native Speaker. Henry has a wife named Lelia. They had a baby boy together named Mitt, but he died in an accident which I believe caused the temporary drift between Lelia and Henry (they are now together again). He is very reminiscent and thinks a lot about his past. One key thing to remember is that although he does go into his past several times, all of the memories have some connection to a family member or there is some hidden meaning behind his flashback; hidden meanings could include some kind of life message, a characterization of an important character of the novel, or something that reveals Henry's feelings about a certain topic. Also something to note is that many of Henry's memories have to do with his father or his son, both of whom are now dead. "In truth, Lelia's own eventual list was probably just karmic justice for what I made him [his dad] endure those final nights" (49) is an example of a time when he mentions his father's last moments. Henry seems to carry a lot of hidden grief and regret bottled up inside his head which I think serves as a constant theme throughout the whole novel. Henry also works a very dangerous job; he is assigned a person to "study" for a given amount of time, and then he writes a report that might involve juicy secrets for the client who hired him. He eventually gets out of the job which is clearly stated when Lelia said, "You don't work for Dennis anymore" (336). Throughout the novel, Henry has difficulty deciding whether he should act American or Korean; Henry can not speak Korean fluently, but he is always surround with his Korean culture whether it is when he walks down the street to the Korean grocery store or if it is when he eats Korean food. He finally realizes that it is okay to be uncertain about his identity, and that it might even be better to have different cultures inside of you.

Lelia Park: Lelia is Henry's wife. In the beginning of the novel, the two were in a complicated relationship; at the end, Lelia and Henry are together again, happily teaching children with speech impairment. When they first met, she recognizes that Henry is very calculative and secretive. "You look like someone listening to himself. You pay attention to what you're doing. If I had to guess, you're not a native speaker" (12). His enigmatic personality eventually causes Lelia to separate him for a while, but towards the end of the novel, they both realize how much they love each other and begin to undergo the same feelings they had for each other when they first met. "She looks sick for me" (336) is the thought that makes him finally realize that he is her number one priority right now, and he should express it as well instead of keeping it to himself. Lelia and Henry had an unexpected child named Mitt who was the strongest connection between Lelia and Henry. After he died, Lelia and Henry did not talk to one another for a long time, thinking it would be best to leave one another alone. I think a large reason why Lelia spends so much time with kids of different races who can't speak English very well is that she thinks of Mitt and sees him in the children. Lelia is a foil for Henry; their personalities are totally opposite, but they both help one another through harsh situations, resulting in a happy ending.

Mitt Park: Mitt is Lelia's and Henry's son who seemed to be the happiest child on the earth; he was also an accidental baby, but even though Lelia and Henry weren't expecting him, his birth was the happiest thing Lelia and Henry ever experienced together. Even though Mitt was innocent and naive, he hung around the bad kids on the block. In some way or another, one day, Henry came home to find Lelia crying as she held a limp Mitt. Mitt was killed after being suffocated under a dog pile of children from his grandfather's neighborhood. "I ran around the side of the house without turning off the ignition. All the boys were standing there lock-kneed. In the middle of them was Lelia, sitting on the grass, cradling his dead blue head in her arms and lap and rocking on her knees" (105). I think his death caused Henry and Lelia to realize a few things about each other and about life. A lot of regret surrounds Mitt; we see that when Henry constantly takes us to a flashback of a time when Mitt did this or Mitt did that. Henry truly misses Mitt and wishes he was there to prevent his death.

Henry's mother and father: Although Mrs. Park is hardly mentioned, Mr. Park (Henry's father) is mentioned all the time as a strict but typical Korean father. He is mentioned in what seems like half of Henry's flashbacks. These flashbacks range from his father's earlier times when he owned a grocery store to the times when Mr. Park was dying in the hospital. Both his parents are dead. Henry's father also serves as a foil to Henry. His father is seen as an ideal Korean man such as when his mother mentioned what a powerful man his father was: "how he was able to discard his excellent Korean education and training, which were once his greatest pride, the very markings by which he had known himself, before he was able to set straight his mind and spirit and make a life for his family" (333). Even though Henry "berated him for the way he had conduct4ed his life with his mother, and then his housekeeper, and his businesses and beliefs," I think doing that was one of the biggest regrets of his life because later on, he mentions how much he looks up to his father for being so strong and courageous.

John Kwang: John Kwang is the first victim for Henry's job after Dr. Luzan. He is described as what seems to me to be the perfect man. He was "handsome, irreproachable" (23). He is Korean and is potentially running for mayor. He appeals to the minority groups. The first time John and Henry met involved no talking whatsoever, but it seemed like John and Henry had some kind of connection because they were both Korean-Americans. Their relationship gets a little shaky towards the end when John confesses that he ordered the Korean gangs to punish a man named Eduardo for pretending to be his best friend, but becoming a traitor for John's rival, De Roos. Instead, the situation went crazy, and Eduardo and a woman named Helda ended up getting killed when the gangs put the building on fire. This eventually ruins John along with his car accident with an illegal sixteen years old Korean girl who was something like an Asian prostitute. Even so, Henry feels alot of empathy for John, helping him get through the upset crowd at the end which could have, with no exaggeration, literally killed John. "I strike at everything that shouts and calls. Everything but his face...And at the very moment I fall back for good he glimpses who I am, and I see him crouch down, like a broken child, shielding from me his wide immigrant face" (343). His relationship with John eventually leads to Henry finally quitting his job.

Dr. Luzan: Although Dr. Luzan is not one of the major characters of the novel, he has had a huge impact on Henry. Henry's job is to spy on people and write reports to be sent to his boss who will then send them to the client. Dr. Luzan was the first person Henry felt a connection with on the job. Luzan was so good at understanding Henry as a person that Henry began to forget about his job, and he began to love Luzan as a very good friend, even a best friend. Henry was eventually called off the job, but Luzan forever affected his way of thinking. Luzan was drowned, and it is unclear if it was really an accident or a murder. Henry thinks about Luzan; he sees another relationship with John Kwang like he did with Luzan.

Jack Kalantzakos: Jack is Henry's co-worker and very good friend. His wife died, and he has been single ever since. Jack offers alot of insight to Henry; he truly feels that Lelia and Henry were meant to be together, and that the complicated relationship between the two was just an obstacle to overcome. He is also trying to keep Henry on track with his job on John Kwang. He can tell that Henry is starting to like John Kwang as a friend like he did with Luzan. Jack wants to help Henry get through; he can see the troubles that Henry feels, but does not ask what's on Henry's mind, showing that Jack is very sincere and not nosy. Although he is not a major character, he is important because he keeps Henry from getting to emotionally attached to a person who might end up like Dr. Luzan.