“The day my wife left she gave me a list of who I was” (1).
This quote is the start of a beautiful novel called Native Speaker written by Chang-Rae Lee. What is interesting about this first sentence is that it automatically brings up a continued conflict that is gradually explained throughout the first two chapters. It also introduces our main protagonist, Henry Park, and his wife, Lelia Park, who is mentioned a plethora of times as the novel progresses.
The beginning of the quote, “The day my wife left,” can be taken several different ways. Did she leave him for good? Is she taking a break away from him? Is she just going on a vacation? All these questions pop up in the reader’s mind just by reading a couple of words. Not only that, but it leads the reader to ask the main conflict question: Why is she leaving him? As the chapter goes on, the reader finds out that she is not necessarily divorcing with him, but she is leaving him for a good amount of time. Even so, it still directs the reader back to the question of why she is leaving him. At the airport, where he goes to see her off, she hands him a note for him to read in the car. It says that following words:
B+ student of life First thing hummer of Wagner and Strauss Illegal alien Emotional alien Genre bug Yellow peril: neo-American Great in bed Overrated Poppa’s boy Sentimentalist Anti-romantic ____ analyst (you fill in) Stranger Follower Traitor Spy” (5).“You are surreptitious
Obviously, many of the descriptions of Henry show conflict, whether it is in the words she uses to describe their relationship or in the words she uses to describe him as a person. Words like “stranger,” “traitor,” and “spy” are not necessarily the best way to describe your husband, so why does she write these hurtful words down? There is also some insight into Henry Park just by reading some of the nouns and adjectives Lelia writes down on this piece of paper. “Anti-romantic” is a huge word that correlates with the conflict introduced. My predictions are that Henry did not show her enough love to keep her love going. She might have given up on getting him to be more romantic with her. On the other hand, maybe she is just too romantic and wants more out of Henry that he cannot give her. Hopefully this conflict will be further elaborated on. Another shocking description is “Yellow peril: neo-American.” Peril is something that causes a lot of destruction or chaos; Lelia here describes him as a “yellow peril” referring to his ethnicity. He must have done something to cause her to make such a bold description of him. Later in the novel, the reader can kind of see why she refers to him as a “yellow peril” or the many other descriptions she wrote down, but again, the first chapter alone brings so many questions into mind; it hooks the reader, making him or her read on in order to decipher unanswered questions.