Native Speaker

In the first chapters of Native Speaker, Lee establishes some foundational backstory for the narrator, Henry Park. Central to Henry’s backstory is his identity as a Korean immigrant. Henry reflects deeply about his upbringing and his role as an Asian American, and he is constantly reminded by the people around him of his difference.

Lee develops Henry’s character by marking him with mystery. Though the first-person point of view gives readers an inside look into Henry’s psyche, the way other secondary characters respond to him imply qualities that are hidden to Henry. For example, his wife’s list of characteristics defines Henry through racist stereotypes, a shocking characterization from a woman whose story with Henry is based in romance and mutual support. Her accusations that Henry is a “yellow peril” has its roots in racist narratives about Asians in America. Many of the first Asians in America were from China, men who traveled to the West of the U.S. in the 19th century to help build railroads. These men were forbidden to marry white women because of anti-miscegenation laws and were often lynched and abused by the white communities in which they found themselves. When the railroads were built, many Asian male immigrants stayed on, but because they were not permitted the same jobs as white men, they established businesses that were traditionally thought of as female-centric, such as grocery stores and laundries. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 forbade Asian immigrants from gaining citizenship or visas to the United States, a law that was based on racist stereotypes of Chinese men infiltrating white communities. When Lelia refers to Henry as the “yellow peril,” it is this history of racism that she recalls. Yellow peril essentially implies that Asian people are a danger to Western civilization. It is not clear if her use of the term is ironic because she adds the phrase “neo-American,” implying he is a new American rather than not an American. She also calls him a traitor and spy, words that evoke stereotypes of Japanese Americans who were assumed to be Japanese spies during World War II or Vietnamese immigrants who were assumed to be secret communists. That Henry carries this list around with him demonstrates Henry’s process of internalizing racist stereotypes and abusive racial accusations from the wife who left him.

Ironically, Henry does work as a spy. Henry’s job is a subversion of the Asian stereotype because it literalizes the stereotype. This line of work is central to his identity because spies live double lives, and Henry finds it difficult to understand where his job begins and where his true persona ends. The blurred boundaries of his work hurt his psyche and damage his relationship with Lelia and with himself. The work itself forces him into stereotypical roles, and because he is Korean, he is assigned spy jobs on other Asian people. His work is the fulfillment of stereotypes, but it is also a bizarre and unique job. Growing up in an immigrant household, Henry learned that what one does as a career is secondary to earning money. Therefore, Henry has been trained not to think of his job through a lens of moral codes. He betrays people’s trust by necessity, but a job is a job. But Henry can’t help but become emotionally confused by his job. Thus, Henry both confirms and challenges stereotypes of Asian immigrants.

Another layer of his identity, one that he is self-conscious about and one that Lelia highlights in her deconstructive list, is the relationship between immigrant identity and the English language. Cruel mimicry of Asian-accented English permeates American portrayals of Asian Americans. Henry speaks carefully, as though he is performing English. The idea that Henry is acting is important. It implies that Henry is inauthentic, that he tricks people into believing something about him that is untrue. But Henry’s acting is emblematic of his authenticity; it represents his family history and his desire not to draw more attention to himself as Asian American or different. The ability to speak English like a native speaker is what often differentiates successful immigrants from those who are constantly derided for their accents and syntax. Mastering English is a way of fitting in, a way of assimilating to American culture. Lelia calls Henry out for this, though as a white American woman, she cannot understand the pressures Henry places on himself to fit in. Language is tied to strangeness, as in the case of Henry’s Korean housekeeper, who doesn’t speak English and is therefore seen as “alien.”

The importance of language is highlighted in the title of the novel. Henry also pays special attention to the way people speak and move, such as when he observes how his colleague Jack, who is Greek, moves uncomfortably as though he is mimicking something he has seen. This keenness of observation makes Henry good at his job; he knows how to look out for people’s affectations because he himself constructs mannerisms. It is ironic that, given his hyper-awareness of speech mannerisms, he marries a speech therapist. The irony implies that Henry actively searches out somebody who has the ability to fix his own speech or have a speech that is impressively better and more natural than his. In a self-fulfilling prophecy, his wife’s list includes accusations of his non-native speaking abilities, as though Henry subconsciously fell in love with someone because they could pinpoint something about which he is highly anxious self-conscious.

A crucial layer to these issues of identity is the American Dream. The American Dream posits that if people work hard enough, they can achieve financial liberty and earn respect. Henry’s father takes this American Dream very seriously, which permeates Henry’s understanding of himself. His father admires him for marrying a white woman, which is a stereotypical symbol of status and success in a white-dominated culture. This implies that other people are tools in Henry’s game of presenting his inauthentic self, but in reality, Henry was very much in love with Lelia. But using people to get ahead is also a part of Henry’s job. As a spy, he ingratiates himself to his subject, taking on other identities to get close to them and use them to find out the information he needs to report back to his employer. Then, when Henry starts working on an assignment on a politician, he discovers that everyone uses other people to get ahead. Lee highlights this use and abuse of people as objects to criticize capitalism and the American Dream. American capitalistic culture dictates that getting ahead at any cost, including sacrificing other people’s trust, is perfectly acceptable. It’s a lesson Henry first learns from his father, who underpays his employees as a way of flexing his capitalist power, and a lesson that is confirmed by his experiences working with Americans.

Henry is both American and Korean. His relationship with Lelia faces cultural challenges, such as her inability to understand his relationship with the housekeeper he grew up with, whose name he doesn’t know. For Lelia, a white American, such power dynamics in a home are bizarre and unkind. But for Henry, calling an older woman who works for him without an intimate familial relationship as “auntie” is not offensive. In fact, the housekeeper wants those boundaries too. Lelia tries to reach out to the housekeeper despite the reality of her position and the housekeeper’s desire to keep up her boundaries. This demonstrates Lelia’s invasion of Henry’s culture and her subconscious belief that as a white American woman, her values are better than Henry’s. Henry’s relationship with his father is also complicated. His father is very much a product of Korean culture, which often is at odds with Henry’s American upbringing. Henry is split between two worlds and divided between many different versions of himself, all of which is exacerbated by his job as a spy, a job that requires new identities and misleading others.

Henry is constantly lumped into Asian stereotypes by the people around him. White characters like Janice often ask him about the way Koreans are, as though all Koreans are the same. This reveals an implicit bias against people from non-white countries. There is little consideration of the idea that all the Korean people a white person meets have their own personalities and problems that are not tied to being Korean. This dehumanizes Henry and reduces his character in the eyes of others because he is used as a model for all Koreans. Kwang, a hyper-successful Korean immigrant, is not Henry’s foil. Instead, Lee uses the myth around Kwang’s character to demonstrate that even well-respected immigrants are burdened by popular perceptions of racism and difference.

Lee infuses these chapters with important foreshadowing. The reader is asked to be on the lookout for revelations about Lelia, Henry’s late son, Mitt, and Henry’s future betrayal of Kwang. This imbues the narrative tone with tension and foreshadows that the tension will grow within Henry’s psyche as well.