Native Speaker

Lelia is Henry Park’s wife. She is tall and straight, with a high-pitched voice and perfectly pronounced English—evidence of her career as a speech therapist. Lelia is a white American whose upbringing and role in American society is juxtaposed with Henry’s. Their relationship is challenged by their different ways of expression and their differing views of the world around them. Their marriage is nearly destroyed when their son, Mitt, dies in a tragic childhood accident. Lelia writes a spiteful list characterizing Henry that includes Asian stereotypes, which she later regrets. Despite this egregious action, Lelia and Henry rekindle their relationship. Lelia is a secondary character who gives Henry a reason to hope for his future, but she is also a character who challenges his identity. Lelia’s presence in the novel represents the complexity of human relationships, especially in terms of intersectional, biracial, and multicultural contexts.

City Councilman John Kwang is the novel’s antagonist and a mentor to Henry. Kwang is in his early 40s or late 50s, has black hair with silver around the edges, and is attractively charismatic. Kwang represents everything Henry wants to see from an Asian American man, but Kwang ultimately disappoints Henry and fails his community through his own hubris and greed. Kwang is a powerful politician living in Queens who is preparing to compete in the mayoral election against the incumbent, Mayor De Roos. Kwang’s overwhelming popularity with immigrant and non-white communities threatens De Roos, who represents the white majority. Kwang is charismatic but always has his guard up. Infiltrating Kwang’s campaign is Henry’s final assignment, and Henry’s attempt to find incriminating evidence against Kwang comprises the novel’s main action.

Kwang is a warning to Lee’s readers. He is the example of what happens when Americans become too seduced by capitalistic power. Kwang operates a ggeh, a Korean money-lending club, in which members of the Korean community contribute donations and collect the pot on a weekly or monthly cycle. Ggehs are not illegal, but Kwang’s ggeh is used to fund corrupt activities. Like Henry, Kwang is torn between many different roles and identities. Living between worlds warps Kwang’s moral propriety and understanding of his own identity. Kwang is both a victim and a perpetrator in this book. He is corrupt and cynical because he has internalized the lessons of capitalist America and wants to succeed at any cost. However, Lee does not paint Kwang as merely a victim of American racism. Kwang has a violent streak and sexually assaults women. He is involved with Korean gangs and uses one to kill a volunteer, Eduardo, of whom Kwang was suspicious. Kwang engineers his own downfall through his greed. As a character with a dual role—antagonist and mentor—Kwang acts as both a foil for and a mirror to Henry, highlighting the complexity of the protagonist’s characterizations and his imagined self.

Jack Kalantzakos is Henry’s colleague at the firm. He is the novel’s voice of reason because he embraces the world for the gritty often immoral reality that it is. Jack’s cynical outlook does not impact his care for Henry. Jack is genuinely invested in Henry’s wellbeing and encourages Henry to finish his job well so he can leave the firm and live a better, happier life with Lelia. Jack is resigned to the loneliness and immorality of his work, but he hopes that Henry will leave their line of work before it’s too late for him. Jack lost his beautiful wife, Sophia, to cancer and keeps a photo of her on his desk. The photo is a reminder of the happy life that he lost, and part of his desire for Henry comes from not wanting to see Henry have a similar fate. Jack knows how short life is and that it should not be taken for granted. As a secondary character, Jack provides comic relief, a moral compass, and a guide for Henry towards hope.

Mitt is the son of Henry and Lelia who died at the age of seven. When the novel opens, Mitt has already died, and his passing has caused a rift between his parents. Mitt is a tragic character because he was the victim of racist bullying that ended in his death. On the surface, Mitt’s death was accidental: he and his friends were playing, and Mitt suffocated after they dog-piled on top of him for too long. These are the same boys who, not long ago, had called him anti-Asian and anti-biracial slurs. The accident occurred while Henry, Lelia, and Mitt were visiting Henry’s father in the suburbs. The suburbs and homeownership represent the American Dream for immigrants, and as a biracial child of Korean American and white descent, Mitt represented the future hope of a post-racial society. His death is symbolic because it crushes both of those ideals, proving that the suburbs are not the safe haven that they seem and that interracial relationships are not the key to ending racism.

Mitt’s death affects each of his parents differently. Henry, who learned his stoicism from his parents, considers Mitt’s death an accident and does not react emotionally; he hardly mentions Mitt in the year after his death. Lelia is emotionally distraught and believes Mitt’s death was a karmic punishment for her birthing a biracial child: “Maybe it’s that Mitt wasn’t all white or all yellow. I go crazy thinking about it. Don’t you? Maybe the world wasn’t ready for him. God. Maybe it’s that he was so damn happy” (139). Mitt happened to record his voice on Henry’s tape recorder while he was alive, and listening to the tapes after Mitt’s death helps Henry open up emotionally.