Native Speaker: The Search for Middle Ground

The Search for Middle Ground

        Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker focuses on the life of Korean-American Henry Park in his journey of self-discovery. The novel encompasses numerous personal struggles as the plot moves back and forth from the past and the present; these include the strain on Henry’s marriage after a tragic loss, his relationships with his parents, and his dedication to a morally questionable job. Henry’s ability to move past these obstacles reflects his realization that he is not just Korean or American – both are essential parts of his identity. As Henry ultimately arrives at a middle ground where he can act at his own will, immune to outside pressures, Lee illustrates the possibility for all immigrants in America to reconcile their two disparate cultural influences.

        Henry was born and raised in New York, but his Korean background remained an inherent component of his identity because of the manner in which his father raised him. Henry was trained to be emotionally tough and reserved – as a child he probably perceived his relationship with his parents to be built on respect rather than love. The difference between his family life and the way other Americans interacted with their parents was obvious, and sometimes made him desire that casual closeness with his own parents. During an early attempt to grasp his identity, Henry once contemplated whether everything would be the same had he been switched with his Korean friend Albert as a baby. Sleeping over at Albert’s house in New Jersey, he witnessed identical characteristics of his own family and “a familiarity arose that should have been impossible but wasn’t and made [him] feel a little sick inside”(97). A sense of a meaningless life accompanies his hypothesis that neither he, nor Albert’s family, nor “any of [they] Koreans, raised as [they] were, would sense the barest tinge of a loss or estrangement”(97) if they had been raised by other Korean parents. From young Henry’s perspective, the Korean way of life that is so rigid and structured has given way to a population of Koreans with indistinguishable qualities.

        As time goes by and Henry matures, the bond between him and his father becomes stronger. Now that Henry is a working family man, George is proud and says, “Maybe you not so dumb after all”(58). Henry is glad to see that his father makes an effort to develop a close and loving relationship with his son Mitt. Interestingly, despite George’s presumable racial pride, he becomes quite fond of Henry’s American wife and half-white son. This may be a result of his purely practical way of looking at things, because he assumed “Lelia and her family would help [Henry] make [his] way in the land”(58). Still, Henry paints his father’s admiration and respect for Lelia as warm and caring, contrasting with how “for most of [his] youth, [he] wasn’t sure that [his father] had the capacity to love”(58).

        Yet, Henry still had not reached a safe middle ground at the time of his father’s death. The last few nights before George’s final stroke, he couldn’t move or speak, and all the while Henry berated him “for the way he had conducted his life with [Henry’s] mother, and then his housekeeper, and his businesses and beliefs, to speak once and for all the less than holy versions of who he was”(49). At this point Henry was clearly wrapped up in a cultural collision, looking at his father from an American perspective. He compared the way George led his life to how Henry thinks he should have in American society. Henry accuses his father of “single-minded determination”(49), but in fact, Henry himself exhibits the same quality while taking advantage of his father’s incapacitation.

        Henry’s unaccepting attitude must have been partly influenced by the opinions of his wife. Henry fell in love with an eccentric, passionate, but temperamental woman named Lelia. They seem to have great chemistry at the start of their relationship, but the sudden death of their 7-year-old son Mitt tests their compatibility and willingness to eventually rebuild their broken marriage. A major source of frustration comes from their inability to openly communicate with one another, specifically Henry who is a natural introvert. The two of them grew up in households worlds apart; Lelia’s family was boisterous and fostered her headstrong mentality, while Henry learned to keep his thoughts and emotions to himself within his home.

One summer when Henry, Lelia, and Mitt are living with his father in Ardsley, Henry is forced to reflect on his relationship with his ahjuhma, something he never considered before. She had come to America to work for Henry’s father after his mother passed away. Understandably, Henry somewhat resisted her when he felt that she was replacing his mother, so the two of them barely ever talked. Ahjuhma was a hardened, traditional Korean woman – industrious, stoical, and seemingly unemotional. She seemed to disapprove of Henry’s non-Korean wife and only half-Korean son, so she kept her distance. Henry didn’t really mind, as he was used to her remaining in the background of his life. But when Lelia found out Henry didn’t even know her real name, she was astonished by the apparent coldness in his attitude toward this woman who had practically raised him, unable to comprehend that “there weren’t moments in [the Korean] language – the rigorous, regimental one of family and servants – when the woman’s name could have naturally come out”(69).