Native Speaker: The Search for Middle Ground

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Henry found it difficult to explain to his wife how people of his culture interact. Lelia stayed hung up on it, taking it as a sign of Henry’s indifferent personality, and had second thoughts about their family: “‘It scares me,’ she said. ‘I just think about you and me. What I am…’”(70). Lelia is accustomed to verbal relationships, and assumed that Henry just never cared enough to talk to Ahjuhma. But after an awkward incident in the laundry room, Lelia was forced to understand that Henry’s silent interaction with Ahjuhma wasn’t his fault. Lelia tried to help her fold clothes as a kind gesture, but the two end up shoving each other, with Ahjuhma screaming at her in Korean, “You cat! You nasty American cat!”(71).

For many years, Henry and Lelia had hardly noticed the differences in their personalities because of how expertly Henry adapted to the American way of life, seemingly subconsciously. Henry acquired a chameleon-like ability, in large part due to the training he received to be a spy. Working for Dennis Hoagland had a great effect on his family and cultural standing:

For ten years [Lelia] hadn’t realized the breadth of what I had accomplished with my exacting competence, the daily work I did, which unto itself became an unassailable body of cover. And the surest testament to the magnificent and horrifying level of my virtuosity was that neither had I. (161)

The dual impact of his actions can be seen with Lelia’s reaction when she finally discovers what his job is – it was the final straw of their marriage troubles, and she leaves the country for a while – and how he slowly loses touch with his inner self because he was always taking on other identities. He was so skilled at what he did though, that the “unassailable body of cover” disguised him not only from his client’s targets, but also from his wife and himself.

The most influential factor that aides Henry in his path to self-discovery is working closely with councilman John Kwang. On the outside, similarly to Henry, Kwang seems perfectly genial, authoritative, and virtuous. But as Henry observes him, picking up details for his report as well as being genuinely drawn to him, he believes he “had a grasp of his identity, not only the many things he was to the public and to his family and to his staff and to me, but who he was to himself, the man he beheld in his most private mirror”(140). Henry then applies the same analysis introspectively, and becomes aware that the man in his “most private mirror” is buried underneath the different images that others want to see in him.

After recognizing this, Henry is then able to reconnect with his wife the same way he did the first night they met, with no pretenses. The healing of their relationship reflects his coming to terms with his inner identity. Furthermore, Henry quits working for Dennis to focus on his own life, rather than meticulously creating and embodying a fictional person. The last chapter implies that Henry does indeed reach a place in his life where he belongs, and in a certain state of mind where he can accept the complexities of mixed identities like his own. Lee’s novel concludes as Henry marvels at his wife “speaking a dozen lovely and native languages, calling all the difficult names of who we are”(349).