Native Speaker Discussion Questions

In Native Speaker, how is Henry Park like his father in exploiting other immigrants?

Henry criticizes his father for being an immigrant who exploits other immigrants, his employees. Henry’s father exploits recent immigrants by paying them poorly and demanding long hours. Henry realizes that his job is much the same. He makes money from lying to and then betraying immigrants and ethnic minorities. After Henry betrays John Kwang, he realizes this about himself, saying, “I have exploited my own… This forever is my burden to bear.”

In Native Speaker, why does Henry say that he sees John Kwang’s masks fall away until only one face is left?

John Kwang is a man who projects a public image of himself that is not aligned with his private self. As Henry gets closer to Kwang, he sees more and more the real man. He sees him as sometimes angry, violent, drunk, overly patriarchal. He sees him broken with guilt. In the end, he sees his “wide immigrant face.” In this moment, Henry realizes that being an immigrant is at the core of who Kwang is, just as being a first-generation Korean American is at his own core, for better or worse.

In Native Speaker, how do Henry Park’s feelings about his parents’ strict Korean home affect his own parenting?

Henry is often resentful of their parenting, with its focus on appearances and reserve. It made him an emotionally limited person. He wants to give his son more of Lelia’s culture. So he does not make Mitt obey Korean customs or be overly respectful of elders, and he only half-heartedly takes him to Korean school.

How does the motif of lists function in Native Speaker?

A list begins the novel—the list of descriptors Lelia has compiled to express her sense that Henry is emotionally absent and dishonest. John Kwang memorizes lists of his voters and potential voters as a mental discipline. Henry keeps and memorizes a list of Kwang’s money club members. All of these lists are related to the discovery of identity. Lelia’s list is who she thinks Henry is, and he uses it as a tool for self-exploration. John Kwang’s memorizing of his voter list is likened to a “martial art… by which you gradually came to know yourself.” And when Henry memorizes the list of Kwang’s money club members, he realizes their stories are his story, and he identifies with them.

In Native Speaker, how is being born “this end of a long plane ride from Seoul” like a metaphor for Henry’s life?

Henry is born on the journey from one country to another, just barely on American soil. As such, he is born an American, but only just. This physical reality acts as a metaphor for Henry’s sense of being between cultures. He is somewhere between being Korean and being fully American—an American more in name than in practice.