Discovering Racial Identity: The Novel Native Speaker By Chang-Rae Lee

Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Discovering Racial Identity in Native Speaker
The quest for racial identity is complicated in Nations with multi-ethnic immigrants. Many people remain confused and are not at peace with oneself when embracing their identity and backgrounds. Besides, such immigrants find it difficult get a common ground to live freely. The novel Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee reveals Henry Park as a protagonist who spends much his life to become a Native American. However, his Korean background seemed to dwindle further away as the force of the new country evades him. Henry is brought up in a harsh environment in Korea, and he has perfected the art of hiding emotions. He is good at recalling all the weirdest events and usually feels the sense of alienation. Therefore, he is a spy by nature. Henry suffers an identity crisis in his Korean house within the American environment. The essay discusses the struggles that Henry goes through in his quest to discover his racial identity focusing on where the struggle started and the people who are at fault with the way he values himself.
Chang Rae Lee reveals the theme of racial identity through the lens of the unending struggle of Henry Lee, an immigrant from Korea. Most of the Asian Americans continue to face problems in the American society. The beginning of the struggle that Henry goes through entails knowing the meaning of native America. One clue that Henry notes is the origin of people from a particular place beside ensuring fluency of a language to defend the fundamental aspect of the country. Furthermore, Henry realizes that a person who belongs to his indigenous nation does not linger on possession of citizenship through legal means. Instead, nativity of a person to be an American relies on the accent. Thus, people with a different look and different accent are aliens, outsiders or immigrants. As a result, Henry masks his true identity and struggle to imitate the native language to fit into the mold of Native Americans. Besides, Henry strives to conform to American lifestyle by keeping a positive relationship with his boss as a spy. Through his work, Henry tries to gain acceptance among the peers to identify with the present culture. He is afraid of losing the approval hence stays on the job which worsens his relationships with the American-Korean colleague especially Dr. Luzan and John Kwang.
Henry begins the struggle for racial identification by focusing on self-recognition. He starts to critique his conception of himself through the lens of neutral space outside the borders. Henry chooses the field of a spy as a perfect time or vocation for a person he is since he can reside in a place and take half step out at any moment he wishes. Henry is convinced that he has the correct position in the culture where he belongs. However, Henry finds the Korean culture to be an obstacle to mold in the middle-class Americans even though Henry strives to marry a white woman Lelia. Therefore, he sees blames squarely on the two worlds. The first is the Korean world with...