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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Native Speaker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Multiculturalism
Silence, Language, and Communication
Racism and Xenophobia
Love, Loss, and Moving On
Summary
Analysis
It’s several days after the bombing, and Kwang still hasn’t emerged from his office on the top story of his house. The volunteers are busy at work on the ground floor of the house—he wants them gathered there together, but he doesn’t feel the need to see them. He just wants everyone to be united in this time of sorrow. But the press won’t leave him alone. They’re eager for some kind of statement. Meanwhile, rumors are flying about who planted the bomb. People blame different groups, including those from the Black, Indian, and Chinese communities. Each accusation makes Henry think of something Kwang once said in a speech: “If you beat your brother with his stick, […] he’ll come back around and beat you with yours.”
The media wants to blow the bombing out of proportion by pitting various racial or ethnic groups against each other. Kwang is therefore hesitant to say anything in public about the incident, perhaps fearing that anything he might say would just fuel the fire of division and hatred already besieging his community. At the same time, his silence is in keeping with the kind of silence that Henry embraces in moments of hardship, suggesting that the two men respond to such difficulties in similar ways.
Themes
Among the many rumors, there’s one circulating that the bombers specifically wanted to kill Eduardo. Henry considers this possibility. If somebody wanted to antagonize Kwang, killing Eduardo would be a good way to do it, since he liked the young man so much. Whether or not this is what happened, there’s no denying that Kwang has been deeply impacted on an emotional level. Sherrie is worried about how he’s responding to the disaster—the fact that he hasn’t made a public statement yet concerns her. When Kwang’s wife tells Henry that Kwang wants to see him in the next day or two, Sherrie pulls him aside and tells him to be delicate with the councilman: don’t get him worked up, she insists.
Because of Kwang’s silence about the bombing, everyone is left to guess at how he’s feeling and what might have happened. Even the people closest to him aren’t really sure what he’s thinking. And yet, Sherrie still tries to manage the chaos by telling Henry to be gentle in his upcoming conversation with Kwang. Kwang’s wife’s warning also recalls how Henry’s mother scolded Henry to not speak to his father about the grocery stores, another way the novel draws similarities between Kwang and Henry’s father.
Themes
The next day, Henry visits Kwang in his room at the top of the house. They drink whiskey and talk for a while. Kwang tells a story about watching his eldest son get berated by a racist white kid. Instead of interfering, he let the scene play out, curious to see what his son would do. Finally, his son punched the other boy in the face. Kwang’s son broke into tears only when Kwang stopped the fight and got him into the car.
Kwang’s story most likely reminds Henry of his own experience as a father trying to figure out how to support Mitt when he encountered racism. Yet again, then, the novel reminds readers of how just how much Henry and Kwang have in common—which, in turn, makes it that much harder for Henry to do his job by secretly undermining the councilman as a spy.
Themes
When the conversation finally turns to the bombing, Henry subtly urges Kwang to make a statement. But Kwang angrily refuses. He says it doesn’t matter who’s responsible for the act of violence. What everyone wants, he thinks, is for him to turn the entire ordeal into a “matter of race.” He thinks that speaking about what happened would only play into the growing narrative that Americans are deeply divided from one another—a message he’s unwilling to push.
Kwang’s entire political approach revolves around uniting his constituents, regardless of what racial or ethnic group they belong to. Therefore, he doesn’t want to address the media, knowing that reporters will surely spin his words into a larger narrative about the division at play in the very community he’s working to unify.
Themes
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Kwang talks about how much he trusts Henry. He can see that Henry has made his way into the organization and that everyone likes him—so much, in fact, that nobody even thinks about his initial reason for joining them, which was to write an article. Kwang himself often forgets this detail. Still, though, he doesn’t mind because he suspects that Henry has come to genuinely believe in their cause. He then takes out a piece of paper with Eduardo’s handwriting on it. It’s a long list of names and corresponding personal information. Kwang explains that this is what Eduardo was working on at the time of his death. It’s also what Kwang wants Henry to take over. But before he looks at it, Kwang says, he’ll have to agree to come onboard full-time.
Henry has reached the last hurdle before fully entering the circle of John Kwang’s close confidantes. This was, of course, his initial goal, or at least the goal he was supposed to be working toward as a spy infiltrating the Kwang organization. Even though he hasn’t been trying particularly hard to get close to Kwang, he has ended up doing so anyway, which is a possible testament to just how much he’s drawn to Kwang on a personal level because of their similar cultural backgrounds.
Themes
