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Chapter 18
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
John Kwang has lost his confident charm. He looks tired and overworked, but he finally agrees to speak before television cameras, choosing to do so from the ruins of the office—a decision Janice advises against, since it suggests defeat. During the appearance, he speaks without confidence. He does, however, manage to end the press conference before the reporters ask the question that is on everyone’s mind: namely, how a young college student like Eduardo managed to pay for an expensive apartment in Manhattan that even his family didn’t know about. News of this detail has spread through the papers like wildfire, as people want to know what he was up to.
The new detail about Eduardo’s secret apartment is somewhat mystifying. It’s unclear why Kwang would finance an apartment for Eduardo in the city, but it's also unclear why—or how—Eduardo would pay for the apartment on his own as a college student without much money. Either way, the detail hints that there’s more information about Eduardo lurking beneath the surface—information that perhaps has to do with why he was killed in the bombing.
Themes
Henry, for his part, wonders if Eduardo was stealing money from Kwang. He goes through all of the records, but he can’t find any evidence of this theory. The only thing he discovers is that Eduardo kept impeccable records. Meanwhile, Kwang’s approval ratings nosedive, and even his most loyal workers begin to distance themselves from him. He sends his wife and children upstate so that he can weather this period on his own, though he’s not completely alone because Henry continues to visit his house.
Kwang’s popularity suffers because of the rumor circulating about Eduardo’s secret apartment, but also because of his failure to appear before the public in the aftermath of the bombing. His community looks to him for leadership; by staying out of the spotlight, then, he ultimately undermines his own position. It doesn’t seem to matter that he justifies his silence by claiming that the media would weaponize his words and use them to spread a divisive message.
Themes
Late one night, Kwang comes downstairs in his pajamas. His hair is messy from sleep, and he tells Henry to stop working so that they can drink together. As they get drunk, he insists on singing Korean folk songs, but Henry doesn’t know very many—his Korean isn’t very good, and he can’t remember most of the songs.
Henry is now in a perfect position to get information out of Kwang. After all, the councilman is in an emotionally vulnerable state, so one might think it would be easy to get him to give up some sensitive details. And yet, it’s unlikely that Henry will take this chance to ply Kwang, since he has been so hesitant to do so throughout the entire novel.
Themes
After singing, Kwang explains the lyrics of one of the songs, which is about a young man who hates farming for his parents, so he leaves his family to make it on his own in a nearby city. He becomes a successful businessman who sells fine silks. One day, a customer orders funeral clothes for someone who died in the young man’s old village. When he asks who died, the customer says his mother’s name. After crying a bit, he decides to visit home for the first time in nine years. When he gets there, he asks to see his father, and a young woman takes him to a field and points at a hillside. “Where is he?” asks the young man, and the woman explains that she’s pointing at the place where all of the village’s poor people are buried.
The song Kwang sings illustrates one of the most challenging potential realities of leaving home to seek out new opportunities. In the song, the young man leaves his family in the hopes of finding more lucrative work—much like Henry’s own father did when he left Korea even though he studied at the country’s most respectable college. Like Henry’s father, the young man in the song finds success, but the song makes it clear that this success comes at a certain price: he had to give up his entire past, ultimately estranging himself from his family and home. Similarly, Henry’s father and John Kwang both had to make sacrifices to gain upward mobility in the United States.
Themes
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Henry and Kwang talk about what it’s like to be Korean American, and Henry gradually realizes that he’s impulsively “searching out the raw spots in him.” It’s simply part of his training to find Kwang’s weak spots. With this in mind, he asks how Kwang’s wife and children are doing. His question hits a nerve. Kwang asks Henry to answer his own question, so Henry suggests that Kwang’s children probably miss him. The response puts Kwang in a combative mood, telling Henry to go ahead and ask him about Eduardo and the secret apartment—he is, after all, the only person who hasn’t asked.
Even though Henry hasn’t tried very hard throughout the novel to find out secret information about Kwang, he now finds himself doing exactly that—he can’t help it, he thinks, ultimately suggesting that he normally feels as if spy work is a second-nature talent. In this case, he doesn’t necessarily want to betray Kwang by spying on him, but he’s so accustomed to doing this work that he finds himself rooting around for Kwang’s weaknesses. He perhaps feels like he’s betraying a part of himself by subtly undermining a fellow Korean American in this way.
Themes
Kwang mocks Henry for sounding too formal even in moments of tension, so Henry asks what Kwang wants him to sound like. Kwang suddenly switches to Korean, and Henry yells, “Aayeh!” Kwang likes the turn the conversation has taken, telling Henry to yell at him more—he doesn’t have to treat him like an elder. He is, after all, not Henry’s father, nor is he Henry’s friend. They’re now standing inches apart from each other. After a moment, Kwang says, “Watch out, boy,” and slowly backs away. They sit in silence for a long time. It’s almost four in the morning when Kwang finally gets up. He tells Henry to be ready in half an hour—they’re going out.
Kwang is a little unpredictable. In some moments, he’s a kind and affable leader willing to shower his constituents and campaign workers with support. In other moments, his temper comes out and he inadvertently reveals a certain egotistical way of moving through the world. Right now, for instance, he urges Henry to stand up to him by suggesting that he’s not an elder, but this is more of a challenge than anything, as if he’s subtly implying the opposite: that he is in a position of power over Henry. Although there might not be the same Korean hierarchal norms surrounding their relationship (norms that both men grew up with), it’s clear that Kwang is in the dominant role, as made abundantly clear when he says, “Watch out, boy.”
Themes
Henry brings the car around, and Kwang gets in the back. They drive through the empty, sleepy streets, and Henry can tell that Kwang is thinking about the grand plans he had to become a powerful politician who would unite the city’s many immigrants. As they make their way into Manhattan, Kwang gives Henry an address and explains that it’s Sherrie’s. Henry doesn’t respond, but he obediently drives Kwang to see Sherrie, who eventually comes out and gets in the car. Her husband is away, and Henry can tell that this isn’t the first time this kind of late-night meeting has happened.
Although Henry and Kwang have just had a very tense conversation in which Kwang asserted his dominance, the exchange seems to have cleared the air—at least for Kwang. He now seems even more willing to let Henry into his private life, showing no reservations about revealing to Henry that he’s in an extramarital relationship with Sherrie. In a way, then, their confrontation has only made them closer, though it’s unclear if Henry feels this way. Henry, though, is perhaps the only person willing to challenge Kwang or stand up to him, and Kwang may read this willingness as a kind of respect.
Themes
With Sherrie in the car, Kwang directs Henry to a Korean night club. Henry knows that at these kinds of bars the bartenders are all young Korean women who will flirt with and even kiss the customers, though they’re not sex workers. Upon arriving at the club, Henry can tell (once again) that Kwang and Sherrie have been here together before. The three of them take a private room and are joined by a young Korean waitress. It quickly becomes clear that Kwang wants the waitress to preoccupy Henry while he and Sherrie become intimate in the very same room. Kwang even addresses her in Korean, saying, “Young lady, please earn your money tonight.”
It's obvious that Kwang is in a downward spiral. Having lost his political popularity, he’s acting erratically and impulsively, ultimately living the life of a wild, fun-loving celebrity instead of comporting himself like a widely respected politician. It’s almost as if the media’s attempt to villainize him has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy: the more everyone doubts him, the more Kwang plays into their expectations, abandoning his identity as a self-made politician devoted to cultural unity and embracing a rougher persona.
Themes
As the young waitress touches and massages Henry, Kwang comments on how formal and uncomfortable he looks. Finally, Sherrie tells Kwang to stop, saying, “John, he’s not Eddy. He doesn’t like it.” But Kwang tells her to be quiet. Sherrie gets angry and starts yelling, demanding to know why, exactly, Henry is even here. When Kwang orders Henry to take Sherrie home, Sherrie tells him not to bother—she’s taking a cab. But when she gets up, the door is locked. She bangs on it, but it doesn’t open. Meanwhile, Kwang comes up behind her and physically restrains her. Seeing that he’s hurting her, Henry tackles him. Just then, the door opens, and Sherrie manages to slip out while Kwang and Henry fight.
Although Henry backed down when Kwang challenged him earlier, he now acts out against the councilman, spurred on by the rough way Kwang handles Sherrie. It’s quite clear at this point that something inside Kwang has snapped—ever since the bombing, he has totally transformed. He used to be a charming and respectable politician, but now he acts like a defeated yet domineering man hell-bent on living a life of vice and indulgence. This transformation is quite startling, ultimately suggesting that it can be hard for people to maintain their true sense of self while occupying positions of power. What’s more, American society’s apparent unwillingness to accept Kwang—a political outsider—as a leader also might have played into his demise, indicating that immigrants who work their way to positions of power face even more challenges than the average American citizen might face in the same position.
Themes
Kwang yells at Henry for getting in his way. They stop fighting, and Kwang downs another drink, claiming that Sherrie is the one hurting him. Everyone, he says, is against him and doesn’t understand what he’s trying to do. Even Eduardo was like that, he says, prompting Henry to suggest that Eduardo must have been stealing. The suggestion confuses Kwang, who goes on to explain that Eduardo was betraying him in a different way. He was collecting information from Kwang’s entire operation and reporting it to someone. Kwang thinks he was probably spying on behalf of Mayor De Roos. Kwang decided to let the Korean gang deal with Eduardo, though he claims that he didn’t know what they would do.
Kwang now reveals that he’s to blame for the bombing, though he insists that he didn’t necessarily know the gang would bomb the headquarters. It remains unclear whether or not he knew Eduardo would die. Either way, what’s evident is that Kwang has no tolerance for people who betray him. Moreover, it appears that Eduardo was doing pretty much the same thing Henry has been assigned to do, meaning that Henry has reason to fear for his own safety—if, that is, Kwang finds out that Henry is spying on him.
Themes
Kwang waits desperately for Henry to say something, hoping he’ll offer something supportive. But Henry is silent. After a while, Kwang tells him to go to hell and then picks the young waitress off the floor. She apologizes for how drunk she is, but he doesn’t care. Henry leaves as she gives Kwang a lap dance. On his way out, he leaves the car keys on the private room’s small couch.
Throughout the novel, Henry has harbored respect for Kwang, even though his job is to spy on him and, in doing so, effectively undermine his efforts. Now, though, he seems to have lost that respect, having just learned that Kwang is responsible for Eduardo’s death. Despite the fact that he identifies with Kwang as a Korean American, he no longer seems to want to help him. This is why he leaves the car keys on the couch, basically giving up his role as Kwang’s protector and leaving the councilman to his own devices.
Themes
