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Chapter 7
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
A week after starting at the Flushing office, Henry sees John Kwang in person. He makes an unexpected visit to the office, and Henry instantly understands why everyone is so drawn to him. He’s magnetic and makes a point of recognizing everyone in the room—even Henry, whom he intently studies for a moment as he passes. He seems to recognize something in Henry, and his look is one of acknowledgment. It’s similar to the way Luzan used to look at him. For the most part, though, Kwang pays attention to Eduardo, shadowboxing with him because they’re both boxers.
Henry finally makes contact with Kwang, though this first encounter isn’t all that substantial. Still, he gets close enough to recognize Kwang’s magnetism and overall appeal. His success as a public figure is all the more significant to Henry because he—like Henry’s own father—is a Korean immigrant who has managed to do very well for himself in the United States. Henry’s father also found success, but not on the same scale as Kwang, so Henry perhaps understands how hard the councilman worked to get where he is.
Themes
John Kwang makes Henry think of his father. He’s confident that his father would have admired Kwang, who—like him—is clearly a hard worker. But Kwang is different from Henry’s father, too. They’re certainly similar because of their Korean backgrounds and their determination to succeed, but Kwang has managed to work his way into American life to a degree that Henry’s father never quite reached. Henry’s father was successful, but he didn’t go beyond owning a number of grocery stores. Kwang, on the other hand, is a kind of Korean man whom Henry has never “conceived of” before—a successful public figure whose influence has reached beyond the confines of the Korean American community.
Henry’s father was, like Kwang, a Korean immigrant who found success in the United States, but Kwang has done so on a much bigger scale. Whereas Henry’s father’s success was primarily monetary, Kwang has managed to rise to a position of power in American society by becoming a councilman. In turn, he has gone far beyond what Henry ever would have expected a man like his father to do, a fact that illustrates just how many challenges people like Henry’s father face as they try to attain upward mobility in the United States.
Themes
