The Ggeh as a Symbol for Henry’s Character in Native Speaker
The Immigration Act of 1924, considered a milestone in American history, completely eliminated immigration of Asians into the United States of America. According to the U.S. Department of State, the paramount purpose of this act was “to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity.”1 Americans were determined to shape the identity of those living within the country’s borders into an “ideal American society.” However in 1965, a new Immigration and Neutralization policy was signed, abolishing the previous restrictions on immigration and attracting new skilled laborers into the United States.2 1965 marked a paradigm shift within the minds of Americans from painting a picture using …show more content…
Henry Park is a confused amalgamation of Korean familial values, American societal expectations, and a career of false identities and lies. The complex character of Henry Park presents multiple difficulties for him over the course of the work. One such example is Henry’s subtle abandonment of fluency of his native Korean language. Henry uses his lack of seamless conversational ability as an advantage against his father in the following passage: “My father, thinking that it might be good for business, urged me to show them how well I spoke English, to make a display of it, to casually recite ‘some Shakespeare words.’ I, his princely Hal. Instead, and only in part to spite him, I grunted my best Korean to the other men.”3 A second example of the difficulties presented by Henry’s multiple identities is his inability to truly fit into any specific social sphere (e.g. at his job, with Kwang, with Lelia, etc.). These difficulties originate from Henry’s conflicting identities, and really serve as the cause of Henry’s impending identity crisis. A textual example of this lose-lose situation is the notion that the better Henry performs as a spy, the less honest he feels he is toward his family; and the more honest he is toward his family, the worse he is performing as a spy.4 In summation, Henry’s character is a metaphor for the intricacies behind a term like “Korean-American,” and how the combination of two starkly different cultures can leave one with a confused sense of
The Immigration Act of 1924, considered a milestone in American history, completely eliminated immigration of Asians into the United States of America. According to the U.S. Department of State, the paramount purpose of this act was “to preserve the ideal of American homogeneity.”1 Americans were determined to shape the identity of those living within the country’s borders into an “ideal American society.” However in 1965, a new Immigration and Neutralization policy was signed, abolishing the previous restrictions on immigration and attracting new skilled laborers into the United States.2 1965 marked a paradigm shift within the minds of Americans from painting a picture using …show more content…
Henry Park is a confused amalgamation of Korean familial values, American societal expectations, and a career of false identities and lies. The complex character of Henry Park presents multiple difficulties for him over the course of the work. One such example is Henry’s subtle abandonment of fluency of his native Korean language. Henry uses his lack of seamless conversational ability as an advantage against his father in the following passage: “My father, thinking that it might be good for business, urged me to show them how well I spoke English, to make a display of it, to casually recite ‘some Shakespeare words.’ I, his princely Hal. Instead, and only in part to spite him, I grunted my best Korean to the other men.”3 A second example of the difficulties presented by Henry’s multiple identities is his inability to truly fit into any specific social sphere (e.g. at his job, with Kwang, with Lelia, etc.). These difficulties originate from Henry’s conflicting identities, and really serve as the cause of Henry’s impending identity crisis. A textual example of this lose-lose situation is the notion that the better Henry performs as a spy, the less honest he feels he is toward his family; and the more honest he is toward his family, the worse he is performing as a spy.4 In summation, Henry’s character is a metaphor for the intricacies behind a term like “Korean-American,” and how the combination of two starkly different cultures can leave one with a confused sense of