Cultural Assimilation In Native Speaker By Chang-Rae Lee

In his novel Native Speaker, Chang-rae Lee argues that the learning English in and of itself is a method of cultural assimilation forced on immigrants and their families in the United States. This argument can be seen through the words and thoughts of Lee’s narrator. “‘The polls say people are against bilingualism,’ I said. ‘They’re against giving anything more to immigrants’” (37). Henry Park, the first-person narrator, says this in the present day to his coworker at the spy agency while performing research on his target: a Korean-American immigrant named John Kwang. Park likely means that the majority of people in New York City are against forcing school students to learn more than one language. Given that United States education requirements have schools teaching English, this means the people are against learning languages other than English. The second half of what Henry says, connecting it to “giving” to immigrants, implies the people view language as power and a sort of necessity that they want to hold on to. They do not want to give immigrants a place in education, …show more content…
He appears to lament the assimilation, such as when Henry longs for the jar of his father’s Konglish and mentions that he “presumed” his Korean was a useless language – implying that he no longer believes so (285, 337). However, Lee clearly acknowledges the force with which it is implemented and the relations between it and perceived success by non-immigrant Americans. It is through such a thorough examination of language and assimilation that Lee builds his novel, and it is upon this foundation that he truly shows the depth of the struggle of