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Examining the Roles of Whiteness and Patriarchy in Chang-rae Lees Native Speaker
In American society, there is often a fixation by its inhabitants on aspiring to become
individuals, reflective of personality qualities that are valued by the white heterocapitalist
patriarchy in which America is. Often, minorities (groups that are minorities through sex, gender,
race, or sexual preference) are encouraged, though usually inadvertently, to aspire to achieve
whiteness and to ultimately give in to patriarchy. Through this, it is difficult to be any type of
minority in America: to be scrutinized ruthlessly and constantly and to feel as if you are a
stranger in your country. Chang-rae Lees debut novel, Native Speaker, undoubtedly portrays a
sense of anxiety and unease with hyphenated identity; he effortlessly conveys the strain of what
it is to be a first-generation Korean-American and the struggles that accompany it. While those
ideas can merely be pulled from a simple reading of the novels title, there is another subject
matter that can be found. Within Native Speaker, there lies both a challenging and upholding of
American white patriarchal values and the protagonists battle with the ideas of the two
ideologies.
The first few pages of the novel provide with readers a list of scathing phrases that the
narrator and protagonists, Henry Park, wife writes of him and leaves him with. Included in the
list, formulated almost as poetry (which Henry at first mistakes it as), are phrases such as, B+
student of life/first thing hummer of Wagnes and Strauss/illegal alien/emotional alien/genre
bug/Yellow peril: neo American... (4) Though some of the phrases can be read as racist, they do
reveal and introduce the underlying power struggle between Henry and Lelia, how their
relationship can so easily switch gears between who and who is not in control. In his essay,
Where the Talented Tenth Meets the Model Minority: The Price of Privilege in Widemans
Philadelphia Fire and Lees Native Speaker, James Kyung-Jin Lee contends that:

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Lelia is notsimply rehearsing racist slogan to the effect that Asians are perpetual
foreigners. Instead, she exposes what Henry feels all too keenly, that his English, his
speech, his writing, his relationship to language is almost too perfect. (Kyung-Jin Lee
252)
In this context, Lelia can be viewed as one who exposes Henry for who he truly is, which is
ironic due to his occupation in espionage. Lelia serves Henry a reminder that he will most likely
never completely and fully assimilate into American culture, that no matter how flawless he
makes his language, he still will never be looked at as anything other than an immigrant,
although he is, in fact, an American citizen. Liam Corley claims, in his essay, Just Another
Ethnic Pol: Literary Citizenship in Chang-rae Lees Native Speaker, Like all citizens of nonAnglo-European descent, Asian Americans undergo a double scrutiny when attempting to enjoy
the full spectrum of rights guaranteed to Americans, regardless of race. (Corley 63) Henry, like
most other racial minorities in America, must employ the concept of double consciousness:
where he must embrace one side of his culture, while simultaneously ignoring the other side. He
does this, or at least attempts, in his relationship with Lelia as well as in other aspects of his life.
By employing this idea of double consciousness as a way in which he conducts his life,
Henry Park uses this as a way to somewhat protect himself from the ills of American racism and
prejudice and nearly succeeds in that respect. He fashions himself in a way in which he can
appear to be as Westernized as possible, leaving no room for any non-Korean American citizens
to question exactly where it is that he is from. That is, until he meets his wife, Lelia. Lelia serves
as juxtaposition to Henry Park in Native Speaker, as the ultimate dream of whiteness that it
sometimes appears that Park desires, that most racial minorities at one point desire, not just to be
white but to experience the freedom from racial prejudice that comes with being white. For

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example, during a sex scene between Henry and Lelia, there comes a flooding of issues that are
apparent, all throughout the novel, in their marriage. Lee writes, She wanted me to push down
on her harder. I couldnt, so then she turned us around and pushed down on me, the slightest
grimace stealing across her face. Her body yawned above me, buoyed and restless. (229) By
admitting that he cannot be more sexually aggressive with Lelia, Henry is ultimately admitting
that he cannot fulfill the patriarchal standards set for men in society. This admittance is also
resminiscent of the stereotype that Asian men are more feminized than men of other races, that
they are somehow inferior because they do not embody that version of white masculinity. It
seems that Henry, in this scene, is remorseful of that fact, showing white patriarchys damage on
him.
Corley also comments on this same sex scene, writing, She [Lelia] therefore inverts their
sexual/political roles and uses the greater (social) force afforded to white bodies to facilitate
Henrys sexual penetration of her body and the consummation of her pleasure. (64) The scene
serves as a reminder of the roles that the two play in society: Henry as a man of color and Lelia
as a white woman. Both individuals can serve as both oppressor and oppressed, as Henry has his
male privilege to fall back on and Lelia has her white privilege to aid her societal superiority.
Henrys privilege and masculinity can be best seen through his ability to shut Lelia out of his
inner thoughts and feelings, particularly through his Korean heritage as well as through the death
of their son. Henry exerts his patriarchal privilege through his ignorance of his fathers
housekeepers name. Henry says of this situation that:
Americans live on a first-name basis. She [Lelia] didnt understand that there werent
moments in our languagethe rigorous, regimental one of family and servantswhen
the womans name could have naturally come out. Or why it wasnt importantI never

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heard my father speak her name in all the years she was with us. But then he never even
called my mother by her name, nor did she ever in my presence speak his. (Lee 68)
It does not seem to be merely a coincidence that the two people focused on closely in not having
importance placed on their name be women. Though in his relationship with Lelia, Henry seems
to be understanding and is mindful of exhibiting any signs of misogyny, his nonchalance at the
fact that his housekeepers name is unknown to him shows that he is exerting his male privilege
while simultaneously being ignorant of it. He does not seem to know or care that he is upholding
patriarchy and Lelias recognition of that is not simply an American concern, but a gendered one.
The very fact that she is shown to be compassionate and caring about the fact that, to Henry, the
housekeeper has no name, also feminizes her.
Lelias white privilege and her character as a symbol and literal, physical manifestation of
whiteness, show up again and again in Native Speaker. In her note to Henry where she refers to
him as all of those scathing phrases, she sexualizes him by writing that he is great in bed. (4)
There is a history of Asian individuals being subject to fetishization by white people and it
appears that through this simple phrase, Lelia is merely continuing a stereotype. Even in their
first meeting, Lelia, perhaps inadvertently, employs her white privilege. Lelia describes herself
and what she does, saying, So I work for a relief agencyI drive a pickup truck. I deliver boxes
of canned food and old clothes to some neighborhoods around town. Many of the people there
are illegals, Mexicans and Asians. Whole secret neighborhoods brown and yellow. Tell me, am I
being offensive? (Lee 10-11) Already, Lelia is exerting her power over him by intentionally
saying off-color things and knowing that, ultimately, she is able to get away with it. Lee also
creates Lelia to be physically manifesting the picture of privilege and masculinity. In another
intimate scene between her and Henry, Lee writes:

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We liked to squat in the hot water with me behind her and crossing my arms so that I
wrapped her breasts like belts of ammunition. Sometimes she would grab the backs of my
knees and lift me onto her shoulders and slowly walk me around the tub. She took
pronounced, heaving steps, and hummed something low with the stammer of each step.
(24)
Though he does an impressive job of not gendering Lelia so much and painting her as a
complicated, multidimensional human being, the way in which Henry Park (via Chang-rae Lee)
describes Lelia can often be masculinized. By having Lelia serve in the role of the dominant in
the intimate, albeit sexual, sphere, there is a tendency to view her as masculine. One can make
the assumption that she is a rather large woman, given that Lee describes her steps as
pronounced and heaving, descriptions that would not fit someone who is feminine and
dainty. By employing her in a more masculine role, Lelia is then set up to be an additional
challenge to patriarchal values.
Racial challenges also are at work in Native Speaker. Though an obvious observation, the
problems that race presents is quite unusual and their treatment by Chang-rae Lee are just as
unusual. Michelle Young-Mee Rhee contends, in her article, Greater Lore: Metafiction in
Chang-rae Lees Native Speaker, Lees innovative way of questioning identity through the
trope of the immigrant spy misleads most readers into neglecting the author more interesting
metacommentary on the challenges specific to Asian American writers in America. (157) Rhee,
essentially, maintains that Henry Parks difficulties as a Korean-American spy are Lees way of
also exposing the challenges of Asian writers in the world of American literature. Native Speaker
also explores the concept of the model minority and what that might mean to readers as well as
to Henry Park and John Kwang. Rhee writes:

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The model minority myth first emerged in 1966 following the Watts Riots, when articles
began to appear in print media such as Fortune Magazine and The New Republic,
focusing on the diligence and success of Asian Americans. (159)
This concept, thus, treats Asians as the racial minority who has overcome difficulties and
challenges thrown at them as immigrants and have risen above them. The model minority myth
maintains the idea that Asians are the best minority because they have done what no other
racial minorities before them have done: they have made it.
In Native Speaker, Henry Park appears to be the perfect picture of the model minority. He
is a master of the English language, being able to manipulate it so easily. Kyung-Jin Lee writes,
Henry, throughout the story, is obsessed with language. (247) This claim could easily be
proven true, particularly through his preoccupation with the fact that his wife insists that he is a
false speaker of language. (5) This accusation seems to remain with him through the duration
of the novel. After his conversation with Jack in which Jack asks him if he likes him, Henry
Park remains silent, noting of his silence, I celebrate every order of silence borne of the tongue
and the heart and the mind. I am a linguist of the field. (170) By describing himself as a linguist,
Park is implying that he has a command of the language that is one that is worthy of the stamp of
expertise, that he has power because he understands the magnitude of power that comes with
silence. The deft ability to manipulate language is a symbol that one is comfortable and fluent
with that language. Henry exhibits signs of being able to uphold patriarchal values, his
masculinization coming through his lingual expertise.
At one point in the novel, Henry Park says of John Kwangs usage of language as well as
commenting on his own framing of Kwangs story:

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With John Kwang I wrote exemplary reports but I couldnt accept the idea that Hoagland
would be combing through them. It seemed like an unbearable encroachment. An
exposure of a different order, as if I were offering a private fact about my father or
mother to a complete stranger in one of our stores. Perhaps this was because John Kwang
constantly spoke of us as his own, of himself as a part of us. Though he rarely called you
brother, sister, son. He was prudent with his language. (146)
This description, albeit a small one, of his writing process and how he thinks of his writing is a
fascinating framing of the process. It appears that Henry Parks writing is navigating both the
public and private sphere, due to the intimacy of his relationship with his subject. This passage
reveals exactly how Park feels about Kwang, particularly with the fact that he compares his
writing about him to his own discussion of his parents. It instantly creates a sense of comradery
between the two men, indicative of the familial connection that exists among members of the
same racial minority, who try to find a sense of belonging with each other that they cannot find
elsewhere. This connection adds a positive note to Native Speaker, speaking to the benefit of
community which is why Parks later actions to Kwang discount any sense of loyalty within
racial communities, particularly Korean-American ones. This sense of connection is also
furthered through a scene where Kwang and Park are having a conversation. Lee writes, I didnt
have to tell John Kwang the first thing about my father and our life, at least in relation to what he
was talking about. I told him what my ah-boh-jee had done for work. Simply, it felt good not
having to explain any further. (181) Though it sometimes does run the risk of essentializing the
Korean-American experience, the relationship that exists between the two men is one that speaks
more to the benefit of racial representation in individual lives and the commonality that ensues,
rather than of essentialism.

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Michelle Young-Mee Rhee claims that the treachery caused between two KoreanAmericans in the novel is a direct challenge to the stereotype of the model minority. (163) Rhee
writes, This unexpected cruelty between Asian Americans in Native Speaker illuminates a much
more delicate line between victim and victimizer. Asian Americans become model citizens in
precisely the same way that model citizenship can be dismantled: through betrayal. (163) When
Henry Park turns on John Kwang, the effect that this has on the perception of the
relationship among Asian Americans, in this case Korean Americans, is that Asians become
the model minority through the mimicking of whiteness. In Native Speaker, after Henry
Park ultimately betrays Kwang, he notes:
My ugly immigrants truth, as was his, is that I have exploited my own, and those
others who can be exploited. This forever is my burden to bear. But I and my kind
possess another dimension. We will learn every lesson of accent and idiom, we will
dismantle every last pretense and practice you hold, noble as well as ruiniousHere
is all of my American education. (Lee 318)
America has been built constantly on the exploitation of others and of learning peoples
disadvantages and using this knowledge to get ahead in society. Park, in this passage,
ultimately indicts America, as well as himself, for the trouble that he has caused. He claims
that America made him this way, which is an accusation that does not seem to be too far
from the truth. In truth, Park simply seems to be upholding white patriarchal standards by
exposing one of his own. This action also furthers the model minority stereotype.
Additionally, it is no coincidence that Mitt, the biracial son of Lelia and Henry, is the one
who dies from this society. Mitt is the symbol of two worlds come together, as he is both white

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and Korean. There can be no place for him in this society, as he will always be attempting to
make a place for himself where there is none. He cannot truly exist in this world, even taking
into consideration, the perils of his father existing merely as a Korean-American, there is no real
place for biracial individuals to exist, fully and completely. A poignant scene in Native Speaker
provides Henrys feelings regarding Mitts place in the world. Park says, The truth of my
feeling, exposed and ugly to me now, is that I was the one who was hoping for whiteness for
Mitt, being fearful of what I might have bestowed on him: all that too-ready devotion and
honoring, and the chilly pitch of my blood, and then all that burning language that I once
presumed useless, never uttered and never lived. (Lee 284-285) Mitt is literally the ultimate
challenge the white patriarchy, a body that holds the blood of two cultures. Henry laments in this
passage of the failure of language, his prized possession, in expressing any feelings that he may
have had toward his son.
The themes found in Native Speaker are ones that are as complicated as the novel itself.
Though the novel mainly focuses on the concept of assimilation and the perils of it, it can also be
viewed as a direct and indirect challenge to the white heterocapitalist patriarchy. Henry Parks
character alone can be easily viewed as that challenge, as he is a Korean American man
navigating the world as a spy. As he contends with himself over language and identity, his
identification as a man is a challenge to the values of white masculinity. Though sometimes
upholding them, Native Speaker defies patriarchal standards through the concepts of racial and
gender identity, language, and the acceptance of who one truly is.

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WORKS CITED
Corley, Liam. Just Another Ethnic Pol: Literary Citizenship in Chang-rae Lees
Native Speaker. Studies in the Literary Imagination 37.1 (2004): 61-81. Print.
Lee, Chang-rae. Native Speaker. New York: Penguin Group, 1995. Electronic.
Lee, James Kyung-Jin. Where the Talented Tenth Meets the Model Minority: The Price of
Privilege in Widemans Philadelphia Fire and Lees Native Speaker. Novel: A Forum on
Fiction 35.2-3 (2002): 231-57. Electronic.
Rhee, Michelle Young-Mee. Greater Lore: Metafiction in Chang-rae Lees
Native Speaker. MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic
Literature of the United States 36.1 (2011): 157-176. Electronic.

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