In Chang-Rae Lee’s book titled Native Speaker the reader is submerged into Henry Park’s life as a spy and Korean American. Around this story of a spy Chang-Rae Lee effectively intertwines several statements about language—its array of uses and its barriers. One such type of language that he focuses on is the language of silence. Some of Lee’s characters use it as a weapon, a hiding place, or as a tool to place an emphasis on their physical actions rather than the spoken word.
In the scene where Henry is thinking back on his parent’s relationship trying to remember if his father had ever truly loved his mother he says that, “For most of my youth I wasn’t sure that he had the capacity to love” (58). He goes on to describe how his father cared deeply for his mother and had the greatest respect for her. But Henry could never recall a specific point in time where he father had done anything for his mother that he could call love. Henry even says that, “He never said the word, in any language” (58). His father even kept this silent strength of concealing all emotion when Henry’s mother passed away. If Henry’s father had said the words “I love you” it would have exposed his emotions, and broken the strength that he found in his silence. Henry as a child notices his father’s security in his quietness and wants to copy him, especially after the death of his mother, which can be seen when Henry and his father are eating in the restaurant. Here at the restaurant sitting across from his father Henry thinks to himself, “I could be as steely as he, my chin as rigid and unquivering as any of his displays, that I would tolerate no mysteries either, no shadowy wounds or scars of the heart” (59).
Henry recalls yet another time, that not only his father used silence, but his mother did as well. His parents kept his mother’s illness quiet they didn’t want to mention it to Henry at all, so they made up a bunch of lies. Lies about why his mother would go out on Saturday mornings, why she cried, why she was tired, and why her skin looked unhealthy. Because Henry’s parents chose to keep everything even remotely connected to his mother’s illness a hush, hush subject he was not at all able to comprehend that she was dead. He expresses this confusion that they created for him when he says, “For me it was more a disappearance than a death” (77).
Another place in the story where a death is discussed is when Henry is examining his father’s relationship with their maid or Ahjuhma. Henry recollects how they seemed to have a connection with one another and thinks of how he father must have suffered when Ahjuhma died. “I knew he had suffered in his own unspeakable and shadowy way” (81). Even though his father wouldn’t share with Henry how he had suffered after her death, Henry just knew that he had because he had witnessed their close companionship in their daily activities together. His father once again has hidden behind silence, repressing his emotions because this exhibits his strength.
Soon after this, on one of his assignments as a spy Henry meets Janice. And while in conversation with Janice he learns that she has dated a few Asians, but that the one that she especially liked would not talk to her now, which was a result of a fight they had about her having to move back to Chicago with her parents. Janice explained to Henry that she had felt as if she had had the fight with herself, since John Kim, her boyfriend, had not even said a single word to her. She had tried calling him, but his mother who had answered the phone acted as if she had never even heard of her before. In reaction to this, Janice stopped calling and has had to deal with John’s silence ever since. This story of Janice’s had caused Henry to think about how he had seen and learned to use silence as an advantage. “We perhaps depend too often on the faulty honor of silence, use it too liberally and for gaining advantage” (96). After realizing this Henry even admitted to using the power of silence against his wife Leila, “I showed Leila how this was done, sometimes brutally, my face a peerless mask, the bluntest instrument” (96).
Not only has Henry learned to gain advantage from silence, but also he has been able to use it as a beneficial tool in his career as a spy. One instance where we see this is when he first meets Janice, while he’s undercover and she suspects that there’s something more to Henry’s volunteering to work for John Kwang. Henry explains that he is a freelance writer for magazines, but that’s not what Janice thinks. She suspects that there has to be something more to Henry. He keeps quiet through her prodding questions and only replies to them with one word or two word replies. This was a technique that his boss Hoagland had taught him along with “looking straight into her eyes and not saying anything” (89). Henry had craftily used his ability of silence to not reveal too much about himself.
As Henry becomes closer to John Kwang, while working on his assignment he notices how his actions mirror his father’s, especially in the way that he values silence. On of these actions was the sending away of his family when the mess of politics began with the burning of his office building. Henry didn’t expect Kwang to react in this way, he thought that he would be the type of man to keep his loved ones near him during a time of crises. “His move is more what my father would do, what I have learned, too, through all of my life. To send people away or else allow them to go, that is what is most noble to me is the exquisite gift of silence” (296). By sending his family away Kwang is able to keep his image of strength and control over his world in their eyes because they are not present to hear and witness his reactions.
During Henry’s childhood he recalls how he came to learn to use actions over words because, “Even the most minor speech seemed trying” while he was at home with his father (128). He wanted to tell his father that he loved him, but he was unable to with words, so he did it by physical acts such as, studying far into the night, shining his father’s shoes, and never asking him for money. And once when he wanted to make another statement about his mother, he placed a larger bouquet of flowers than his father’s on his mother’s grave. This was how they communicated with one another. This had become their language—the actions with unspoken words.
Through these experiences of Henry’s life the reader is able to gain an understanding of why and how Henry has learned to utilize silence for several various situations in his life. In the book it brings up the issue that Henry is not a native speaker of English or Korean. This is why he has difficulty expressing what he feels, but after exploring his learned language of silence it seems that this is one that he is extremely well versed in.
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