Native Speaker

“And yet you may know me. I am an amiable man. I can be most personable, if not charming, and whatever I possess in this life is more or less the result of a talent I have for making you feel good about yourself when you are with me. In this sense I am not a seducer. I am hardly seen. I won’t speak untruths to you, I won’t pass easy compliments or odious offerings of flattery. I make do with on-hand materials, what I can chip out of you, your natural ore. Then I fuel the fire of your most secret vanity.”

In this first characterization of Henry as amiable, personable, and hardly seen, Lee is actually characterizing other people. Henry has these characterizations because it’s what other people want to see in him. In this quote, Lee proposes that people see what they want to in others, especially if the other fuels their secret vanity. Thus, all criticisms of Henry’s flaws and characterizations are actually criticisms of people in general. Henry only rises to the occasion of what people expect from him and want for themselves. Here, Lee highlights how easy it is to manipulate people into believing one’s inauthenticity.

“What I found was this: that she could really speak. At first I took her as being exceedingly proper, but I soon realized that she was simply executing the language. She went word by word. Every letter had a border. I watched her wide full mouth sweep through her sentences like a figure touring a dark house, flipping on spots and banks of perfectly drawn light.”

This quote emphasizes Henry’s hyper-awareness of speech mannerisms. When he first meets Lelia, he is struck by how she executes language, how every letter has a border. The use of the term “border” here is especially notable, because it implies that Henry’s speech is borderless, emphasizing not only the inherent difference between a Korean husband and his white American wife, but also his careful study of his own accent. He characterizes Lelia’s speech as able to draw perfect light, a beautiful metaphor that juxtaposes with the harsh self-criticism implied in Lelia's white American speech.