A Study Of Henry’s Identity In Native Speaker From Perspective Of Narratology

Chang-rae Lee who has published six novels,including Native Speaker,A Gesture Life,Aloft,The Surrendered,On Such a Full Sea and My Year Abroad,is one of the most celebrated Korean American writers.Lee’s debut novel—Native Speaker got high praise from the public as soon as it was published in 1995.Ethnic minorities’ identity is one of the themes of Native Speaker.In the novel,not only Henry Park,but also his parents,John Kwang or even his spy colleagues have identity problems.As the narrator of this novel,Henry not only recounts what he sees and hears during spying the middle-aged Korean American John who is a councilman of New York City,but also recalls the past with his parents,wife and the only child.As Henry continues approaching John,he is unconsciously influenced by Korean culture.This awakens Henry’s recognition of his Korean identity.When Henry is disappointed with intrigues in American society,he resigns and returns home without any hesitation.After listening to his wife’s ESL courses,Henry gradually understands the meaning of“mother tongue” and reexamines his personal identity.The research object of this thesis is the identity of the protagonist and narrator in Native Speaker—Henry Park,a Korean American spy.The research methodology is narrative time and narrative space.Narrative time includes narrative order,narrative duration and narrative frequency,which plays a significant role in revealing the root of Henry’s identity loss and the process of his identity reconstruction.Narrative space consists of the physical space,social space,psychological space and spatial structure.Among them,the physical space is of great importance to lead to the loss and reconstruction of Henry’s personal identity;the social space puts Henry in a dilemma,which in turn makes Henry feel no sense of belonging in personal and ethnic identity;the psychological space directly reflects Henry’s inner thoughts which reveals his identity condition;the spatial structure renders itself much closely connected with Henry’s identity,enabling to enrich the theme of this novel.The diverse narrative strategies adopted by Chang-rae Lee clearly show Henry’s identity from loss to reconstruction.The analysis of Henry’s identity can help readers grasp the plight of ethnic minorities who are in foreign land,and understand the writing intention of the writer Chang-rae Lee and the meaning of the novel’s title.At the same time,it also helps people who are facing personal identity loss like Henry to get out of the trouble.