Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Native Speaker, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity and Multiculturalism
Silence, Language, and Communication
Racism and Xenophobia
Love, Loss, and Moving On
Summary
Analysis
Henry obediently writes his logs about Kwang, reporting his daily activities and transmitting them to Hoagland. But he suddenly has trouble describing Kwang, as if he has lost his understanding of the man he’s been assigned to trail. To make up for this strange difficulty, he writes pages and pages of information, but none of it is useful to Hoagland. The entire exercise reminds him of his sessions with Luzan, when he’d often lose himself in long, rambling stories about his childhood. Luzan always let Henry go on at length, encouraging him to say more. The last day Henry saw him, they went over their allotted time, but it didn’t matter—Luzan cancelled all of his other appointments so Henry could keep talking.
Henry’s willingness to talk to Luzan about his life is noteworthy, since he’s otherwise such a quiet, private person. In fact, he’s so unforthcoming that Lelia left him for several months, unable to stand the way he kept his emotions bottled up inside. But the fact that Henry spoke so openly with Luzan indicates that he desperately needed an outlet, ultimately suggesting that holding in strong feelings can be very difficult to do in the long run.
Themes
During their last session, Henry informed Luzan that he wouldn’t be coming back. Breaking off the relationship wasn’t an easy thing to do. Henry felt, after all, like Luzan had truly saved his life. He kept talking and talking, wanting to somehow thank Luzan for all he’d done. He got up to get a drink of water in the hall, and he told Luzan that when he returned, he would tell him something important about the “great circumstance” of their relationship. His intention was to be honest with Luzan. Maybe he wouldn’t tell him everything, but he would at least warn him to be careful, especially when meeting new people or traveling. He didn’t actually know what kind of danger Luzan might be in, but he wanted to help keep him safe.
It now emerges that Henry was prepared to not only speak openly with Luzan about his own life but also alert him to the fact that he (Luzan) was under surveillance. Even if Henry didn’t tell Luzan everything about his assignment to spy on him, simply warning him to watch his back would have been a very bold thing to do, considering that his job is to always stay undercover. His willingness to break the rules thus stresses just how connected he felt to Luzan, who somehow got him to open up about his life and, in doing so, majorly unburdened him of his pent-up sorrows.
Themes
When Henry stepped out of Luzan’s office for some water, her came face to face with Jack and another person from work. Jack told him it was time to go, and the other man sedated him by putting an ether-soaked cloth over his mouth. They then dragged him to a car and drove him away.
This story confirms that Henry can’t—or shouldn’t, at least—fully trust Jack. Even though Henry sees him as a close friend, it’s overwhelmingly clear that Jack is perfectly willing to work against Henry on Hoagland’s behalf. In this case, he silences his “friend” before Henry has a chance to tell Luzan the truth.
Themes
