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 goes to the bombed-out Kwang office the next day. Janice and Sherrie are there, both of them desperately trying to keep things in order as investigators pick through the rubble and people crowd around to see what happened. Two people died in the explosion: an older woman who worked as a custodian, and Eduardo. He was working late when the bomb went off. As soon as he can, Henry slips away and tries to contact Jack, but he can’t reach him. Finally, he calls Jack at the office and Hoagland picks up before passing the phone to Jack, who already knows about the bombing.
The fact that Jack already knows about the bombing is somewhat suspicious, possibly suggesting that he—or at least Glimmer & Company—had something to do with the attack. At the same time, though, he might just know because he works for Hoagland, who has a reason to keep tabs on Kwang. And that reason is that he clearly doesn’t trust Henry to do his job. Either way, the entire event is shrouded in silence and secrecy, leaving Henry to piece everything together on his own.
Themes
Henry wants to know what happened, worried that Hoagland and Jack had something to do with the bombing. But Jack insists that this isn’t the case—there would be no good reason for them to do it. Frustrated with Jack, Henry demands to know what Hoagland thinks, asking him directly because he’s assuming that Hoagland is listening in. But Jack reminds him that Hoagland doesn’t need to listen in, since Jack will tell him everything himself. Before hanging up, he tells Henry to “look closer to home,” since sometimes that’s the best way to find answers.
What Jack tells Henry in this conversation is a good indication of where his true loyalties lie: with Hoagland. Although he’s happy to listen to Henry’s problems and even offer him advice, the unspoken fact is that he’s devoted to doing his job—in fact, this reality doesn’t even go unspoken in this moment, since Jack says quite clearly that he will report everything Henry says back to Hoagland. In turn, it’s quite evident that Henry can’t trust Jack.
Themes
After talking to Jack, Henry returns to the office, where Sherrie tells him that Kwang’s entire operation—the whole team—will be moving to Kwang’s house. She also gives Henry a thick envelope and asks him to deliver it to Eduardo’s family. He follows her instructions, taking the envelope (which contains $10,000) to the bereaved family’s small apartment in a tenement building. While he’s there, Eduardo’s mother brings out a photo album and shows him pictures of Eduardo, talking at great length about him in broken English. Henry admires the way she speaks, thinking that she’s saying everything “perfectly,” because if “you’re too careful” with language, “you can’t say anything.”
Henry’s thoughts about language suggest that he doesn’t necessarily endorse the kind of reticent silence that he himself tends to model. Although he’s often hesitant to express his feelings in moments of hardship, he admires the way Eduardo’s mother speaks openly about her dead son—something Henry has struggled to do in his and Lelia’s conversations about Mitt. Whereas everything he says about his sorrow is “careful” and calculated, Eduardo’s mother speaks without reservation, thus enabling herself to genuinely express something meaningful about her lost son.
Themes
