Lelia Character Analysis in Native Speaker

Lelia is Henry’s wife. Originally from Massachusetts, she works as a speech specialist who helps people learn English and improve their pronunciation. When she first meets Henry at a party in Texas, she tells him that she can tell he’s not a “native speaker”—not because he has an accent, but because he looks very concentrated when he’s speaking, as if he’s carefully listening to himself to make sure he doesn’t make any mistakes. They end up getting married and having a little boy named Mitt, who dies in a freak accident at the age of seven. The tragedy puts an enormous strain on Lelia’s relationship with Henry, mostly because his stoic way of dealing with his grief makes her feel like she has to handle her sorrow all by herself. She doesn’t want to just move on from their son’s death; in fact, she doesn’t even feel capable of doing such a thing, since merely listening to tape recordings of his voice makes it impossible for her to even move for days at a time. Henry, on the other hand, silently wrestles with his sadness while telling everyone that both he and Lelia are doing fine. His unwillingness to talk about his emotions aligns with the fact that he has to keep so many secrets about his job. Lelia knows that he is some kind of spy, but he will never tell her any details. In short, she feels cut out from his life, so she leaves him and travels to Italy for several months, where she has an affair before returning to New York City and living with one of her and Henry’s friends. Gradually, however, Henry starts to open up to her more and more, and this makes it possible for them to repair their relationship. By the end of the novel, Lelia feels less alone with her grief, even if the tragedy of Mitt’s death still weighs heavily on her.

Lelia Quotes in Native Speaker

The Native Speaker quotes below are all either spoken by Lelia or refer to Lelia. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Identity and Multiculturalism Theme Icon

And then others—the ones I always paid close attention to—came to her because they had entered the first grade speaking a home language other than English. They were nonnative speakers. All day she helped these children manipulate their tongues and their lips and their exhaling breath, guiding them through the difficult language.

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia

Page Number and Citation: 2

Explanation and Analysis:

But I wasn’t to be found anywhere near corporate or industrial sites, then or ever. Rather, my work was entirely personal. I was always assigned to an individual, someone I didn’t know or care the first stitch for on a given day but who in a matter of weeks could be as bound up with me as a brother or sister or wife.

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), John Kwang, Emile Luzan , Lelia

Page Number and Citation: 6

Explanation and Analysis:

“People like me are always thinking about still having an accent,” I said. […]

“I can tell,” she said.

I asked her how.

“You speak perfectly, of course. I mean if we were talking on the phone I wouldn’t think twice.”

“You mean it’s my face.”

“No, it’s not that,” she answered. […] “Your face is part of the equation, but not in the way you’re thinking. You look like someone listening to himself. You pay attention to what you’re doing. If I had to guess, you’re not a native speaker. Say something.”

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 12

Explanation and Analysis:

“So what’s her name?” Lelia asked after a moment.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

I told her that I didn’t know. That I had never known.

“What’s that you call her, then?” she said. “l thought that was her name. Your father calls her that, too.”

“It’s not her name,” I told her. “It’s not her name. It’s just a form of address.”

It was the truth. Lelia had great trouble accepting this stunning ignorance of mine.

Related Characters: Lelia (speaker), Henry Park (speaker), Henry’s Father, Ahjuhma/The Woman

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

We perhaps depend too often on the faulty honor of silence, use it too liberally and for gaining advantage. I showed Lelia how this was done, sometimes brutally, my face a peerless mask, the bluntest instrument.

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Janice , Lelia

Page Number and Citation: 96

Explanation and Analysis:

“Just think about it. You haven’t said his name more than four or five times since it happened. You haven’t said his name tonight. Maybe you’ve talked all this time with Jack about him, maybe you say his name in your sleep, but we’ve never really talked about it, we haven’t really come right out together and said it, really named what happened for what it was.”

[…]

“It was a terrible accident.”

“An accident?” she cried, nearly hollering. She covered her mouth. Her voice was breaking. “How can you say it was an accident? We haven’t treated it like one. Not for a second. Look at us. Sweetie, can’t you see, when your baby dies it’s never an accident. […]”

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia (speaker), Mitt

Page Number and Citation: 129

Explanation and Analysis:

I took her and we lay down on the carpet. Before I could do anything else to stop myself I told her his name. John Kwang. I could almost see her turning the words inside her head. Of course she knew who he was, that he was Korean. He was appearing on the broadcasts almost nightly because of the boycotts. She didn’t say anything, though, and I could see that she was trying her very best to stay quiet, to think around the notion for a moment instead of steaming right through it. Ten years with me and now she was the one with the ready method. […] And now her voice brooking in my ear, in a voice I hardly recognized. “You just say what you want. Please say what you want.”

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia, John Kwang

Page Number and Citation: 227

Explanation and Analysis:

“Everyone’s got a theory. Mine is, when the American GIs came to a place they’d be met by all the Korean villagers, who’d be hungry and excited, all shouting and screaming. The villagers would be yelling, Mee-gook! Mee-gook! and so that’s what they were to the GIs, just gooks, that’s what they seemed to be calling themselves, but that wasn’t it at all.”

“What were they saying?”

“‘Americans! Americans!’ Mee-gook means America.”

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 242

Explanation and Analysis:

“That’s perfect,” Lelia says, shaking her head. “I better ask Stew.”

“Don’t harass your father,” I tell her. “He won’t know anything. It’s funny, I used to almost feel good that there was a word for me, even if it was a slur. I thought, I know I’m not a chink or a jap, which they would wrongly call me all the time, so maybe I’m a gook. The logic of a wounded eight-year-old.”

Related Characters: Lelia (speaker), Henry Park (speaker), Stew

Page Number and Citation: 242-3

Explanation and Analysis:

“If I had heard that one redheaded kid say even one funny word to Mitt! God! I would have punched his fucking lights out! I would have made him scream!” Her chest bucks, and she almost starts to cry, strangely, as if she’s frightened herself with a memory that isn’t true.

Related Characters: Lelia (speaker), Mitt

Page Number and Citation: 243

Explanation and Analysis:

Now, she calls out each one as best as she can, taking care of every last pitch and accent, and I hear her speaking a dozen lovely and native languages, calling all the difficult names of who we are.

Related Characters: Henry Park (speaker), Lelia, John Kwang

Page Number and Citation: 349

Explanation and Analysis:

Lelia Character Timeline in Native Speaker

The timeline below shows where the character Lelia appears in Native Speaker. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Silence, Language, and Communication Theme Icon

On the day that Henry Park’s wife, Lelia, leaves him, she gives him a list she has compiled. The list is a running... (full context)

One day, Lelia tells Henry that she’s beginning to feel burned out. She freelances as a speech therapist... (full context)

When Henry hears that Lelia is burning out, he tells her to take time off from work—they have enough money,... (full context)

Lelia decides to go to Italy, planning to be there for all of November and December.... (full context)

...begins. “B+ student of life.” Phrases like this continue down in a straight column, as Lelia notes that Henry is an “illegal” and “emotional alien.” She also writes the phrases “Yellow... (full context)

...mattress. “False speaker of language,” it says. The note makes him think about his and Lelia’s relationship. In particular, it makes him think about all the ways he has kept his... (full context)

The book flashes back to when Henry first met Lelia in El Paso, Texas shortly after finishing an assignment. They’re at a party and hit... (full context)

Henry and Lelia continue to talk at the party in El Paso. Lelia explains that she delivers food... (full context)

Eventually, Lelia and Henry decide to go outside to continue their conversation. Henry notes that people like... (full context)

Henry and Lelia end up kissing at the party. Their connection is strong—so strong that Henry stays in... (full context)

...tell him about life in the Mediterranean, hoping to get a better sense of what Lelia is doing there. A Greek man, Jack specializes in anything that has to do with... (full context)

Lelia has returned from Italy, but she hasn’t moved back into her and Henry’s shared apartment.... (full context)

When Lelia was still in Italy, Henry was put on assignment to find out information about a... (full context)

...big, and it’s hard not to think about how he used to live there with Lelia and their son, Mitt. (full context)

Henry thinks about what it was like to live in his and Lelia’s large apartment when Mitt was still alive. Mitt used to run around and yell, and... (full context)

...goes to the company’s office in Westchester because he wants to see Jack. He and Lelia used to visit Jack’s house in a wealthy neighborhood north of the city, and Jack... (full context)

In the office, Henry sits with Jack and eats olives while talking about Lelia. Jack advises him to give her space, saying that she clearly needs time to think.... (full context)

Henry and Jack talk about work politics, and Henry mentions that Lelia doesn’t trust Hoagland. She does, however, love Jack. In fact, she really doesn’t mind anyone... (full context)

...Mitt’s death. He was a serious man who wouldn’t have understood the kind of vacation Lelia took in Italy. The point of life for him was to work hard and steadily... (full context)

...but he didn’t seem to disapprove of his lifestyle. To Henry’s surprise, he legitimately liked Lelia, and Henry began to suspect that his father was pleased he’d married a white woman—his... (full context)

Years later, Henry and Lelia start spending the summers in Ardsley with Mitt, staying in a large room above Henry’s... (full context)

The fact that Henry doesn’t know the Korean woman’s name deeply upsets Lelia. He simply calls her Ahjuhma, but that’s not her name—it’s a formal address that literally... (full context)

Henry and Lelia’s conversation about the Korean woman’s real name puts them at odds with each other. Lelia... (full context)

Eventually, Lelia finds Ahjuhma folding laundry and tries to help her, but Ahjuhma keeps bumping her out... (full context)

...which can give a person a certain advantage. He himself has used this unfairly against Lelia. (full context)

Henry and Lelia’s son, Mitt, died at the age of seven. He had a close relationship with Henry’s... (full context)

...and soda, and there was a terrible commotion. He ran to the backyard and found Lelia cradling Mitt’s head. Apparently, there had been a dog pile, with the kids all jumping... (full context)

...death, Henry would stay up late. When he’d finally go to bed, he would pull Lelia on top of him, feeling her body weight pressing down. They’d often have sex like... (full context)

...things and playing them back, but he also liked catching snippets of life. Henry knows Lelia still has the tapes of Mitt’s voice. She’s back from Italy, so he calls her... (full context)

That night, Henry goes to the apartment of his and Lelia’s mutual friend. He stands outside the window until Lelia opens it and tells him to... (full context)

Henry tells Lelia that he has listened to the tapes of Mitt. She herself hasn’t listened to them... (full context)

Lelia and Henry start drinking. They’re still talking about Mitt, but in roundabout ways. Lelia feels... (full context)

The conversation slowly shifts to other matters, as Henry asks how Lelia’s parents are doing. Her mother lives alone and is something of a shut-in. Her father,... (full context)

It’s now two in the morning. Henry and Lelia are lying next to each other, but they’re not touching. He asks if she has... (full context)

Henry presses Lelia for more details. He wants to know what she told the other man about him,... (full context)

The secrecy surrounding Henry’s job still troubles Lelia. She doesn’t like that he can spend the day pretending to be someone else and... (full context)

Henry insists that the only thing Lelia needs to know about him is that he wants to be with her. She is... (full context)

...the headquarters in Westchester. Henry has sometimes gone there to sleep after big arguments with Lelia. Now, he goes there and finds Jack on one of the sagging couches. They make... (full context)

Henry meets Lelia in Ardsley to start clearing out his father’s house. Lelia has already started the task,... (full context)

As Henry and Lelia sort through old family photos, Lelia asks him how he’s doing at work. The question... (full context)

Henry admits to Lelia that he’s struggling. She wants to know what, exactly, Hoagland expects of him, and he... (full context)

Understanding the difficulty of Henry’s situation, Lelia suggests that he should just give Hoagland what he wants—that is, he should dig up... (full context)

The conversation comes to a sudden halt when Lelia spills a glass of wine on the rug. Desperately trying to blot it up, she... (full context)

Lelia moves back into her and Henry’s apartment. Despite Henry’s difficulty with the Kwang operation, they... (full context)

After the Laotian boys leave, Henry and Lelia decide to take a ferry trip to Staten Island, where they’ll stay in a small... (full context)

Lelia laughs at the ignorance of American soldiers like her father. But then she says she... (full context)

That night, Henry and Lelia stay at a rundown hotel. They have sex while corny spy movies play on the... (full context)

In this period, Henry spends the days with Lelia and then goes to Kwang’s house to work through the night. Things are going well... (full context)

...records of Kwang’s ggeh. He’s a little paranoid about when they might appear, constantly asking Lelia if she sees them across the street or on the other side of the subway... (full context)

Henry is still in the crowd outside Kwang’s house. That morning, he left Lelia in the apartment to go to Hoagland’s office for the final time. As soon as... (full context)

Sometimes, though, Henry doesn’t spend his days walking around. Instead, he’ll help Lelia as she goes to teach ESL at public schools. He dresses as a Speech Monster... (full context)

Native Speaker

Lelia Character Analysis

Lelia Quotes in Native Speaker

Chapter 1 Quotes

Chapter 2 Quotes

Chapter 5 Quotes

Chapter 6 Quotes

Chapter 7 Quotes

Chapter 14 Quotes

Chapter 15 Quotes

Chapter 23 Quotes

Lelia Character Timeline in Native Speaker