Jane Yoo's Native Speaker Analysis

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Similar to the first source, this is found in an article in the Asian American Policy Review, an academic journal containing writings of Asian-American authors who describe issues in the United States and their impact on the Asian-American community. Jane Yoo, the author, holds a position at the JFK School of Government at Harvard and serves as a master in public policy, qualifying her to effectively analyze Korean-American agency. Yoo conducts an in-depth analysis on the message and thematic elements of Chang-rae Lee’s novel, Native Speaker. Yoo surrounds her analysis around the alienation of the Korean-American protagonist, Henry Park, through his interactions with both his white ex-wife and Korean father. These interactions are marked …show more content…

Park does not truly belong to one or the other but is rather a fusion of the two cultures. Yoo describes the second-generation Korean American identity as one that will willingly throw away aspects of Korean culture to adapt and assimilate into their new surroundings. This rejection of the Korean identity seemingly distances Park from his father, who has deep connections to his Korean roots, and at the same time, alienates himself from fully being accepted into American culture for having an identity built upon a foundation of his Korean identity. Yoo, altogether, describes the formation of Korean American agency as one that alienates them further, making them unable to be a ‘native speaker’ for either the Korean or American experiences. Themes present in Yoo’s analysis can also be found in Oh’s analysis of the Los Angeles Riots and its imprint on Korean American agency. Oh describes that Korean Americans were essentially ignored by law enforcement and ignored in the political and public spheres. Yoo identifies the cause of this in her description of alienation of bicultural peoples, especially in their assimilation to American culture. The ignorance and total disregard for Korean American bodies led to the political revolution and desire for

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