Manhood in Donald Duk and Native Speaker

I've attached an article (the link is below) that might be relevant to someone's upcoming paper, especially if anyone will be exploring gender issues in their upcoming paper/presentation.  I read it for my paper on Donald Duk, and though I didn't get to use it, I was impressed by some of the ideas this author develops.  The main one is that Donald Duk is not just a masculine work, but one that tries to assert Asian American masculinity.  This idea isn't just relevant to Donald Duk.  Native Speaker is very much about Henry's journey into a kind of second manhood.  Like Donald Duk, Henry must take responsibility for his mistakes by acknowledging his wrongdoing, making amends, and then continuing to do what's right.  He does this by quitting his job and no longer using silence as a weapon against Lelia.  If anyone plans on doing something like this, Lee addresses what it means to be a man on the bottom of page 29 to the top of page 30.

*If you have problems with the link, post it in the comments and I'll email you the article and/or fix the link.

Best of luck to all on their papers/presentations. :)

"To Eat the Flesh of His Dead Mother: Hunger, Masculinity, and Nationalism in Frank Chin's Donald Duk"

Native Speaker's End

I've finished Native Speaker and I'm satisfied with the ending. I didn't think Lelia and Henry would be able to patch things up, but they proved me wrong- I guess opposites do attract. I believe that Henry finally realized that his job as a spy wasn't helping his life back home since it required that he keep so much from his wife. Naturally, he was someone who kept most of his feelings to himself and this job only made him have an even bigger wall up. Also, Lelia teaching the kids at home brought a new, refreshing, and positive vibe to a place normally filled with an awkward heaviness.

While I was happy for Lelia and Henry, Kwang's political demise was heartwrenching! He went through so much to accomplish what he did and just like that, people turned on him in the lowest of ways. I was appalled by the angry mob waiting outside of his house, yelling hideous slurs, spitting on, and eventually bumrushing him. I felt like his career in politics was officially over, that there was no coming back from his fall. Sadly, all he wanted was to assist those who needed help in achieving their goals.

If the book were to go on, I assume that Lelia and Henry would eventually have another child. I wouldn't consider this replacing Mitt at all, they were just so loving toward him and another child deserves the love they have to give. Regarding Kwang, it would have been so interesting if he and Henry would have continued a friendship- but I don't know how this would've worked.

ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE PRESENTATION

For our final meetings we will explore other Asian American texts chosen by each member of the class. Each student will write a five page paper about their work and present the paper to the class. Each presentation will take ten minutes and cover the issues raised in the text concerning Asian American literature.

Process: Choose an Asian American text to present to the class. This may be a novel, play, selection of poems (at least four) or a film. Each student will write a five page paper discussing how the text explores Asian American issues: identity, aesthetics and/or cross cultural traditions. Each student will present their paper to the class in a ten minute discussion of the work.

Suggested Works
Students are encouraged to find a work on their own. You may also look at the suggested works listed below:
Don Lee, Yellow, Country of Origin
Jhumpa Lahiri (anything by her)
Gail Tsukiyama (anything by her)
Iris Chang The Rape of Nanking
Li Young Lee (anything by him)
Cathy Park Hong (Poetry: Dance Dance Revolution, Translating Mo'um)
Amy Tan (anything by her)

Opposites Attract?

So far, Lelia and Henry are proving that while opposites attract, it might be everlasting. The more we get to know Lelia (understanding her reasons for leaving) and Henry (the reason he has trouble expressing himself, the more a solid relationship of the two seems impossible. Lelia’s father describes the two saying, “She’s always been a little too unsteady. […] She needs someone like you. You’re ambitious and serious. You think before you speak. […] You’ve been raised to be circumspect and careful.”

Her father, Stew, may irritate the reader with his borderline racist comments, but he’s right. Lelia comes off as emotionally unstable. She is completely flabbergasted when she learns that Henry doesn’t know the name of the lady who helped to raise him for 20 years. After this, she fails in trying to get to know the woman and eventually breaks down after a scuffle with her. Another example of her unsteadiness is her ability to pick up and leave for months at a time when feeling overwhelmed at home. For some, this may seem normal. Everyone handles their problems different, but I don’t feel that this is acceptable in a marriage, especially the way Lelia was so distant about the entire situation.

Even still, one can’t help but to understand Lelia. Is it so bad that she’s being distant when her husband has been the same way since the beginning? Sure he thinks before he speaks, but this is Henry’s problem- sometimes he opts not to speak at all. He’s so introverted, Lelia complains about “not knowing the first thing about what was going on inside of his head.” He’s careful, yes, but too careful- especially regarding the death of his son. It’s obvious that he’s hurt, but like his father, he doesn’t know exactly how to deal with it. I’m curious to see if Lelia and Henry can work this out. Unfortunately, I have my doubts.

In class we spoke about the "fairness" in sweat shops and businesses alike. I personally think that if its for money, then people will be willing to do anything. People who have no other choice need to make a living, and so even if they are being paid very little, they will still do it. To me, there is no "fairness" in business.

Harry's Relationships

Harry is one of the main characters in Native Speaker. I feel that his relationships will shape this novel. So far the relationships that stand out the most are those between Harry and Lelia, Harry and Hoagland, and Harry and his father. I think the development of these relationships will answer all or at least most of any unanswered questions one may have after reading these first few chapters. I think the development of Harry and Lelia relationship will shape the story because that is how the novel opens, with the list and their marital problems, and I believe that is how the novel will end with the answer of will Lelia stay or not. Harry and Hoagland's relationship will give greater insight into what Harry does for a living and whether or not he really is a traitor like Leila claims. Harry and his father's relationship will give greater insight into whether or not he is emotionally alien. In addition it will answer whether he just cannot get close to Leila again because of their son dying, like Leon and Ma after Ona died.

What relationship do you think will play a significant role in this novel?

First Impression of Native Speaker

GQ described this book as "suspenseful", The Oregonian said it was "important", and The Boston Globe described it as "compelling." While I've only read the first few chapters, it seems that all of the above might be true. Just the fact that Henry is a SPY is enough to keep my reading! I'm also very interested to learn more about his wife, a woman who just picked up and left to travel the world without him. I'm also looking forward in seeing what becomes of "list" she wrote describing the kind of person Henry is, she wrote good AND bad things which lead me to believe that leaving him won't be so easy. Lastly, it's clear to see that Henry may have emotional problems, from the way he and his father handled his mothers death.

Whos your fav character

Whos your favorit character and why? Here is mine. I hopw sove of you guys respond.

This may seem strange to a lot of people but my favorite character in Donald Duk was the American Cong.
Of all the characters he seemed the most complex and the most real to me. He was also the most mysteries because they gave us clues about what had happened to him in the past the apparently left his mind and perspective slightly skewed. But the author never reviled anything in definite. So I am going to give my take on his life based on some of the clues the book gave us.
He said he was born and raised in Iowa. So we can venture that he like Donald is the descendent of migrant workers from China who came to work on the railroad and settled in Iowa after the job was done. Like many a young man back during the Vietnam way he was drafted and sent to Vietnam to fight. Because he is of Chinese decent and would have looked like the Vietnamese and Chinese troops the American troops were fighting her probably faced a lot of discrimination from other solders. This kind of thing is far from unheard of. In World War II there were units of Japanese American troops fighting Europe that faced simmer doubts and mistreatment from their commanders. Only to later be recognized for their bravery and become one of the most decorated unites of the war.
He kept saying he was orange and that meant something was grabbing and seizing his heart. Unless I am mistaken orange was the color of the gas used to destroy the jungles in Vietnam.
That along with the fact that he said he fought the Chinese, that they were big, mean and would hurt ya over and over again leads me to believe that he may have been a pilot or a member of a flight crew aboard an aircraft that flew the gas over the jungles. And that’s how he met the Chinese fighters in ether aerial combat or in ground to air combat. This is how he was exposed to the gas, ether during his missions or after being shot down by the Chinese. After his plane went down he was captured and held as a POW by the Chinese, and likely as many other POWs was interrogated and tortured.
But he managed to escape and after climbing and hiding in the jungle for a few day (This may also have been when he was exposed to the gas) he eventually made it to the corn fields where the mountain people who were helping the Americans were and was rescued.
At least that’s what I think.