The Theme of Identity in Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker

Chang-rae Lee's first novel Native Speaker became a real success. It makes a significant impact on people, as it touches eternal questions of identity search in the contemporary society. The novel won a great number of awards, which include the 1996 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction, the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, QPB's New Voices Award and others. It appeared in The New York Times and The Best American Essays and Chang-Rae Lee was a finalist for Granta’s American Novelists. What is remarkable Native Speaker is really worthy of all these awards. Theme of identity is a central one in Native Speaker. The main character of this novel is Henry Park. His parents were Korean immigrants and so all his life Henry tries to become a real American, a native speaker. Henry works as a spy for Glimmer and Associates. His main task is to collect information about non-white immigrants and citizens who have shadowy past. After his son’s death and the break with his wife Leila Henry is immersed into identity crisis. Only by the end of the novel he is able to recover from this crisis and find his true identity. Henry has analyzed all his life and seen some things in a new light, he makes a long way full of difficulties, disappointments and despair before he comes to true understanding of his identity. After their son’s death Lelia cannot understand Henry’s reaction, his emotionless state. In reality, Henry cannot come in turns with his son’s loss, he takes it very hard, but he does not want to show it, he hides his feelings and closes in his shell. Before Lelia’s departure at the airport she gives Henry a brief note, where she describes him: â€Å"You are surreptitious / B+ student of life†¦. Yellow peril: neo-American†¦stranger / follower / traitor / spy† (Lee 12). This pushes him to reflection about his life. Starting analyzing his past Henry understands that his ability to repress emotions, his skills to memorize everything he learns and a tendency to wear a mask to be socially accepted can be explained by his Korean origin. He also understands that these skills help him to be a natural spy. He is an alien in America, although he was born here, he does his best to be a true American. He does not admit this fact even in his mind but starting thinking about his parents and his origin he understands that it is true. His profession used to help him feel protected and real American because his main mission is to control non-white people: spying is â€Å"the perfect vocation for the person I was, someone who could reside in one place and take half steps out whenever he wished [. . .] I thought I had finally found my truest place in the culture† (Lee 127).   At the same time his cold and detached attitude alienates his wife from him. All Henry’s thoughts about his past do not allow him to continue his work, he cannot wear his spy mask any more. He loses his job then he gets another opportunity to work with John Kwang, but this work again reminds him about his Korean origin and his father. Henry tires to reconnect with his wife. She is not sure whether she really means anything for him, whether he loves her or just requires as the housemaid, whose name he does not know. Lelia always pushes her husband for the empathetic reflections. He feels that he must overcome this barrier in cultures between them. Henry knows that Lelia cannot hide her feelings as he does and he loves her for this. â€Å"She must be the worst actor on earth. And perhaps most I loved this about her, her helpless way, love it still, how she can't hide a single thing, that she looks hurt when she is hurt, seems happy when happy. That I know at every moment the precise place where she stands† (Lee 158).   All in all Henry convinces his wife that she is his life and that she is extremely important for him. He finally is able to be close with Lelia, to build intimacy between them. His perception of the world has changed and so has his identity. At the end of the novel Henry is completely different person with much broader identity. He has found a balance between American and Korean cultures. He has reached harmony inside of his soul. Now he understands that America does not make fell foreigners aliens but it gives freedom and an opportunity to realize desires and make dreams come true. Henry becomes a native speaker of his self and that helps him to be successful in all his activities. Henry understands that identity is something more than just American or Korean nationality. It is your inner self and it does not matter where you live and what you do and what language you speak, the only thing that matter is your inner freedom and moral certainty. Works Cited: Lee, Chang-Rae. Native Speaker. NY: Riverhead Books, 1995.      

Illegal Street Racing

Illegal Street Racing Hi today I will be talking to you about illegal street racing. The purpose of this speech is to persuade you not to illegally street racing. The specific purpose is to persuade you not to illegally street race because of the dangers. I will be talking to you about the things that can happen while street racing, some facts about illegally street racing, things that have happened to some people, And lastly some things you can do to prevent street racing. Well I know some of you are wondering what is wrong with illegal street racing. For starters illegally street racing is against the law. And I know some of you are like so is popping fireworks in sirten states but fireworks doesn’t kill 37,000 people yearly in the United States of America. Street racers either drive their car with excessive speed on public roads causes deadly accidents or get crushed at illegal racing events. Car accidents are the leading cause of death of youth aged 16 to 20. The total of street racing fatalities was 72 in 2001. Street racing drivers can be arrested for months losing their license to drive to drive permanently and their cars will be impounded. Police pursuit accidents have an average of 300 to 400 deaths per year. More people die from street racing than in gangs. More people die from street racing than wrong way driving. In 2001, the National Highway Safety Administration reported that the police listed street racing racing as a factor in 135 fatal crashes. According to the California office of traffic safety, more than 800 citations for illegal street racing were issued in 2001. In San Diego, where the street racing problem has been termed â€Å"epidemic†, 16 death and 31 injuries were directly related to illegal racing in 2001. In Florida in 2011, 216 citations were issued for racing on the highway. When the sun goes down, drivers say illegal racing takes off on Tulsa streets. Tulsa police say a Friday night accident that injured four people was the result of street racing. A car racing southbound on Yale Avenue hit another driver turning onto the Creek Turnpike. Driver, David Morreau says he races for the thrill, â€Å" You get a pretty good adrenaline rush. It feels good,† but says he doesn’t race on Tulsa streets. Morreau thinks racing should stay on the track. Don Falleti lives near Memorial Drive. Police say it's another hot spot for street racing. â€Å"Friday nights and Saturday nights if you want a thrill just come on over at 9:30 or 10 o’clock at night,† Falleti said. Both drivers say they see no end in sight. â€Å" If you are going to do it, you can’t stop people from doing it. People are always going to do it, â€Å" Morreau said. Police warn if you are cought street racing you could end up with a reckless driving ticket that would cost $365. 00plus court costs and a higher insurance rate. . Street racing is a global problem that affects us all regardless of participation. More of our young people illegally street race than older. Street racing can be prevented by just going to were you need to go. People can stop street racing by playing video games. If you want to street race I advise you race a drag track. So I have hope you want illegally street race. So I have told you about the thing that can happen while street racing, some facts, things that have happened to people, and lastly thing you can do instead of illegally street racing. Thank you and have a great day

The Renaissance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Renaissance - Essay Example A close examination of our American technology and our institutions will find many similarities that had their origin in the roots of the Italian Renaissance. Prior to the Renaissance, almost all technical knowledge of science was outside the reach of the average person. It had been the sole property of the church and the elite and was available only through universities. A major technical innovation of the Renaissance period was its placing knowledge in the hands of the ordinary person. According to Thomas Carlyle in Sartor Resartus published in 1833, "He who first shortened the labor of copyists by device of movable types was disbanding hired armies [...] creating a whole new democratic world" (cited in Kreis). The invention of the printing press in 1440 gave the general public the access to knowledge and philosophy. The first bible was printed in 1452 gave the ordinary man regular access to the text and had a lasting effect on religion. Spurred by classical philosophy, religion turned from the worship of the abstract towards the morality of man (Anesi). This brought new thought to religion and brought about the Reformation and altered the Christian religion forever. Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the greatest technical innovators of the Renaissance and he is often thought of as the father of engineering. However, Da Vinci was joined by others such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Mariano di Iacopo, and Francesco di Giorgio to spearhead an artist-engineer revolution (Bjerklie, 1). Their ideas were the basis of major changes in agricultural equipment and improvement in land management. One example was the heavy- wheeled plow and the horse harness and stirrup that allowed the ground to be worked on a more massive scale. This began the basis of large industrial crop farming and allowed the farmers to relocate to the industrial centers of commerce. This modernized agriculture and paved the way for the coming Industrial Revolution. As people were moving from an agricultural based economy made possible by the new agricultural methods, trade was becoming more important. The newly developing nation-states required trading partners outside their own borders. Optics made a significant contribution to worldwide navigation during the Renaissance period. The science of optics was treasured by Kings as a method required for exploration, trade, and dominance. For example, in April 1541 an Italian offered a telescopic device to Henry VIII. "The French ambassador in London reported that 'there is an Italian here, aged about 70 years, who has shown this king that he would make a mirror and place it on top of Dover castle, in which mirror could be seen all ships that leave Dieppe'" (Dupre, 19). This may have been the description of the reflecting telescope that has become the mainstay of today's science of optics. Improved navigation aids and the evolving telescope made worldwide navigation, exploration, and trade a reality. The Renaissance spirit of exploration also opened up curiosity to the other fields of science. Science of the Renaissance stressed observance and more importance began being placed on methodology and experimentation. It valued experience over abstract thought. The Renaissance is credited with being the era of the creation of the scientific method. The

HOW TO DEVELOP THE ESTREN FOOD IN THE UK Assignment

HOW TO DEVELOP THE ESTREN FOOD IN THE UK - Assignment Example 2012). Also the skills related to its job position should be set, so that hiring for these positions to be developed with no delay (Gilmore and Williams 2012). The HRM issues of the restaurant are analyzed further in section 2 of this paper. Another organizational sector that should be carefully reviewed in advance is accounting. Chapman et al. (2011) notes that in all firms accounting can result to important challenges mostly because of the following facts: a) it is difficult for managers to choose in advance the accounting strategy on which the business operations will be based; for example, emphasis will be give on re-investing profits or using profits for covering operational costs, so that the borrowing is fully avoided (Chapman et al. 2011, p.709), b) the level of profitability of a business and the market performance cannot be predicted in advance, a fact that it is quite common in new businesses; in this context, Eastern foods should not adopt a strict accounting strategy but rather short-term accounting plans should be applied, so that alterations and replacements are feasible in case of market changes or low profits. At the same time, Al-Hakim (2007) explains that managers in new businesses should emphasize on the introduction of effective knowledge management systems. These systems can secure high speed and accuracy in regard to the knowledge transferred; under these terms the success of a firm’s accounting system is guaranteed (Al-Hakim 2007). In addition, managers in Eastern Foods have to face a series of operational issues, such as: a) would the operational framework of the business be the same as in the mother company, in India? B) Should innovative practices be introduced in order for the restaurant’s operations to be more aligned to the Western culture (Barnes 2008)? c) Which will be the exact form of the firm’s

Much of Volume 1 of Jane Eyre is predominately concerned with a Essay

Much of Volume 1 of Jane Eyre is predominately concerned with a child's sense of injustice. Do you think Jane's sense of injustice is justified Illustrate your answer by using textual examples - Essay Example She is an orphan left behind homeless at the death of both her parents when her mother’s brother Reed takes her in. He adores his sister’s daughter and on his death bed makes his wife promise that she would always look after Jane. Mrs Reed agrees, however, the promise is not fulfilled in the way it was meant to be. The Reeds live at Gateshead and here is where Jane spends the first ten years of her life at. Considering the fact that she is an orphan with only the Reeds as her known, living relatives and no one else, it would be thought that she would be treated like family, in such a way that she would not feel alone with the absence of her parents. Yet this is not the case. Jane is made to feel inferior at Gateshead repeatedly, she ‘is constantly differentiated, excluded (†¦) leaves her as an outsider to the Reed family’ (Peters 20). She is not treated like a family member, in fact, even worse than that. ‘Eliza, John, and Georgiana were now clustered round their mama in the drawing-room (†¦) Me, she had dispensed from joining the group’ (Bronte 3). This may be due to the various reasons regarding her lack of social status, her father being a poor minister; a passionate personality which was not quite the thing at that time; and plain looks, quite the opposite of what the Reed children were, Georgiana in particular as she says in the book that she is ‘humbled by the consciousness of my physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed’ (Bronte 3). Even the servants believe that Jane’s station in life is below theirs since she is not, in all actuality, a part of the family. She has ‘no money’ (Bronte 7) nor does she do any work to earn her keep for living there. She is often lectured on even by the servants regarding how she should behave in front of her benefactor and how, if it has not been for her generous spirit, Jane would have been sent ‘to the

MSc Practical UNIX Security Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

MSc Practical UNIX Security - Essay Example Furthermore, in the UNIX system's early periods, security feature was almost absent. Then, the UNIX system became the first operating system to undergo attacks raised over the promising Internet. With the passage of time, the security arrangement moved from centralized to distributed verification and permission systems (UNIX Systems Cooperative Promotion Group, 1997) and (The Open Group, 2010). This paper discusses various security aspects of UNIX operating system along with some types of attack that can be applied to UNIX operating system. The basic aim of this paper is to describe in a systematic manner the significance of systems configuration and management and how to undertake systems configuration and management for a UNIX system. Security Considerations With the advancements in the technology the chances of security attacks and their intensity is also increasing. In the past, a lot of security and privacy attacks have greatly influenced a large number of organizations and busi nesses. Some well known examples of these attacks include, security develops Nimda, Code Red, RPC buffer overflows, SQL Slammer Worm, SSH vulnerabilities. Thus, to deal with such new types of security attacks a good security management patch as well as effective security strategy is very important, which can help secure organization’s systems and networks. Seeing that the businesses having a high-quality patch security strategy (which implemented all the recognized patches to the target systems) were not influenced or were least influenced as compared to those businesses which neglected patch security strategies and faced harsh issues like business downtime of numerous days and failure of business effort (code as well as data). In this scenario, all the practical systems have their own techniques for implementing security patches. Additionally, HP-UX, Solaris and AIX program and patch installation techniques allow the elimination of an application or a patch by restoring some overwritten operating system files as the â€Å"save† alternative is employed (that is the default option). In addition, the capability to get rid of a (reminded) security patch makes simpler patch administration on these systems liberating the manager from planning routine techniques for patch management and permitting the administrator to focus on improving system security. For this purpose, HP, Sun and IBM offered standard security patch packages for download a number of times every year, in addition to individual patch downloads as well as patch announcement services which can be received via electronic mail (without paying registration fee). Moreover, specific patch downloads are always available at retailer’s websites and a few mirrors for Red Hat Linux. However, the accessibility of alternatives is significant, for the reason that standard patch packages make simpler the normal application of patches as well as get rid of the need for numerous reboots and/or sy stem configuration changes, as individual patch downloads permit the system application of a security patch at the instant as it is accessible (Tsitsivas et al., 2003), (Zheng & Zhang, 2009), (Curphey & Araujo, 2006) and (Ray, 2004). UNIX Security Overview Normally, all UNIX-based or other systems encompass particular log on procedures. However, these procedures depend on

Global Market Entry Strategies Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Global Market Entry Strategies - Case Study Example 1. What is the amount of equity being invested by Volvo in the joint venture in China? 45% stake 2. What will be the benefits of the alliance to the Swedish Volvo? a) help the Volvo group to enter the Chinese market, which is the world's largest market for trucks, with a total market for heavy trucks equivalent to the European and North American markets combined 3. What will be the benefits of the alliance to the Chinese Dong Feng? a) The Dongfeng brand will become a global brand 4. What has been the strategy of the Chinese government for entry of foreign firms into the country? Passenger cars, in which it allows foreign companies access to China's fast-growing consumer and commercial markets only if they create joint ventures with domestic companies and share technology in return. Why? foreign companies give potential rivals a leg up in terms of marketing and technical know-how 5. How large is Dongfeng in China's heavy duty trucks market? Dongfeng already is China's largest maker of heavy-duty trucks. What is its market share of heavy duty trucks in China? 20% market share 6. What problems is the joint venture facing in China? The heavy-truck market has been hit by Beijing's efforts to tamp down on mining and property development. What is the strategy of Volvo to cope with the challenge? reducing vehicle emissions