I like that I am being to learn more about John Kwang, Lelia, Jack and the Korean culture in general. I noticed that Henry brings up his attractiveness towards Lelia’s perfect speech again. He says, “I know how her voice will sound with the first word of the day, not as a low as it should be and as spare and clean as light. That effortless pitch” (Lee 158). What I learned about Jack was quite shocking. His job in the Athens involved some dirty work. Jack says some moving things about the blessing of something beautiful. He says, “We make it impossible for them to love in this place. One day they fill up. Then they sink. They disappear” (Lee 166). He is referring to his wife, but I feel that you could make this connection to Henry and Lelia’s son Mitt. Maybe the people in the world made it impossible for Mitt to live, because he was so special and different. Jack’s wife was too beautiful and kind for the world to accept. We also learn a lot about the different businesses the Koreans and Asians own. I feel that there is a lot of hard work put into running the Korean businesses. Lee states, “I will write out the face of the young girl I saw only yesterday wearily unloading small sacks of basmati in front of her family’s store, a baby wrapped tightly to her back with a sheet of raw cloth…” (Lee 171). The quote just clearly shows the commitment the Koreans have to their businesses. It is interesting to find out that even John Kwang this political figure has his own business selling dry-cleaning equipment. Is it a coincidence that his business is selling dry- cleaning equipment? That is like the stereotypical Asian American job. Maybe Lee is trying to state that even though he has this great political power thing going on he cannot escape being Korean. The encounter with the black man returning the watch to the Korean store is quite interesting. Lee really shows us the relationships between the two races back then, and how Korean traditions are still followed. Lee ties the current situation with the black man to his father’s relationships to the black customers. They are both similar in that the black woman argued about the prices, and the black man argued about the broken watch. Both his father and the Korean man are stubborn with their answers and are a bit cold to the customers. In some ways, they were forced to deal with each other. Lee says about his father’s experience “He can’t afford a store anywhere else but where she lives, and she has no other place to buy a good apple or fresh loaf of bread” (Lee 186). This shows how dependent they are on each other. When the stubborn Korean gives the black man a better watch and a pair of earrings, Henry concludes that Kwang enforced some Korean tradition on him. He says, “I assumed Beah was honoring the traditional Confucian structure of community, where in each village a prominent elder man heard the townspeople’s grievances and arbitrated and ruled” (Lee 188). We learn about old Korean history and how it was still applied in America. I have also noticed that Henry is being to really like Kwang, because at the restaurant he does not want to do his job he just wants to talk. He keeps saying it is the perfect time to lure him in and get answers but he never takes action. He gets up and leaves him to do his business with Sherrie. Henry says, “I have always known that moment of disappearance, and the even uglier truth is that I have long treasured it” (Lee 202). Could this relate to his relationship with Lelia?
