53 pages • 1 hour read
Chang-rae LeeA Gesture Life
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1999A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
A Life of Gestures and Gratitude
As reflected in the title, the major theme of the novel is the notion of living a life of gestures. Franklin Hata admits in Chapter 1: “I know there are those who would say I’ve too keenly sought approval and consensus, and if over the years I’ve erred on the side of being grateful, well, so be it” (357). His adopted daughter, Sunny, confronts Hata for caring more for reputation and gestures than for anything of actual meaning. Even as a young man in the war, Captain Ono points out Hata’s total dependence on good fortune and gesture, and his lack of true, convincing passion and desire in his love for K. Hata’s total dependence on gesture and the dream of a life with K after the war prevents him from saving her from her very real, terrible fate.
From childhood, Hata’s gestures serve as a means of gratitude for the good fortune and circumstances he has been placed in, from being adopted into a good family, to serving in the war, and finally being able to build a name for himself in Bedley Run. Hata’s constant politeness and gestures also serve as a means of expressing gratitude for being accepted into the white picket fence lifestyle of a very white American town. When he misses working as a medical supply store manager, he misses it because people in his line of work would accept his presence. For Hata, the simple act of being accepted and seen as an equal is enough to make his life on acts of gratitude and gesture to those around him, as though nothing he has is his by right, but by favor and good fortune that he must repay in some way. Hata’s emotionally dissociated and distant nature even with those closest to him proves to be his downfall. Although a life of gestures allows a person to acquire the respect of others as a good Samaritan, it prevents the formation of meaningful, real relationships.
Beyond feeling gratitude to circumstance itself, there are several moments wherein Hata subconsciously expects those around him to feel gratitude towards him for his acts of kindness and gestures. His kindness to others is a way of burdening others with having to repay him. Hata expects Sunny to be grateful not directly to him but to life’s circumstances as he was when the renowned Kurohata family adopted him. For years after Hata helps Officer Como secure a job with the police force, she fends off petty vandals for his sake, and confronts Sunny when she becomes infamous for spending time with the wrong crowd. Even in the case of K, Hata doesn’t find anything wrong in having sex with her without her consent, as though his kindness to her warrants what he believes to be a testament of his love.
Erasure of Identity and Assimilation
Throughout his life, Franklin Hata goes to lengths to completely assimilate into a local identity. As a child, his parents do not call him by his Korean name to ensure total assimilation into Japanese culture as a means of safety during the times of Japanese colonization. When he has the opportunity to be adopted by the Kurohata family, he fully immerses himself into Japanese life, thus erasing any remnants of his identity as a Korean.
Once he moves to New York, Hata changes his first name to Franklin and shortens his last name from Kurohata to Hata to be able to assimilate and blend in. He makes attempts to hide his true identity and never come face to face with who he really is. One reason for Hata’s deep attraction to K is her acknowledgement of his original Korean identity, speaking to him in Korean, asking for his Korean name, and about his life with his adoptive Japanese family. Even after attempting to erase his identity, it is clear that he holds a deep connection to his childhood identity and a desire to be seen as who he really is. Still, Hata works hard to erase his past identity in order to make a name and identity for himself in a very white town, so much so that when he visits the Gizzi house to look for Sunny, the number of ethnically diverse people stands out. When Renny Banerjee starts to feel that the people of Bedley Run don’t look at him the same way, Hata also realizes that he has gone from being the good “Doc Hata” to a “random ancient oriental.” Despite his best efforts, he cannot escape from his true self or completely assimilate in either Japanese or American society, as is clear to his flashbacks and the impact of his childhood experiences on his actions and nature.
In many instances, the hidden truth of just how different and out place Hata feels is shown. Hata remembers meeting a Japanese man with a medical supply store at a conference, and the awkwardness that he couldn’t place. At first, he believed it to be that each doesn’t wish to make the other feel less Japanese or less American, as assuming the other desires to be more American or Japanese could prove to be offensive. However, in a convention of no other Japanese person, the two feel distinctly out of place:
I thought perhaps it was that we felt differently from everyone by virtue of being together (these two Japanese in a convention crowd), and that it was this fact that made us realize, for a moment, our sudden and unmistakable sense of not fitting in (284).
World War II and the “Inferior” Koreans
Although Hata never directly explains the true nature of the relationship between Japanese and Koreans during World War II, many allusions appear in his flashbacks. During the war, Korea was a Japanese colony, and their people were considered inferior to the Japanese. Because of this, Hata’s biological family, the Ohs, forced him to blend entirely into Japanese culture. He identifies most strongly with the Kurohata family, almost entirely dismissing his biological parents and family. Even after his adoption, Hata remembers being bullied by his classmates. His later inability to convince Captain Ono of any substance within alludes to a deep-seated sense of inferiority.
When K recognizes Hata’s fluency in speaking Korean, Hata is ashamed and denies his identity. Whilst she is eager to learn his real name, he refuses to mention it, insisting instead on his deference to Captain Ono and the need to sacrifice selfish desires for the sake of the collective. Hata’s own shame in his Korean identity is clear enough in his total assimilation to, and identification with, Japanese culture. Even K is forced into service without knowing its true nature in exchange for her brother being allowed to continue his studies. Considering that her father was a prominent Korean ambassador, his inability to stop her son from being conscripted without offering up his daughters in exchange is telling enough about the inferiority of the Koreans.
During the war, captured Korean “comfort women” are sex slaves for the Japanese troops. Once Hata falls in love with K he starts to become offended by the derogatory terms by which the soldiers call the comfort women—“chosen-pi, a base anatomical slur which also denoted her Koreanness […] there was a casualness to his usage, as if he were speaking of any animal in a pen” (250). Both the use of Korean women as sex slaves and the derogatory way in which the Japanese soldiers view them is an expression of the inferiority of the Koreans in the eyes of the Japanese. Hata continuously makes efforts to prove his loyalty to the Japanese cause by reasoning with himself and with Endo about the purpose of the comfort women for the sake of the morale of the war, and their important biological role instead of seeing it as the sexual slavery it is. This deep-seated inferiority leads to Hata being always grateful for his opportunities and good fortune throughout his life. The notion of being of an inferior race subconsciously effects Hata enough to become the core of his nature, preventing him from ever having any relationship of real passion or love. This conviction of inferiority forces him to live a life of gestures and kindness to all those around him, as if to somehow repay the universe for being able to escape the lowly Korean identity.
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