***Language***
As I keep reading it is extremely obvious to me the large role that Language plays in this novel. There is always a noticeable reference to the way Henry pays close attention to his speech, Leelia’s career as a speech therapist, and the way that Leelia i basically in love with the way that Henry speaks. The scene between Henry and Leelia when they first met, Leelia questions Henry about his attentiveness to his speech and later when they are in Molly’s apartment Leelia says, “God, I’d forgotten how much I love your language” (126). Whenever Leelia is in a scene in the novel, speech and communication is a popular topic of conversation between Henry and Leelia and commentary by the author. Language is not always in the spoken form in this novel either, Leelia mentions how Henry has not mentioned Mitt’s name more than a couple times since the “accident”:
Just think about it. You haven’t said his name more than four
or five times since it happened. You haven’t said his name
tonight. Maybe you’ve talked all this time with Jack about him,
maybe you say his name in your sleep, but we’ve never really
talked about it, we haven’t really come right out together and
said it, really named what happened for what it was (129).
Earlier in their conversation Leelia says that Henry and her talk between every meal, that talking is all that they do she even makes a joke about the amount of talking they do: “the premise of the movie about us is that we spontaneously combust if we don’t talk every six hours” (125), and yet the most tragic thing that has happened to them as individuals and in their relationship is never spoken about, never analyzed, while everything else is. It is also important to note the way in which Mitt died in silence.
He was suffocated to death by his friends who were playing around; Mitt was on the bottom of the dog pile and for some reason was unable to use language to tell his friends he was having trouble breathing, or even to
simply scream. This lack of communication is what kills Mitt a perfectly healthy seven year old boy. And now an unmentioned number of years have passed and Henry’s silence about Mitt’s death in addition to his dual personalities is tearing Leelia and him apart.
marmason said,
March 19, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I love your point about Mitt dying in silence. I hadn’t really thought of that, but he was smothered, silenced. If you want to take it even further, and project that the other kids were white, it could be seen as a metaphor for Mitt’s half-Korean culture/identity being smothered or silenced by dominant white American culture. As Lelia suggested, America was not ready for a child like Mitt.
eth76 said,
March 22, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I liked how you joined language with Mitt’s lack of cummunication when he was under the dog pile. This accendent that could easily been avoided had Mitt been able to cry out for help, or that he was having trouble breathing. I was also thinking that Mitt’s silence could have been becase he was trying to show how tough he was.
ju1522 said,
March 25, 2009 at 10:38 am
I think you make some interesting points here. It’s true, Lelia is obsessed with language and, based on the list she left him at the beginning of the novel, seems to love his language more then she loves him as an actual person. I also thought you made a great point about lack of communication killing Mitt, making the scene even more tradgic that just a little communication could have saved his life. This seems true for Henry and Lelia’s relationship as well, as you pointed out, they fail to talk about the most important things that go into their relationship. Language is a huge part in this novel especially in the fact that without language and communication we will end up in a place we as people don’t want to be. I also wonder what link is being made between death and lonliness since they seem to both be results of lack of communication.