earticle

영어

This study examines the process of an Asian American protagonist Suzy Park becoming an American, taking the role of a detective trying to solve the murder case of her own parents and to find out her missing sister, Grace. During her whole life, Suzy has pursued the white American identity and always been conscious of being watched by others, wondering who the others are. In The Interpreter, the others are symbolized as the white American Suzy has tried to identify with or the American system such as police, courts, and INS which control and surveil the immigrants with absolute power. Grace is also represented as the other who has watched and tried to protect Suzy from the unspeakable family secret. In this novel, Grace and Suzy turn out to be symbolic twins. Accepting the identity of being a twin with Grace, Suzy realizes that the invisible other who has watched her for whole life is in fact Suzy herself. Suzy also realizes that it was she herself that drew a line unconsciously between the identity of a white American and that of an Asian American. Finally, Suzy thinks that there is no need to doubt her own American identity because she is always one of the Americans in America composed of immigrants. In the whole process, the ability of reading the gap between two languages of an interpreter helps Suzy find out her American identity.