R5 Excerpts and Response - Anna Malefatto

Sarah Feldberg
"Doc Hata's fascination with real-estate in A Gesture Life seemed to me to echo and expand on (and further problematize) the fetishization of certain distinctly American commodities....it becomes evident that the house Hata struggles to maintain never becomes a home - instead it's sterile, like a 'museum.' Additionally, the breakfast that he sets out for Sunny becomes one more empty, or purely aesthetic, gesture - a minimal, unobtrusive, and ultimately failed, attempt at communication with his errant daughter....I thought Jenny's tentative embrace of bourgeois/aesthetic pleasure also articulates a central thematic in Choi's novel - Choi and Jenny wonder how to appreciate beauty without celebrating conservative myths at the same time; how to save some modicum of pleasure without guilt."

Anushka Zafar
"By pointing out his Japanese heritage in defense of his behavior, Hata is giving into the stereotypical notion that Asian Americans are seen as 'model citizens.' In a way, it seems that he is giving into social complicity. Hata fails at resisting social complicity and it is clear...that he is in complete denial; he complies to the expectations of society be being 'number-one citizen,' and thinks it is aiding his attempt to assimilate into American society..."

Chang Liu
"In discussion about social complicity, it reveals that no matter how far they drive or how deep they hide, they cannot escape their compromised morality, their Americanness....[Hata's] appearance and reputation prevail over almost any other priority....It is this life of gestures that 'Doc' Franklin Hata lives that serves to eradicate his past and true emotions..."

Rebecca Meekins
"These novels exemplify the different effects one's history and race have on their actions within society. Doc's history binds him from coming within a certain emotional distance with his society, and Jenny's history suggests she is much more compliant than she actually is."

Veronica Bruscini
"These novels blur the question of agency even further in specific episodes for Hata and Jenny. Hata, in his recollections of youth and old age, goes through great lengths to demonstrate his 'gesture life,' on one based on observation and inaction; his narrative is so skillfully wrought that when he does act - physically taking advantage of K - it almost blends into the rest of his story. These encounters with K solidify Hata's inability to form deep, interpersonal connections, even within the circle of his closest friends and associates, and he remains a solitary figure through the rest of his life. Jenny's meticulously planned and crafted bombings are designed to spare lives and still make a statement, destroying buildings that house the government agencies she opposes. Yet reflecting on these events during a time of inaction...Jenny senses and emptiness, a lack of person connections in her life..."


This collection of responses brings up an issue raised in these novels that we had not considered in class discussions, and which I had not considered at all before reading them. Both Doc Hata and Jenny seem to be victims of their circumstances. Hata is a closed off person, unable to make any deep interpersonal connections, like Veronica notes. This comes from his childhood, when his parents sent him away to live a "better life" with foster parents in Japan, and continued throughout his entire life; he always valued his appearance to others more than his relationship with them. Similarly, Jenny is all about her actions as a revolutionary. She values the bombings she did with William and the "revolutionary" actions she is taking by helping Juan, Yvonne and Pauline, but in reflecting on her relationship with William, she realizes that she doesn't really love him for him, rather for what they did together.

Both of these characters value possessions and actions and values themselves, more than the relationships they develop in their lives. This makes them kind of empty characters. Rebecca simplifies this point well in my excerpt from her response. Doc Hata likes to emphasize his Japaneseness, but his high value of material possessions is a very American one, one that Jenny and her cohorts were very against. Sarah points out the struggle that Jenny has with her essential values when they conflict with her enjoyment of material and aesthetic pleasures.

In the end, I think neither character can really help that they are so confused and alone throughout the novels. Doc Hata knows no other way of behaving, and Jenny is trying so hard to be a revolutionary and live up to impossible ideals, that they both miss out on important aspects of life: strong relationships with other people.