A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee tells the story of a man with an elusive character. Known to his neighbors as "Doc," Franklin Hata is a friendly face around town, always maintaining a respectful and firm distance. He assimilates with the people of Bedley Run quietly and gracefully, but his peers can tell there's more to his background, where and what he comes from, than he lets on. Between flashbacks and reflections, Lee weaves a narrative that explores the experiences and actions of a humble Japanese immigrant in America. In an attempt to move forward, Hata must erase parts of her past, her origins and her identity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay After leaving his biological parents, Hata dissolves all evidence of his Korean identity, abandoning the Korean language and name, given to him by "the tanners," as he calls them - and adopting the name and lifestyle of his new Japanese family. He works hard to prove that he deserves their sponsorship and immerses himself in their culture and upbringing, being reborn into a new life, where his past never existed. In an environment where Koreans are treated as second-class citizens, Hata renounces her native identity, burying her origins under complacency about her new culture. When he enlists in the Imperial Japanese Army, he becomes a servant of the nation; his identity becomes synonymous with that of the troop, no longer his, even if he maintains the Japanese facade, because it presents him as more "acceptable" and offers more credibility to his peers. Likewise, after settling in Bedley Run after the war, he tries to best embody “normal,” nuclear American life; he moves into a nice house, adopts a daughter (who he hopes will pass as his own), and tries to complete his family with a wife, Mary Burns. His painful experiences during the war fall into oblivion, any history with the Imperial Army erased from his being as much as he can outwardly manage. It is in this way that Hata finds himself systematically and completely changing and changing his character in each new phase of his life. He molds his being to better fit the expectations and intentions of the people around him, erasing whatever parts of him he drags along, those that don't fit the mold. It's the only way he knows how to be. Hata's desire to erase parts of her being also extends to others, when their stories seem to get in the way of hers; when their interactions with him reflect negatively on his character. Lee creates several parallels in Hata's life that revolve around conflicting ideas of abortion and rebirth that exemplify her quickness to free herself from the reflexes of a “bad” character. Erasing something before it begins, or perhaps before he realizes it exists, and returning to creation, born again, different - like Hata, starting his life over by erasing his past. The most striking example lies in the parallel between Sunny and K and Hata's role in each of their lives. During war, passivity is Hata's defining characteristic; he is a simple spectator in the midst of a conflict that depends greatly on his position. Due to his lack of action when it is called for, K is tragically maimed; her little fetus, full and perfect, is torn from her womb and tossed aside on the grass, never to be born. Years later, he pushes Sunny to have a late-term abortion despite her hesitation and reconsideration; He actively convinces the doctor to perform the procedure, even acting as the surgeon's assistant and invasively operating on his daughter. He doesn't speak.