“Native Speaker” by Chang-rae Lee (post 3): Protagonist’s job as spy is a multiple-personality metaphor, since alternate personalities are spies

In undiagnosed multiple personality, the host (regular) personality is often unaware of the alternate personalities (and has memory gaps for periods of time that alternate personalities have been in control), so people often make the mistake of thinking that all of the personalities are unaware of each other, which is very far from the truth.

For example, one of the most common types of alternate personality is the protector personality. Whom does it protect? The host personality. And to perform its function, it must spy on what is going on with the host personality, with whom it has one-way co-consciousness. And if the protector sees that the host is in danger, it will take over, deal with the situation, and leave the host with a memory gap.

Other kinds of alternate personalities may have things that they want to come out and do, such as write poems, but they can’t take over and do this as long as the host personality is in control. So they monitor the host for weakness, such as when the host is sleepy or sedated. Then the poet personality takes over and writes a poem, which the host may find the next morning, unless the poet has hidden it.

The same thing may be accomplished when the host personality is a writer, who purposely, to one extent or another, in one way or another, gives up full control, interacts with, or switches to become, the narrative and character, alternate personalities. Thus, the host personality, when interviewed, may not really have full, first-hand knowledge of why everything in the novel is the way it is.