A Temporary Marriage
“After he set up his camera on the living room table, they both forced a smile until the timer clicked, the shutter snapped back, and she drew away.” (Page 3)
From the appearance of things, Mrs. Shin is only using this marriage as a ticket for immigration. Despite her circumstances, she finds her current arrangements distasteful.
“–student demonstrators attacked by pepper-spray bombs in 1986, the Sampoong Department Store collapse that killed generations of families in 1995…” (Page 4)
One of my first questions would be what these demonstrators are protesting. Another would be what caused the building to collapse. Was it an earthquake? Faulty construction?
“But money in Korea meant residing with the in-laws until the new bride was made acceptable; it meant surveillance and criticism.” (Page 4)
A critique about the rigidity of the higher rungs of society. What is the distribution of economic classes? There are similarities however with China in that the wife was subordinate to the husband’s side of the family.
“Mortified to see a man in a kitchen, she tried to wrench the spatula away, then remembered last night’s scene.” (Page 7)
Mrs. Shin seems to have habits held over from being raised in Korea. Mrs. Shin’s reaction here can be interpreted as a way of trying to go for something familiar as a coping mechanism.
At the Edge of the World
“…or about America passing the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004…” (Page 25)
This is something I’ve never heard of before. Considering the events of the Korean War that lead to the creation of North and South Korea, America’s response to North Korea is understandable. The fact that America had to pass a human rights act in 2004 is terrifying in its recency.
“There was a school lesson that they taught us that went, ‘One plus one equals two dead Americans.’” (Page 27)
The lesson I think serves as a warning to turncoats/traitors/defectors of North Korea. If one person is involved with someone the regime does not approve of, both individuals are considered Americans and thus not welcome. Considering the families’ refugee status, that is my interpretation of the lesson.
“They found a place to sit despite his mother’s habit of hoarding chairs, sofas, and old magazines that neighbors threw out.” (Page 29)
This quote brings back memories of living in Hawaii with my grandparents. Their packrat nature and the random assortment of items always had a unique scent to them that makes me nostalgic to think about. Along with that, I think the hoarding mentality is something borne from poverty, in which nothing is to be wasted.
“…there had always been a politeness that made Mark feel as if his father were training to be a father and he were training to be his son.” (Page 33)
There is an awkward tension between Mark and his father as Mark was raised acting American while his dad is too busy working to make sure the family can survive. Being the breadwinner, Mark’s father tries to distance himself from tradition especially the shaman. That’s why Mark’s upbringing appears odd when they visit other Korean families.
The Pastor’s Son
“Instead of the promised quiet family fathering, Hyeseon’s tribe had opted for a typical Korean ceremony and hired a flashy wedding hall for several hundred acquaintances.” (Page 51)
My first impression is that Hyeseon is trying to overcompensate for her late marriage. Being described as old, Hyeseon is desperately trying to make up for marrying at an old age. It’s also an opportunity to flaunt her traditions to her new family.
“They treated me like a foreigner, saying I spoke Korean like a fourth grader, even getting angry when I answered questions in English class.” (Page 53)
There is a mixture of xenophobia and jealousy that the narrator experiences going to school in Korea. His classmates find him childish due to lack of fluency which is a method of trying to elevate themselves over him. They do not like his English as it reminds them of an opportunity they did not get to have growing up.
“…a permanent dampness above us, as if the basement home—more a cave than a home—had been a sponge for cycles of wet monsoon summers.” (Page 55)
After losing what they had, Father Ryu decided to honor his wife’s request of marrying her childhood friend. However, the conditions only remind the family of what they lost in America and the marriage only being for the sake of avoiding bankruptcy.
“So I walked away from him only a little afraid, because I was no longer the boy who confused his father with God.” (Page 56)
Here the narrator has grown up due to being tired of his current arrangements. Being picked on at school, not being able to act American, and seeing his father so vulnerable has shaken the narrator’s faith in his father.
The Goose Father
“He dreaded the evening quiet of his apartment, and resorted to making phone calls to friends as he moved from room to room that rebuked him with their emptiness.” (Page 72)
Gilho has to deal with the reality of living separated from his family. Though he is self-sufficient, his wife and children in America leave the apartment Gilho lives in deprived of interaction.
“Oh, you can’t turn away a goose with only one good wing—she just found me! That’s like Superman without his cape. Like General Yi Sun-shin without his Turtle Ship.” (Page 73)
Considering the connotations of goose father referring to Korean fathers who acted dishonorably during the Vietnam War, Gilho finds the tenant having an actual goose to be a taunt. I don’t know much about General Yi Sun-shin but I’m thinking about Romance of the Three kingdoms and Lu Bu’s horse Red HAre strangely enough.
“He returned hunched, one tentative foot at a time, so different from the way Gilho had become: a man used to having his way, a man used to making demands.” (Page 74)
Wuseong in this instance I believe is showing deference to the senior and owner of the place he has agreed to live in. The comment about Gilho being a man used to making demands however brings up an interesting line of thought, is his family happier without his presence? Funny enough, Gilho’s self-sufficiency can be likened to individualism and independence which is extolled in America.
“Watching the boy, Gilho felt a little dizzy. Wuseong belonged to no category of people that he recognized, and it disturbed Gilho’s hard-won world order.” (Page 77)
This excerpt exposes Gilho’s ingrained traditional views and being confronted with something not typically displayed by males in Korea. It exposes a bit about the social expectations of men in Korea such as the surprise at seeing a man in cooking and commenting that it was a woman’s role.
The Salaryman
“On your way to your cubicle, you bow to Manager Han, who stares back with glazed eyes in what has become his only expression.” (Page 93)
This reminds me of Japan and overworking being a danger. There have been stories about people dying at their workplace and at times I think that hard work is valued at the expense of people’s personal health.
“The truth of his suicide was muzzled so his wife and children could subsist on the life insurance money.” (Page 94)
What does this say about the economy in Korea that suicide is a viable means of securing welfare for your family? While that is not the only place in which these stories occur, I am unfamiliar with the economic status of Korea.
“These clips, rare to Korea before the 1997 IMF crisis destroyed the job-for-life policy, are suddenly so ordinary that when you attended your acquaintance’s funeral, your mourning felt like a forgery.” (Page 94)
Again, another reminder about the overworking environment in Japan. However, the job-for-life thing is a bit confusing. Does it imply that one person stays with the same company for life? Or does it imply that one does not really retire?
“But as she drills you on whether or not the company will release your pension, for new bankruptcy laws exempt it from its responsibilities…” (Page 98)
First thing that really strikes me about this story is the second person point of view it places on the reader. It really does add to the immersion factor. The second thing that strikes me about the quote is the lack of responsibilities due to bankruptcy, that sounds cruel for a loyal employee.
Drifting House
“The government’s face was everywhere: on the sides of a marooned cart, above the lintel of the gray post office, on placards scattered throughout the surrounding mountains praising the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il.” (Page 113)
What I’ve seen regarding North Korea does show that the populace reveres their leader as a divine figure. They must provide him with thanks for all the good in their life and detractors and quickly silenced. A documentary about an eye doctor curing cataracts shows how massive their leader’s presence is in daily life.
“For the school textbooks stated that a swallow had descended from heaven at the Dear Leader’s birth, that trees bloomed and snow melted at the Dear Leader’s presence.” (Page 114)
Now was this a recent development from the regime or was the leader of Korea always seen as a divine figure? By teaching those stories to children at a young age, it really does instill a sense of worship to impressionable youth.
“Then he closed his eyes, twisted their mother’s scarf around Gukhwa’s neck and choked her. It was better this way, he was convinced, than to leave her afraid, starving slowly to death. He did not let go until she stopped moving.” (Page 115)
Being forced into the leading role of the family at a young age must be tough for Woncheol especially at eleven years of age. It really says something about the lack of governmental rights given to its citizens that they allow children to fend for themselves.
Hunger changed people, destroyed the strongest bonds between parents and children, and young and old, and a woman with disgraced flesh was already a broken woman.” (Page 116)
Now the title Drifting House appears relevant to me. Not feeling anymore connection to blood relatives due to extreme poverty, why Gukhwa was choked by Woncheol, and cynicism against the regime create a situation where a family cannot be cohesive.
A Small Sorrow
“Only a month after their move, she watched her husband, Seongwon, in their spacious hanok’s main sarang courtyard, his arms around a girl dressed like a shiny birthday present.” (Page 129)
This reminds me of The Joy Luck Club especially with the immediate thought of mistresses and concubines. Is the situation the same in Korea, where there is a main wife and several mistresses?
“But in a country where female grooming was an art form, her own pageboy haircut and boy’s hips and chest made her look more unconventional than she was.” (Page 130)
Societal standards of females make an appearance here. Is the same grooming applied to male as well or is it exclusively only for females? Does that mean females have more expectations than males in Korean culture? I don’t want to presume but what standards are males held up to besides being the breadwinners of the family?
“It was unmoved by the chaos around it, so it could not be overwhelmed by anger: Even if I were broken in half, I wouldn’t make a sound.” (Page 130)
This is an ugly reminder of the need to always internalize your problems. Public image is important and thus, problems are never addressed. Is this a norm in Korea? Is it a sentiment shared in both North and South Korea?
“Eunkang, married before she had experienced her first kiss, did not care about money or family reputation or the infinite calculations involved in marriage. She had only trusted in a vision of happiness.” (Page 131)
Eunkang seems to go against the expectations of a bride, being more of a visionary expressed by her father’s actions as a poet for the democracy movement. Her love of the arts, overshadows many practical questions regarding marriage which is a warning in and of itself. Money is the primary reason that divorces happen after all.
The Believer
“She saw the torso of a Chinese American boy she knew, a fifth grader in the neighborhood, protruding from the industrial-size waste bin.” (Page 148)
A murder of a young Chinese-American boy. What is the motivation here? A racially driven hate crime? Cannibalism? A mental illness?
“Thirsty for somewhere else, he began spending his free time watching Korean soap operas and playing a screeching music he called pansori, whose words Jenny could not understand.” (Page 149)
An interesting reaction to the recent notoriety that haunts Jenny. Her father knowing that his wife was just institutionalized and combined with the hate mail following the “Korean killer” incident decides to entrench himself further into Korean culture. One would expect the father to shy away from anything Korean related in this scenario.
“It almost made her mother human to Jenny, but then her mother’s face shifted away as if embarrassed to be seen. That was it. Her Mother disappeared, unable to bear herself anymore…” (Page 153)
Seeing one’s relative in a mental institution, Jenny is forced to confront the truth that haunted her father. Knowing just how important it was to her father’s happiness and the shell of a person that he became after her placement into an institution, Jenny is now questioning herself as a person especially in faith.
“Still, the images resurrected themselves, the way that her mother’s way of seeing had always haunted her. The wild punctuation of her mother’s sentences penetrated her, and through the motel’s double windows, Jenny saw her mother’s body wrapped in a metal corset and naked from the waist down, tiny seraphim grimacing as they licked her with their bruising holy tongues.” (Page 160)
Jenny’s encounter with her mother at the mental institution has made her question her faith. The words of her mother to keep telling Jenny to go to church resonates with Jenny in a manner that fills her with disgust. As her mother was institutionalized due to delusions of religion, Jenny will forever associate faith with her confused mother and the murder that was committed in God’s name.
Beautiful Women
“They said it was God’s will when Sergeant Brown left to fight in Vietnam; their faces twisted into grimaces as they searched for someone else to judge.” (Page 173)
Based on how Sergeant Brown acted compared to the society surrounding them, Mina was bullied by other parents sadly enough. She was isolated by the other parents, telling their kids not to play with her. It’s ugly that even though they were happy that Sergeant Brown left, they were saddened by the loss of a scapegoat.
“Soon, she thinks, as she passes women carrying wooden A-frames loaded with fabric, women whose cracked, lined faces have been ravaged by their hard lives, soon I will be one of them.” (Page 174)
To contrast the harsh ostracism, the situations of the families surrounding Mrs. Lim are no different in terms of living long, difficult lives. Despite that however, they seek to only mock Mrs. Lim for having a relationship with an African-American soldier.
“She says, How can I not drink when I’m afraid of my dreams? Each night she imagines what must be her man’s toothless jaw trying to speak from under Vietnam jungle.” (Page 175)
Mrs. Lim as a widower and stuck raising Mina feels twice the guilt. Grieving for her lost love, she drinks to try and forget the nightmares that plague her. However, it allows Mina to wander on her own, not being able to ask her mother for help.
“Her nineteen-year-old son has disappeared; tears the size of salmon eggs squeeze out of her eyes as she curses the government. Her diffident husband, afraid that she, too, will be arrested, pulls timidly at the flaps of her sleeve.” (Page 176)
A reminder of the conditions inherent to living in North Korea. Speaking against the government will lead to disappearances and there is nothing the people living there can do to stop it. As unfortunate as it is for Mrs. Jang, that is the reality that they have to contend with and even her husband, a supposed strong male figure, is subdued, trying to reign her in.