Week 7: Busan, Osaka, and Home

    I think the most striking difference between Busan and the Korean ghettos in Osaka (from the reader’s perspective) are found in Sunja’s expectations of Japan contrasting with her feelings of home. Though she understands that she doesn’t generally live as well as most Japanese families do and that there are always guests being lodged, I feel like Sunja likes her home. I also think she likes the area, but knows that it’s dangerous for her to walk alone. Before meeting Hansu, most of her life at home revolved around working, as women weren’t allowed to be educated and she didn’t really have any friends outside of the sisters in the house.

    Though we haven’t seen Osaka for that long at this point in the book, we see that the area Sunja is living in is a Korean ghetto, harboring rough living conditions for all the citizens there imposed on them by the Japanese government. Our first impression of the people of this area is a warning from Yoseb that people are desperate and will steal and take advantage of Isak and Sunja if they offer help or appear rich. Sunja was immediately shocked at the poor living conditions of Yoseb and his wife, especially considering that they are actually well off compared to most other citizens there. The smell of animals and the damaged buildings especially stand out as being very different from Sunja’s home. While I’m not sure how different it was in Busan considering the annexation, the entire police force and law enforcement in Osaka were Japanese, and would generally not listen to Sunja and Isak– if they could even speak Korean.

Comments

  1. Noah English 11H BlogFebruary 27, 2023 at 12:05 PM

    I agree with the stark difference between Sunja’s home in Busan and the Korean ghettos in Osaka, and that affected her a lot. Sunja’s expectations of Japan are based on her experiences with Hansu, who represents a more affluent and privileged segment of Japanese society. However, her reality in the Korean ghetto of Osaka is far removed from what she imagined, with harsh living conditions, loneliness, and isolation from the life she previously knew.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 8: Gender Inequality in Pachinko

     Gender is one of, if not the biggest recurring theme throughout the novel. The entire plot stems from the societal norms that would condemn the 16 year old Sunja for being impregnated while unmarried to a much older, manipulative man who had a whole separate family. If word were to get out, most people would have undoubtedly sided with Hansu. It’s a shame that Sunja has to marry, especially at her age, in order to remain what would be considered a valuable member of society. The novel even mentions women killing themselves if they are impregnated before marriage, even if it was forced upon them. It is so awful to think that regardless of age, a woman or girl could be heavily condemned or commit suicide for having a child they didn’t want, a horror that the novel keeps the reader aware of to continually contextualize the decisions made by the characters.       At the same time, many of these different societal standards between men and women are no...
Read more

Week 3: Dick Thornhill and Childlike Wonder

     In Kate Grenville’s The Secret River, Dick Thornhill represents the idea of child innocence, fear of our own ignorance, and nature vs. nurture. As the first section of the novel painstakingly establishes, Thornhill, Sal, and even Willie’s entire world exists in London for most of their life. They are suddenly sent to an unknown world with the context of their occupation being a punishment. This is something even Willie was old enough to understand, so they naturally approached everything in this new world with fear and caution.       Dick on the other hand finds that childlike wonder of exploration that all children have in their environment, the difference being that all he has ever known has been in Sydney. While he still is surrounded by a society that inherently considers the native people to be lesser and to be savages, Dick still manages to treat them as people like anybody else. His perception of the world isn’t as harshly ingrained in soc...
Read more

Week 1: Smoked Salmon

       There is a lot of food that could take first place for me, but my absolute favorite at the moment would have to be raw smoked salmon. The perfect rendition of this dish is also salty, with the standout feature being that powerful smoky taste that feels like it coats your tongue. The smooth, tender, and tasty salmon compliments the smoke without overpowering or clashing with it, allowing for a perfect balance that is almost unbeatable for me. There is the danger of overdoing it with the salt, but that usually isn’t a problem. The meal is relatively simple in terms of ingredients, but its taste is proof that complexity isn’t necessary to make an excellent dish. 
Read more