Week 9: Fatherly Love vs Social Norms

    A topic that stuck in my mind when reading Pachinko was the contrast between positive fatherly love and the social norms at the time. It was expected that parents should never compliment their children, and that they could turn out poorly if they did. Sunja had to wait to compliment Noa until nobody could hear, as the way she feels is very different to the way she acts when people are around her. This love stems from Hoonie’s unwavering and unconditional love for his wife and children. Though it wasn’t common, Hoonie ate at the dinner table with Yangjin and Sunja and would wait for them to finish. He would always compliment the two, and genuinely made them feel like equals– something that was very uncommon at the time.

    Marriage itself was usually a symbol of status, something done for practical reasons rather than for love. Hoonie was genuinely loving and affectionate for his wife and child, something that the both endlessly praise him for and clearly stuck with them even after his death, as we can see. This short passage by Sunja summarizes it best as she says, “Now that he was gone, Sunja held on to her father’s warmth and kind words like polished gems. No one should expect praise, and certainly not a woman, but as a little girl, she’d been treasured, nothing less. She’d been her father’s delight” (Lee 179).

    Even though they are not related, this fatherly love is once again shown through Isak, who was also endlessly kind to his wife and children when he didn’t need to be with what was considered right at the time. Even if Noa’s favorite person was Yoseb and he only really wished to get to know Isak more at the end of his life, Isak’s last moments were telling Noa that he was his “blessing” (193), completely shattering any notions of not lifting up one’s child to keep them from turning out badly.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 13, 2023 at 9:45 PM

    Hi Andrew, very interesting thoughts on the social norms in Korea and Japan during that era. It was moving for me to read about how Sunja carries the love she felt from Hoonie onto her children, as it shows the way one can influence their family with positive acts even generations down the line. Isak certainly did everything he can to make Noa feel love and belonging, so I wonder why it is Mozasu who was able to pass that love onto his son.

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  2. Paulos HabtewoldMarch 14, 2023 at 12:49 AM

    Hi Andrew, I never really thought of how some fathers in the novel broke social norms, especially because of Yoseb, who we talked about a lot in class, who follows all the social norms in Korean and Japanese culture as it comes to leading a family. Hoonie and Isak breaking social norms to compliment their children probably stems from both of their ideals and morals to stay true within themselves and never fold because of something like norms.

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