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Week 10: Pachinko, Identity, and Family

     Pachinko  is a book so jam-packed with meaning and depth that it would be hard to say everything there is to say about the book in one blog post. The story is a deep examination of identity and belonging- something we've seen in a lot of the more contemporary texts in this class. Pachinko 's wide variety of characters all struggle to feel in place in a society catered towards heterosexual Japanese men. It almost feels cynical in this way, with Solomon and Noa returning to pachinko after working so hard to get an education and move up the social ladder. I think it could be argued that this sort of acceptance, the kind gained from working hard enough to become a model minority, is not the way to find belonging. Family is key here. Society is a hard thing to find belonging in, especially when you exist outside of the accepted and typical behaviors and identities within it. But family is a constant. When society doesn't accept us, our family often does. Noa's happie...
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Week 10: CNI Reflection!

      This class has been an awesome opportunity! Coming from a middle school and high school that are both very Eurocentric when it came to literature, it was really refreshing to engage with texts from a variety of different cultures and time periods. The most surprising thing has definitely been seeing how much in common there is between all the different texts. To see (read) the human experience- pain, happiness, sorrow, family, etc.- be represented in all cultures across centuries leaves me feeling an indescribable sort of connectedness. Between the reading and the research projects, I can confidently say I am more culturally literate and aware overall.       My favorite texts were Pachinko and Hay Ibn Yaqzan . Pachinko  stood out to me. I am a sucker for longer books, since they tend to (if they are well-written) have a lot of substance and nuance to them. The amount of characters and societal commentary in Pachinko was astounding and made t...
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Week 9: Belonging in Pachinko

     Pachinko is a story filled with an immense amount of characters, all with different thoughts, beliefs, and desires. One commonality to all of them, however, is a desire to belong. Koreans want to fit into Japanese society. Characters like Totoyama, that struggle with their sexuality in heteronormative time period, want to belong. This is common for many of the characters for different reasons. Family also plays a large role in this- with characters like Sunja and Hansu desiring some sense of belonging in a normal family setting.     Noa is a prime example of this desire for belonging. His name, biblically, is a reference to Noah, someone who had to shoulder the sins of humanity. Noa feels that he has to carry the burden of his family and people, and that to find a sense of belonging in society he must somehow become more Japanese.      Hansu also feels a sense of outsider-ness. He is successful and has more money than any other character in t...
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Week 9: Akiko

         I think that the passage provided (the second one) offers a lot of insight into how nationality is something inescapable for the characters of Pachinko . Noa has one desire in his whole life: not to be Japanese or Korean, but to become someone beyond those labels entirely. His relationship with Akiko kind of represents how his desire to separate himself through his academic excellence, professionalism, and intelligence, has ironically placed him in the exact position he wanted to avoid. Noa's constant drive for success is his attempt, from an early age, to become Japanese. The story describes this: "the boy wanted to be Japanese" (176). When Noa reaches this goal, at Waseda, he finds Akiko. She instills in Noa the idea that no matter how successful he is, no matter what he does or who he becomes, that he is still Korean and many Japanese people will still see him that way. He won't be the stereotypical Korean, the impoverished and lower people; ins...
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Week 8: Lee's Commentary on Gender

     Gender is one of the most prominent themes within Pachinko. It is very in your face at times. Yoseb's rants about masculinity and how he feels like he has to be the sole caretaker of his family are the first examples I can think of.  Lee's depiction of hyper-masculinity is something that I find to be really well done. Hyper-masculinity is not inherently bad, and Yoseb proves that not all people that believe in it are doing so out of some form of misogyny. Yoseb just wants to be able to take the brunt of the labor so he can spare his family, which I think is very commendable. However, I still think his inability to get over his pride is an issue, even if it comes from a place of genuine affection for his family.      The story's commentary on traditional gender roles is clear in this way. The Korea and Japan presented are divided by gender, which is unsurprising considering the time period, but the novel does not stray away from highlighting t...
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Week 8: Biblical References

     Pachinko has a lot of biblical references in terms of characters names (which may or not be obvious depending on how familiar you are with the bible). Characters share names with biblical figures whom they share a lot with.     Isak, for example, is very similar to Isaac from the Bible. Abraham, one of the most important patriarchal figures in both Christianity and Judaism, is the father of Isaac. Abraham and his wife have Isaac when they are both very old, as a gift from God, which they are incredibly grateful for. However, God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to him, similar to how people from that time may have sacrificed an animal. Abraham is reluctant, but decides to goes through with it. Right before sacrificing his son, an angel stops Abraham. In this sense, Isak and Isaac have a lot in common. Both are 'sacrifices'- Isaac literally and Isak in terms of his selflessness in general and specifically to Sunja.      Noa is clearly a referen...
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Week 7: Writing Style

     After Equiano's story, which managed to be simultaneously dense and long-winded, this book feels like a breath of fresh air. The story is written in a very easy to digest way, with the third-person perspective often lending direct insight into every character's thoughts and emotions. This makes it easy to understand what every character feels about a certain situation, which also has the benefit of offering many different perspectives that help create a story that feels populated with a variety of diverse opinions. It is a lot like Home Fire in this way (and also very different from Equiano's book and The Secret River ).     It also has a bit more dialogue than some of the books we have read this quarter, which was refreshing. I think that has made reading it a much more enjoyable experience. Both of the other books we have read this quarter have been paragraph-dense, which made them tough to read for longer than 20 minutes at a time for me. But this book i...
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