Jalen's World Lit Blog

     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...

      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...

     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...

         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...