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Erin
“Helen” is Hong’s pseudonym for a close college friend who, along with their mutual friend Erin, fed her creative imagination and inspired her to become a poet. However, Helen was also violent and highly emotionally unstable (much like Hong’s own mother), which led her and Hong to fall out of touch after college. A Korean international student who grew up in several different countries, Helen arrived at Oberlin as a talented violinist but decided to quit and become a visual artist instead. Although she was an outstanding, highly driven artist, she was also very difficult to love: she almost never slept, struggled with addiction, frequently assaulted other students, disappeared for days at a time, and even attempted suicide on campus. Hong’s essay “An Education” largely focuses on the complexity of her love-hate friendship with Helen. Their relationship nourished her creatively but also forced her to relive much of the trauma associated with American racism, the Korean War, and family violence—as well as the experience of Korean women and Asian Americans more generally.
Helen Quotes in Minor Feelings
The Minor Feelings quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
An Education
Quotes
I would have had a happier four years in college had I never met Helen. But I wouldn’t have been the writer I am today. Helen validated us, solidified us, and made us feel inevitable. We were going to define American culture. […] We had the confidence of white men, which was swiftly cut down after graduation, upon our separation, when each of us had to prove ourselves again and again, because we were, at every stage of our careers, underestimated. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. That struggle kept me faithful to the creative imagination cultivated by our friendship, which was an imagination chiseled by rigor and depth to reflect the integrity of our discontented consciousness.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Minor Feelings LitChart as a printable PDF.
Helen Quotes in Minor Feelings
The Minor Feelings quotes below are all either spoken by Helen or refer to Helen. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
An Education
Quotes
I would have had a happier four years in college had I never met Helen. But I wouldn’t have been the writer I am today. Helen validated us, solidified us, and made us feel inevitable. We were going to define American culture. […] We had the confidence of white men, which was swiftly cut down after graduation, upon our separation, when each of us had to prove ourselves again and again, because we were, at every stage of our careers, underestimated. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. That struggle kept me faithful to the creative imagination cultivated by our friendship, which was an imagination chiseled by rigor and depth to reflect the integrity of our discontented consciousness.
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
