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Book 1, Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pachinko, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival and Family
Imperialism, Resistance, and Compromise
Identity, Blood, and Contamination
Love, Motherhood, and Women’s Choices
Summary
Analysis
A few days later, Sunja and the boardinghouse’s servant girls, sisters Bokhee and Dokhee, are doing laundry on the beach. The sisters speculate cheerfully about Sunja’s future life in Osaka and give her a wedding gift, a pair of carved ducks. Sunja starts to cry, missing Hoonie. The sisters, who are orphans themselves, comfort her.
To Bokhee and Dokhee, Sunja’s new life sounds exotic and exciting, but Sunja is coming to terms with the fact that she’s about to lose everything beloved and familiar. She also misses her father, likely feeling that she’s let him down and wishing he were here to comfort and guide her.
Themes
On the morning that Sunja and Isak leave for Japan, Yangjin and Sunja sit at the ferry terminal while Isak goes through customs. Yangjin has seen Hansu’s gold watch, and Sunja ends up telling her the full story about him. Yangjin makes her promise not to see Hansu again, saying he’s a bad man. Then she gives her Hoonie’s mother’s gold rings in case she needs to sell something for unexpected expenses. She gives Sunja last-minute marital advice and tells Sunja that it’s now her job to make a good home for Isak and her child, who must not suffer.
Knowing she might never see her mother again, Sunja finally tells her more details about Hansu and their relationship. In response, Yangjin tries to impress on her daughter that Sunja’s duty is toward Isak and her family now. Notably, Yangjin tells her that Isak and the child must not suffer no matter what, but she implies that Sunja, a woman, must expect suffering for herself.
Themes
