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Book 1, Chapter 12
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
After the family enjoys a long soak at the public bathhouse, Sunja feels hopeful about her new life. On the walk home, Yoseb continues lecturing his brother, warning Isak not to get mixed up in politics. He reminds Isak that he has his wife and child to think of, so he can’t risk getting arrested for involvement in independence activities. Yoseb knows he sounds hysterical, but even though he remembers the goodness of life before colonialism, he’s convinced that “protesting was for young men without families.” Isak affectionately promises his brother that he’ll behave.
Both Yoseb and Isak grew up with memories of their brother Samoel’s involvement in anti-colonial protests, which cost him his life. But Yoseb, in contrast to the more idealistic Isak, has spent many difficult years fighting to provide for his family, and he believes that political involvement only makes that more difficult. He now feels responsible for Isak, too, and wants him to understand what’s at stake.
Themes
Back at home, Isak and Sunja go to bed. Though they’ve been married for a while, they’ve never slept together, as the boardinghouse had no privacy. As they chat in the dark, Sunja hopes for a new beginning with Isak, and Isak admires Sunja’s competence and instinct for survival.
Despite their lack of physical intimacy at this point, Isak and Sunja have been through a great deal together—coping with Isak’s illness and Sunja’s pregnancy. They’ve established a basis for trust in one another. In contrast, Sunja’s relationship with Hansu had been based largely on Hansu’s physical desire, and there’d been a stark power imbalance between them.
Themes
Despite Isak’s uncertainty and Sunja’s nervousness, Sunja finds herself responding to the gentleness of Isak’s touch. She can’t help comparing it to her times with Hansu, which were always hasty and focused on Hansu’s needs, and Sunja had never been sure what it all meant. Now, she puts Hansu out of her mind, deciding that Isak “was her husband, and she would love him.”
The genuineness of the growing bond between Isak and Sunja is reflected in the tenderness of their first time sleeping together. Sunja again makes a conscious choice to love Isak and devote herself to him alone.
Themes
