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Book 2, Chapter 2
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
Kim Changho isn’t at the restaurant yet, so Sunja waits outside with Kyunghee. When the man arrives, he talks to both women about the terms of the job. Together, the women would earn almost twice what Yoseb makes at the factory. The restaurant would provide them with whatever ingredients they needed and sometimes send home meat and other rarities that have been lacking in the family’s diet. The little boys can even stay at the restaurant while the women work.
For Sunja and Kyunghee, this job is an almost unimaginably good deal: they won’t have to hunt for the ingredients that have become so scarce in wartime, they’ll have access to much-needed extra food, and they won’t have to worry about childcare. Best of all, they’ll earn much more than they could hope to earn almost anywhere else, especially as Koreans in Japan. This unsought opportunity almost seems to drop from the sky.
Themes
That night, Kyunghee tells Yoseb, who’s been more withdrawn and angry since Isak’s arrest, about the job offer. Yoseb is so upset he can’t speak. He is working two full-time factory jobs and earning half the salary of a Japanese foreman. No matter how hard he works, there’s never enough money.
All Yoseb has ever wanted to do is care for his family, but it seems like everything in the world around him is conspiring against that simple desire. No matter how hard he tries, he repeatedly gets the message that he isn’t enough.
Themes
Yoseb’s boss talks a lot about Japan’s current war in China. Yoseb reasons that no matter who wins, Koreans need to be ready to save themselves and their families. He knows about Kim Changho’s barbecue restaurant, and that gangsters eat there late at night. He even went there to find a moneylender to get the loan for Isak’s travel. He wonders which is worse: “his wife working for moneylenders or him owing money to them.” He realizes there are simply no good choices for a Korean man.
Again, Yoseb feels that larger political developments aren’t very relevant for Koreans, who must be prepared to fend for themselves at all times. Even though some of his objections to the women’s jobs are rooted in sexist and class assumptions, it’s easy to see why he feels humiliated: he is perpetually frustrated in his efforts to support the family, while the women get far better opportunities without even looking for them—and from suspicious sources at that.
Themes
