Previous
Book 3, 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
Mozasu sends Solomon to an English-speaking international school, and most of his party guests are the children of prominent industry leaders and expatriates. This is by design—Mozasu wants Solomon to work for an American company and become “an international man of the world.”
Mozasu doesn’t want Solomon to grow up making the kinds of choices and compromises that he and Noa did. He hopes that Solomon will bypass these identity questions altogether, rising above societal limitations, by becoming a citizen of the world.
Themes
As they watch the children enjoying Solomon’s birthday concert, Etsuko wonders why her family looks down on pachinko so much. Her father had sold pricy life insurance policies. She reflects that “both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness.” Yet she can’t blame anyone for taking a chance on hope, and she regrets not teaching her children to do this.
Late that night, as Etsuko and Solomon talk about the party, Etsuko washes the ink out from under Solomon’s fingernails; it’s left over from the registration office. They talk about Hana, and Etsuko explains that her children hate her. Solomon tells her, “Your kids hate you because you’re gone. They can’t help it.” He goes on to tell Etsuko that she is a mother to him now, and she embraces him.
In a motherly gesture, Etsuko instinctively washes away the shameful memory of Solomon’s fingerprinting. Solomon draws on his own experience of growing up without Yumi to console Etsuko, and he accepts her as the mother figure in his life now.
Themes
