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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl with Seven Names, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Oppression, Human Rights, and North Korea
Identity and Nationality
Family
Kindness
Summary
Analysis
Hyeonseo befriends the daughter of the chief of police, who just happens to know where they can get some illegal South Korean pop music. Hyeonseo’s group of friends begins listening to the music at each other’s houses when no one is home, and they dance around and laugh. Hyeonseo’s favorite is a song called “Rocky Island” by Kim Weon-joong. South Korean music is nothing like North Korean music, which is all about the Great Leader and the Dear Leader.
Even North Korean music is geared towards ideological indoctrination and the conditioning of the North Korean people to be loyal to the state and worship the Kim regime. The fact that young people aren’t permitted to listen to specific kinds of music again reflects the repression of the people, and the fact that it is the police chief’s daughter who breaks the law again underscores the hypocrisy of the state.
Themes
Soon, Hyeonseo knows all the South Korean songs she can get her hands on by heart, and she even teaches herself to quietly play them on her accordion. All the records are lost in the fire, but for the first time, Hyeonseo is aware of life outside of North Korea. Her family moves to their new house, a small three-room square near the Yalu River, and Hyeonseo believes she can throw a stone over the river, straight into China.
This references the fire that Lee writes about in the book’s prologue and in the previous chapter. Hyeonseo’s obsession with the South Korean music and her gazing across the river to China suggest that she is growing disillusioned with her repressed existence in North Korea.
Themes
