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Chapter 17
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
The Yalu River is only 11 yards wide and a few feet deep in the middle. During the famine, people begin fleeing across the river, but by late 1997, the area is heavily guarded again. All illicit trade stops at the river, except for a single woman, who pays off the guards. Hyeonseo befriends the guard assigned to the stretch of river where their house sits, a handsome young man named Ri Chang-ho. Chang-ho is six years older than Hyeonseo and of the absolute highest songbun. One day, when Hyeonseo is leaving for Hamhung to visit Aunt Pretty, Chang-ho asks Hyeonseo to deliver a letter to his mother.
The fact that the river dividing North Korea from China is so narrow and shallow underscores the control of the North Korean regime over the people. Crossing the river is easy—it isn’t deep and would barely extend past the 10-yard line on an American football field—yet most North Koreans never dream of disobeying the state and crossing over to China.
Themes
Hyeonseo takes the letter to Chang-ho’s mother in Hamhung, who smiles at her with amusement after reading it. When Hyeonseo returns to Hyesan, Chang-ho tells her that he wrote his mother that he would one day marry Hyeonseo, so she should be extra nice to her. Hyeonseo is shocked and tells him that she is too young to marry. Chang-ho takes her rejection in stride, and they remain friends. Around this time, Hyeonseo makes plans to finally cross the river into China. She plans to go directly to the house of Mr. Ahn’s, one of Mother’s business contacts, but she can tell Min-ho thinks it is a bad idea.
Hyeonseo’s ability to turn down Chang-ho’s advances is proof of her own privilege, and Chang-ho’s good-natured response is evidence of his kindness, which is Lee claims is rare in North Korea. Presumably, if Chang-ho wanted to push the idea, Hyeonseo would have little choice. Still, Hyeonseo’s family isn’t starving and they have everything they need, so Mother has little reason to insist that Hyeonseo marry. Though women still face extreme oppression across North Korea, these events make it clear that women of high songbun, like Hyeonseo, have substantially more freedom.
Themes
During the second week of December, Hyeonseo makes her final plans to cross the river. When she arrives home that evening, Mother is busy making an elaborate meal. After eating as much as possible, Hyeonseo tells Mother she is going to a friend’s house and walks out to the river. She finds Chang-ho and tells him she going to Shenyang to visit relatives. He tells her crossing the river isn’t possible, but Hyeonseo insists, and he finally agrees. Suddenly, a Chinese smuggler makes his way out of the darkness, and Chang-ho asks him to take Hyeonseo to the other side. He agrees, and for the first time, Hyeonseo feels fear. She will be back in just a few hours, but she still feels like her life is about to change forever.
Mother’s elaborate meal suggests that she knows all about Hyeonseo’s plans to cross the river into China, and she is making her a good meal to mark the occasion in case the worst case scenario happens—if Hyeonseo is caught by the police or for whatever reason she isn’t able to return as expected, Mother may never see her again. Hyeonseo’s feeling that her life is about to change implies that her trip back across the river won’t be quick or easy, even though she expects to return soon.
Themes
