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Chapter 49
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
Min-ho tells Hyeonseo that both he and Mother are being held in Phonthong Prison and have seen no one from the South Korean embassy. Two months later, Hyeonseo receives a phone call that Min-ho and Mother have been released to the South Korean embassy and processed through the Laotian government. Six months later, Min-ho and Mother are finally released to the National Intelligence Service in Seoul. It is the spring of 2010, and it is finally over.
The fact that it takes Min-ho and Mother six months to make it from Phonthong Prison to the custody of the South Korean government again reflects the corruption of the Laotian government and the human rights violations suffered there, similar to North Korea. Compared to Hyeonseo’s quick two-hour flight from China into Seoul, Mother and Min-ho’s experience is a nightmare. They are clearly not part of the 1%.
Themes
