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
On the train to Shanghai, a group of police officers boards the train to inspect the passengers’ IDs, and Hyeonseo begins to panic. She hides in the bathroom for what seems like forever, and when she emerges, the police are gone. She arrives in Shanghai, a massive city of about 17 million people, and finds a job in a local restaurant. Hyeonseo decides it is best to change her name. She told too many people her real identity in Shenyang and selects the name Chae In-hee, her fifth name.
Again, Hyeonseo’s constant identity and name changes continue to fracture her sense of self and move her further away from her true identity as a North Korean—and her parents’ daughter. Hyeonseo’s new name, Chae In-hee, is very similar to the name she adopted when she first got to China, Chae Mi-ran.
Themes
Hyeonseo knows she has to find a way to get a new ID, and getting a legitimate ID means that she will need another broker. She quietly asks around and finds a broker who charges $16,000, but she decides it is little use. She will never be able to afford such a fee waiting tables. One day, Hyeonseo meets a kind Korean-Chinese man whose aunt is a marriage broker for women wanting to find South Korean husbands. Hyeonseo lies and tells the man she would like to study in South Korea but is too old for a student visa. The man smiles. A new ID will make her younger, he says, and offers to ask his aunt for her.
$16,000 is extremely expensive, and this high price further reflects the hardships and oppression Hyeonseo faces as a North Korean defector in China. She can’t simply appeal to the government for an ID card, so she must resort to extremes to get ahead. Hyeonseo’s implication that she is too old for a student visa and the man’s knowing smile underscore the same sexist assumptions that constantly oppress Hyeonseo, both in North Korea and in China.
Themes
Weeks later, the man’s aunt calls and tells Hyeonseo that she is willing to help, provided Hyeonseo can get to Harbin, a city nearly 1,000 miles away. After two days on a train, Hyeonseo finally arrives in Harbin. The woman takes her picture like a professional and hands her a new ID. Her name is now Park Sun-ja. The ID is real and belongs to a Korean-Chinese girl with a mental illness whose parents wanted to make extra money selling her ID. The new ID costs all the money Hyeonseo has left, but at least now she is legal—sort of.
Harbin is a city in Northeast China, and it is the eighth most populated city in all of China. The fact that Hyeonseo has to go so far from Shanghai—the most densely populated city in China and in the entire world—reflects the lengths Hyeonseo must go to in order to overcome the oppression of being a North Korean woman. Hyeonseo has few rights, and her existence is a constant struggle.
Themes
