In Girl in Translation, skirts come to represent the way that the inhumane factory system fundamentally warps Kim’s outlook on the world and threatens to doom her to a lifetime of factory work. At the factory, Ma and Kim are paid one and a half cents per skirt, forcing them to work long hours to simply survive. Displeased that Kim has learned to hang a skirt in an impressive seven seconds (which would make Ma and Kim more money, seeing as they can get through more skirts each day), Aunt Paula cuts down their wage to one cent per skirt, forcing them to work harder and longer still. Furthermore, as Ma and Kim spend more time at the factory, their thoughts about money begin to shift from thinking in dollars to thinking in skirts—as in Kim's dictionary costing 200 skirts, rather than $2.99—illustrating the way that the factory system has ensnared them.
Skirts Symbol Timeline in Girl in Translation
