Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pachinko, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Survival and Family
Imperialism, Resistance, and Compromise
Identity, Blood, and Contamination
Love, Motherhood, and Women’s Choices
Summary
Analysis
In 1960, after two years at Waseda, Noa is thriving. Studying full time feels like a luxury for him, and he spends almost all his time reading literature. He avoids other Koreans on campus, because they seem too political. He wishes he could be a leisured European country gentleman, surrounded by books and nature all the time. He’s known on campus for being aloof.
After a lifetime of struggling to do his best in hostile environments, Noa finally has the luxury to be himself and immerse himself in what he loves. As before, he keeps to himself, and he avoids associating with anything overtly Korean or anything controversial.
Themes
One day, Noa is stopped on campus by the beautiful, intimidating campus radical, Akiko Fumeki. They chat about the novels of George Eliot, and Akiko teases him that their literature professor, Kuroda, is in love with him. That day in class, Professor Kuroda and Akiko get into an argument about the role of the Jews and Zionism in Eliot’s novels. Akiko argues that in Daniel Deronda, Eliot is arguing not for the nobility of the Jewish people, but for the ejection of foreigners from England. Noa is impressed by Akiko’s willingness to think for herself and disagree in public. The next time the class meets, Noa sits next to her.
Noa, who has always tried hard to conform, is attracted to Akiko because she’s so different from him, even willing to differ from those in authority. The discussion about the Jewish people in Eliot’s novel appears to have reference to the question of Korean people in Japan and the status of the Korean nation(s).
Themes
