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
One Sunday after church, Solomon and Phoebe visit Solomon’s family. Solomon’s childhood home, which was filled with American furniture when he was a kid, has now been redecorated by Etsuko to look like a “glamorous Buddhist temple.” When they visit Solomon’s family, Phoebe speaks Korean with the elders, Solomon speaks Japanese with the elders, and the couple speaks English with one another.
Solomon’s childhood home represents a shift in aesthetic tastes from American aspirations to an artistic interpretation of the Japanese culture into which they’ve settled and found success. The mixing of languages shows how different Solomon’s and Phoebe’s upbringings have been, due to different family immigrations and historical patterns, even though they share the same ethnic background.
Themes
Sunja and Kyunghee warmly welcome Phoebe. Phoebe loves being around Solomon’s family, who are more compact than her own scattered family, and “warm but […] intensely watchful,” missing nothing. The women are shocked when Phoebe tells them that her mother doesn’t cook because she was always working, and growing up Phoebe only ate Korean food at a restaurant. Phoebe doesn’t understand why a woman has to cook and is amused by the elderly ladies’ fascination with her life. Sunja wonders what Solomon will eat if he marries Phoebe.
Phoebe notices how carefully Solomon’s family keep their eyes on one another, perhaps not wanting to take one another for granted. For Sunja and Kyunghee, food was central to caring for their families and earning money to survive; it’s been the constant backdrop of their lives, so Phoebe’s flippancy about it amazes them. Food didn’t have those same resonances for Phoebe’s family, so Sunja’s concern sounds quaint and rather sexist to her.
Themes
As she cooks, Sunja thinks that although she’d been taught that a woman’s life is one of suffering, she doesn’t want that for Phoebe. She thinks it’s a wonderful luxury that they won’t have to worry about war and poverty and can just enjoy having children, without laboring the way she and Kyunghee had to. She asks Phoebe when she and Solomon are getting married. Phoebe doesn’t mind the question, since she’s been wondering the same thing.
Sunja questions whether the assumptions about women’s lives that have been passed down to her should really apply anymore. Having lived through so much, she just wants Phoebe and Solomon to be able to enjoy a happy life without having to suffer and strive to meet their basic needs.
Themes
In the den, Solomon and Mozasu talk about work. Solomon tells him about the old lady who doesn’t want to sell her property. Mozasu says he can easily call Goro or Haruki to find out about her. Solomon notices that his father doesn’t seem embarrassed about his pachinko career.
Solomon doesn’t mind drawing on his father’s pachinko connections for help with the holdup in the real estate deal, but he’s feeling more conflicted about it than he used to. After talking with his boss about it, he can’t take pachinko in stride as readily as Mozasu does.
Themes
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The next day, Mozasu calls Solomon. Goro found out the old lady’s identity; she’s a Korean who refuses to sell to the Japanese. Goro says that he thinks the lady will sell her property to him, and then he’ll sell it to Kazu’s client for the same price. Solomon excitedly tells Kazu the news, and Kazu is pleased with Solomon’s work.
After almost a century of colonialism and hostility between Japan and Korea, there’s still enmity between the groups, coming out in instances like the old lady’s resistance to selling her property. Solomon thinks that through his pachinko connections, he’s found a loophole that will make everyone happy, even enabling his advancement at work.
Themes
