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 1978, Hansu picks up a well-dressed but matronly 62-year-old Sunja. He has located Noa, who has been living as a middle-class Japanese family man for 16 years now. Sunja is amazed to hear that Noa, like Mozasu, works in the pachinko business. Hansu’s chauffeur drives them to Nagano to get a glimpse of Noa, though Hansu cautions Sunja against speaking to him.
Noa has disappeared into Japanese society so effectively that it’s taken this long for even Hansu to track him down. Ironically, his pachinko career is an effective disguise as well, since no one would have predicted that career path for him.
Themes
When Sunja sees Noa, she can’t refrain from jumping out of the car. When Noa sees his mother, he is surprised by the relief he feels after all this time. He refuses to see Hansu, and the two of them go into Noa’s office and talk. Sunja begs Noa to have mercy and visit his family. Noa says he can’t, that “having yakuza in your blood is something that controls you […] this is my curse.”
After all these years, Noa continues to see himself as a victim of Hansu’s blood, a circumstance he can never escape no matter how much he changes his life. He sees his employment in the pachinko industry as a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Themes
When Sunja asks if it is so terrible to be Korean, Noa says that “it is terrible to be me.” To Sunja’s amazement, he tells her that he’s become a Japanese citizen and even visited his “supposed motherland,” Korea. He promises to call Sunja later and to visit the family next week. The next morning, Hansu calls Sunja to tell her that Noa shot himself a few minutes after she left his office.
Unlike Mozasu, who’s found a way to live with the tensions in his life, Noa continues to be tormented by them. Seeing his mother seems to make Noa realize that he can’t live with those tensions any longer. Even with a successful life and loving family, he can’t escape the belief that his life is irreparably cursed.
Themes
