Pachinko

Pachinko

by

Min Jin Lee

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Pachinko makes teaching easy.

Etsuko Nagatomi Character Analysis

Etsuko is Mozasu’s girlfriend after Yumi’s death, when Solomon is a teenager. Etsuko, a native of Hokkaido, is divorced and owns a restaurant in Yokohama. Before meeting Mozasu, Etsuko engaged in a series of affairs and fears that her three children, especially Hana, will never escape the shame she’s brought on them. At the same time, she repeatedly turns down marriage proposals from Mozasu because she doesn’t want to further shame her family with ties to Korean pachinko. Nevertheless, Solomon loves her as a maternal figure, and she stays faithful to Mozasu. Hana, who struggles with drinking and engages in degrading sex work, has a stormy relationship with Etsuko and runs away for several years, but Etsuko hires an investigator to track her down, and they are reconciled before Hana dies of AIDS.

Etsuko Nagatomi Quotes in Pachinko

The Pachinko quotes below are all either spoken by Etsuko Nagatomi or refer to Etsuko Nagatomi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival and Family Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 9 Quotes

“It is hopeless. I cannot change his fate. He is Korean. He has to get those papers, and he has to follow all the steps of the law perfectly. Once, at a ward office, a clerk told me that I was a guest in his country.”

“You and Solomon were born here.”

“Yes, my brother, Noa, was born here, too. And now he is dead.” Mozasu covered his face with his hands.

Etsuko sighed.

“Anyway, the clerk was not wrong. And this is something Solomon must understand. We can be deported. We have no motherland. Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.”

Related Characters: Mozasu Baek (speaker), Etsuko Nagatomi (speaker), Noa Baek, Solomon Baek
Page Number: 395
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 11 Quotes

Why did her family think pachinko was so terrible? Her father, a traveling salesman, had sold expensive life insurance policies to isolated housewives who couldn’t afford them, and Mozasu created spaces where grown men and women could play pinball for money. Both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness. Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes—there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way—she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.

Related Characters: Mozasu Baek, Etsuko Nagatomi
Related Symbols: Pachinko
Page Number: 406
Explanation and Analysis:
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Pachinko PDF

Etsuko Nagatomi Quotes in Pachinko

The Pachinko quotes below are all either spoken by Etsuko Nagatomi or refer to Etsuko Nagatomi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Survival and Family Theme Icon
).
Book 3, Chapter 9 Quotes

“It is hopeless. I cannot change his fate. He is Korean. He has to get those papers, and he has to follow all the steps of the law perfectly. Once, at a ward office, a clerk told me that I was a guest in his country.”

“You and Solomon were born here.”

“Yes, my brother, Noa, was born here, too. And now he is dead.” Mozasu covered his face with his hands.

Etsuko sighed.

“Anyway, the clerk was not wrong. And this is something Solomon must understand. We can be deported. We have no motherland. Life is full of things he cannot control so he must adapt. My boy has to survive.”

Related Characters: Mozasu Baek (speaker), Etsuko Nagatomi (speaker), Noa Baek, Solomon Baek
Page Number: 395
Explanation and Analysis:
Book 3, Chapter 11 Quotes

Why did her family think pachinko was so terrible? Her father, a traveling salesman, had sold expensive life insurance policies to isolated housewives who couldn’t afford them, and Mozasu created spaces where grown men and women could play pinball for money. Both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness. Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes—there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way—she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.

Related Characters: Mozasu Baek, Etsuko Nagatomi
Related Symbols: Pachinko
Page Number: 406
Explanation and Analysis: