Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl with Seven Names, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Oppression, Human Rights, and North Korea
Identity and Nationality
Family
Kindness
Summary
Analysis
January 1994, when Hyeonseo turns 14, is a tragic year that begins terribly. Hyeonseo’s teachers have long since noticed that she rarely wears the school uniform, but Mother’s donations generally keep them quiet. On the day of Hyeonseo’s birthday, however, she arrives at school with a brand new perm in her hair and a pink Chinese jacket with matching boots. The boots are too far for her teacher, who immediately asks why she is wearing them.
Again, Hyeonseo’s clothes and the extras provided by Mother and Father are seriously dangerous in North Korea. The teacher could easily report Hyeonseo’s fancy foreign clothes to the Bowibu, which would open Hyeonseo’s family up to investigation and potential punishment.
Themes
The teacher asks Hyeonseo where her uniform is, and Hyeonseo tells the teacher that if her mother doesn’t have a problem with her clothing, then neither should the teacher. The teacher calls Hyeonseo a "rotten capitalist” and slaps her across the face. Hyeonseo runs all the way home in tears, wanting her father for the first time in years. Of course, Father isn’t home. His business trips to China have become more frequent, and when he is home, he seems tired and preoccupied. Mother says Father doesn’t sleep well anymore and is worried he is being watched.
Again, the fact that Father’s job is clearly the source of his exhaustion and preoccupation and the fact that he believes he is being watched by the secret police suggests that his job isn’t exactly legal. In North Korea, extravagant luxuries like designer clothing are considered taboo, which is why the teacher calls Hyeonseo a “rotten capitalist.”
Themes
Hyeonseo knows that her obsession with perming her hair and wearing Chinese clothing is due in part to her growing disillusionment with the “organizational life” of North Korea. She is no longer a Pioneer and is now expected to join the Socialist Youth League, which involves military training and more intense ideological indoctrination. In the spring, the Social Youth League takes the compulsory pilgrimage to the sacred sites of Mount Paektu, where Kim Il-sung fought the Japanese in the 1930s and 40s, but Hyeonseo can barely pretend to be interested.
Mount Paektu is considered North Korea’s spiritual home because of Kim Il-sung’s exploits there during the revolution, and it is assigned an almost mythical and religious quality. North Koreans visit the sites of the revolution on Mount Paektu like a Christian visiting the Stations of the Cross or a Muslim taking a pilgrimage to Mecca.
Themes
Hyeonseo’s relationship with Min-ho continues to suffer, and she suspects that he has been sneaking across the river into China. A few days after the pilgrimage to Mount Paektu, Hyeonseo arrives home to find her mother anxiously pacing the house. Father is due back from China by now, but he is unexpectedly late. By the third day, there is still no sign of him, and Mother becomes inconsolable. Days later, a work colleague of Father’s stops by the house and informs them that Father was arrested four days ago crossing the Friendship Bridge back into North Korea.
It is ironic that North Koreans call the bridge over the Yalu River “the Friendship Bridge,” especially since they aren’t trusted by the regime to move freely back and forth across it. The fact that Father was arrested on his way back from a business trip again suggests that his job involves some type of illicit activity, perhaps aiding the movement of illicit goods across the border.
Themes
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