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
Hyeonseo hails a cab but has no idea where to go or what to do. She thinks about going to Xita, a place she has been many times before with Aunt Sang-hee, where many Koreans live and work. A nice middle-aged woman approaches and asks Hyeonseo kindly in Mandarin if she is looking for a job. Hyeonseo says she is, and the woman introduces herself as Miss Ma. She owns a salon in town and is looking for stylists. Training and lodging are free, Miss Ma adds.
Xita is a neighborhood of Shenyang, and it is the largest Koreatown in Northeast China. Xita is home to over 8,000 ethnic Koreans and over 20,000 Korean-Chinese people. Hyeonseo’s draw to Xita underscores her connection to her North Korean heritage and its importance to her core identity.
Themes
Miss Ma’s salon is unlike any salon Hyeonseo has ever seen. Leather sofas line the walls, and in the basement are several “therapy rooms.” A young woman in a tiny slip is massaging a man wrapped only in a towel, and Miss Ma orders Hyeonseo to help before leaving the room. Hyeonseo sits down, mortified, and awkwardly rubs the man’s arm. Afterward, the young woman takes Hyeonseo to a tiny room filled with bunkbeds and informs her she will be living here from now on. Stylists aren’t allowed to leave, the girl says.
Obviously, Miss Ma’s salon isn’t really a salon, and the girls employed there aren’t really stylists. The “therapy rooms” suggest that Miss Ma is operating some sort of illicit business, and the fact that stylists aren’t allowed to leave suggests that they are exploited sex workers and likely all illegal immigrants, since they are clearly too afraid to go to the police for help.
Themes
The next morning, Hyeonseo tells Miss Ma that she must return to Xita to get some of her things. After much hesitation, Miss Ma finally allows her leave, telling her to hurry back. Hyeonseo walks out the door and begins to run, hailing a cab as she does. She jumps in the back of the cab and without hesitating tells the driver to take her to Xita.
Presumably, Miss Ma suspects that Hyeonseo is an illegal immigrant, which is why she attempts to exploit her. This experience proves that the oppression Hyeonseo experiences as a North Korean doesn’t end just because she leaves North Korea, and it further reflects her vulnerability as a woman. This experience also illustrates Lee’s argument that kindness and compassion are rare and that the world can be a cold and cruel place.
Themes
