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
One day, Hyeonseo gets a call out of the blue from Min-ho. It never occurred to Hyeonseo that he could actually find her, and she is glad to hear his voice again. He asks for more money and a cellphone, so she sends a Nokia and 1,000 yuan to Mr. Ahn to get to them. Days later, Hyeonseo’s phone rings and Mother is on the other end. Hyeonseo begins to cry. They begin talking each weekend, and mother fills her in on the last several years. She and Min-ho moved to a different neighborhood in Hyesan, and she bribed the police to leave them alone. She is no longer working her government job and instead is trading illicit goods fulltime with Aunt Pretty.
1,000 Chinese yuan is just over $40, which isn’t much, but it is about the equivalent of what Hyeonseo used to make in a week as waitress. Her willingness to so easily send Min-ho money reflects the importance of family in Hyeonseo’s culture and life. However, if Min-ho can find Hyeonseo that means others can as well, which underscores just how precarious her existence is in China as a North Korean defector.
Themes
One weekend, Mother tells Hyeonseo that she has arranged a bribe with the police to allow Hyeonseo back home, no questions asked, for $6,000. Hyeonseo isn’t convinced. It feels like a trap, she says. Then Mother tells her that she has a few kilos of crystal methamphetamine and asks if Hyeonseo knows anyone in China who can sell it. Hyeonseo is mortified. The idea of her mother with three kilos of the drug is just too much. No, Hyeonseo tells her, she doesn’t know any drug dealers, and she advises her mother not to accept any more drugs as bribes.
Mother will literally take anything as a bribe, which illustrates just how desperate living in North Korea can get. Mother is willing to do whatever it takes to provide for her family. Hyeonseo’s fear that the bribe with the police is a trap reflects just how cruel the North Korean regime really is. The police will likely take their money and punish Hyeonseo as a defector.
Themes
One spring weekend in 2004, Hyeonseo is talking to her mother on the phone and watching television, when something on the news catches her attention. She hangs up the phone and Ok-hee turns up the television. Scores of people are rushing the South Korean embassy in Beijing, and the news anchor says they are North Koreans looking for political asylum. Hyeonseo looks at Ok-hee. What does asylum mean, they wonder?
Political asylum is protection granted by a foreign government for those escaping another country due to political unrest or human rights violations. Most North Koreans are suffering, and the people rushing the South Korean embassy are defectors looking for help and protection from South Korea.
Themes
