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
When Hyeonseo made preparations to leave Shanghai before the sugar test, she had sent some money and her belongings to Mr. Ahn’s, so she makes arrangements to travel to Changbai and retrieve them. It is October 2004, and when she arrives in Changbai, Mrs. Ahn tells her that Mr. Ahn has died. Hyeonseo packs her things, including a hairdryer, an iron, and some perfume, into two blue sacks and places all her cash into a small white sack. Then she calls Min-ho and tells him to come and get the things to take back to Hyesan. Mrs. Ahn has two smugglers take the sacks across the river to meet Min-ho, but Min-ho never calls to say he has received them.
Hyeonseo’s efforts to smuggle money and supplies into North Korea to Mother and Min-ho again reflects the importance of family in the book. Smuggling goods across the border is risky, and the punishment is severe if they get caught. Mrs. Ahn’s willingness to again help Hyeonseo and her family further suggests that kindness isn’t as rare as Hyeonseo initially thinks.
Themes
With no word from Min-ho, Hyeonseo returns to Shanghai, and Min-ho calls a week later. He is blunt and asks her what was in the bags. Just normal stuff, Hyeonseo replies, and Min-ho hangs up. The call makes no sense at all. The next morning, a man calls claiming to be a friend of Mother’s and asks Hyeonseo what was in the bags. Hyeonseo again lists off the items, and then the man asks about the money. He asks how much money was in the bag, but Hyeonseo can’t remember exactly.
Min-ho’s odd phone call and the second phone call from the mysterious and unknown man are highly suspicious. Min-ho is likely being watched by the regime; otherwise, he probably wouldn’t be so abrupt with Hyeonseo, and he would at least try to explain himself.
Themes
Hyeonseo never once suspects danger, but then Min-ho calls a week later. Both he and Mother were arrested, and all their calls have been recorded. The same day Min-ho retrieved the bags from the river, a group of inspectors knocked on their door. They were arrested and the bags confiscated. The inspectors were shocked by the amount of money in the bag and assumed it had come from a South Korean spy, but their call to Hyeonseo convinced them otherwise. Afterward, both Hyeonseo and Ok-hee decide their plan to obtain South Korean passports is a bad idea. They don’t want to risk being sent back to North Korea.
Lee never does say how much money was in the little white sack, but the behavior of the North Korean police suggests it was a considerable sum, especially since they thought it came from a South Korean spy. This also reflects the paranoia of the North Korea regime that the South is spying on them. The regime teaches citizens that the South desires the North’s destruction, just as it insists America does, and this helps promote hate and fear of foreign countries, further isolating the North Korean people from the world.
Themes
