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’s new apartment is small, unfurnished, and located near the subway station in Seoul. The first time she closes the door, she feels her freedom and begins to panic. She calls Ok-hee and asks to sleep at her apartment. Ok-hee is happy to see her, and she tells Hyeonseo about her troubles finding a job. Things are difficult for North Koreans in the South, Ok-hee says. Hyeonseo begins to understand that she is not a South Korean, either.
Despite South Korea’s claims that North Koreans are Koreans, too, there is still obvious discrimination against them. Plus, Hyeonseo doesn’t have much, and the government can’t be expected to take care of everyone (it is, after all, a capitalist state), so immigrants like Hyeonseo are often poor and have fewer opportunities.
Themes
The next day, Kim flies in from Shanghai and takes Hyeonseo to the movies. All the signs are written in English, however, and Hyeonseo doesn’t understand the language. She knows she must learn fast if she is ever going to fit in. She learns that social status is important in South Korea, too, only one’s status is based on education, not songbun. Many North Korean defectors are uneducated, which means they are given only the most menial jobs. Hyeonseo had kept her identity secret for years in China, and now she wonders if she will have to do the same in South Korea.
These events again speak to Hyeonseo’s difficulties in expressing her true identity. If she hides her identity as a North Korean, she will likely be given more opportunities than she might get otherwise, which is evidence of the oppression of the North Korean people, even when they’re living in South Korea with South Korean citizenship.
Themes
Hyeonseo decides to enroll in a six-month course to become a tax accountant, but Kim suggests she apply to the university. Becoming a doctor or lawyer will impress his parents, Kim says. That summer, Hyeonseo watches the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games on television, and she silently roots for North Korea. The Olympics strike an identity crisis of sorts deep inside her. Is she North Korean? Or Chinese? Or South Korean? Hyeonseo doesn’t know anymore.
North Korea only sporadically participates in the Olympic games. In 2008, North Korea participated in the Summer Olympics, but not the corresponding Winter Olympics. To date, North Korea has won 56 Olympic medals, including 16 gold medals. Hyeonseo's support of the North Korean team further reflects her connection to her homeland, even as she grows more and more confused about her identity.
Themes
Hyeonseo still talks to Mother every weekend. The incident with the bag of money has gained the negative attention of the Bowibu, and Mother has to keep bribing the officers to avoid being sent into exile in the mountains. Hyesan is getting worse, Mother says, and the famine has returned. Still, she refuses to leave. She will never leave North Korea, Mother says.
Mother’s refusal to leave North Korea reflects her own connection to her country. She doesn’t want to leave, even though she admits it is terrible. Regardless of the repression and suffering, it is still Mother’s country, and like Hyeonseo does, she loves it.
Themes
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Hyeonseo finishes her course on accounting and finds a job at a law firm with a respectable salary, but Kim continues to encourage the university. Hyeonseo wonders if she has what it takes. Plus, by the time she graduates, she will be nearly 34 years old. She contacts a professional name-giver, and for $45 is given a new name: Hyeonseo. She decides she will never change her name again. It is the summer of 2009, and Hyeonseo is finally beginning to feel settled, until she is again knocked down.
The seventh and final time Hyeonseo changes her name reflects the more stable identity she is growing into. Lee explains the meaning behind her name in the book’s introduction, and for the first time, Hyeonseo’s identity reflects who she really is. Except, of course, for the fact that she can never return to her home country. Still, at least by this point Hyeonseo doesn’t have to conceal who she is.
Themes
