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
The man, Dick Stolp, sits down next to Hyeonseo, and she tells him that she is trying to get two North Koreans out of the local prison but has run out of money. The man is kind, from Perth, Australia, and he is the first white person Hyeonseo has ever spoken to. He tells her to wait and goes across the street to an ATM. Dick comes back and hands her a large wad of green money. Hyeonseo asks why he is helping her, but he says he isn’t. “I’m helping the North Korean people,” Dick says.
The fact that Dick Stolp is the first white person Hyeonseo has ever spoken to illustrates just how guarded Hyeonseo’s life was in North Korea, and to some extent in China, too. Westerners are a rare sight in North Korea, and travel warnings and bans for American travelers especially are common in North Korea.
Themes
The next day, Dick takes Hyeonseo to the prison and pays for the release of Min-ho, Mother, and three other North Koreans, and then he disappears. The police tell Hyeonseo and the others to go directly to Vientiane to the South Korean embassy, and when they arrive, a female officer guides Hyeonseo away from the group. Hyeonseo is reluctant to leave Min-ho and Mother, but the woman insists. The woman speaks in Lao, through an interpreter, and asks Hyeonseo if she knows why she is being questioned. Hyeonseo says she doesn’t. “Because you’re a criminal,” the female officer says.
Hyeonseo is certainly not a criminal—she is simply trying to get her mother and brother to safety—but the Laotian government treats her like one, which again speaks to how common human rights abuses against North Koreans are. But at the same time, the random kindness of Dick Stolp further proves that there really is kindness and compassion in the world. Dick doesn’t know them, and he has no reason to help them, other than the fact that he truly cares about humanity and has the financial resources to do something about it.
Themes
