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
Soon after Min-ho and Mother arrive in South Korea, Ok-hee introduces Hyeonseo to an organization called PSCORE (People for Successful Corean Reunification), where Hyeonseo meets several male Westerners, who remind her of Dick Stolp. At one meeting, Hyeonseo meets Brian, a kind young man from Wisconsin in the United States. They soon begin dating, and Hyeonseo quickly falls in love with him. Brian is the first completely free mind Hyeonseo has ever known.
Ever since the division of Korea in 1948 into North and South Korea, many Koreans—and others across the world—have advocated for reunification to ensure an end to political unrest. Several other countries have reunited in similar ways in the past, like East and West Germany and North and South Vietnam, and many hope Korea will one day, too.
Themes
When Hyeonseo introduces Brian to Mother and Min-ho, they instantly believe he is “an American bastard.” Some convictions, Hyeonseo says, cannot change overnight. Hyeonseo begins to speak professionally and advocate against human rights abuses in North Korea. To know one’s rights are being abused, Hyeonseo says, one must first realize they have rights in the first place. Then, in December 2011, Hyeonseo and Mother see on a news program that Kim Jong-il has died and has been succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-un.
Mother and Min-ho’s belief that Brian is an “American bastard” again reflects the effectiveness of ideological indoctrination in North Korea. North Korean citizens are constantly encouraged to hate Americans, and their arbitrary dislike of Brian is proof of this. Hyeonseo’s dedication to the human rights of North Koreans underscores the importance of the rights of others, both in the book and within humanity as a whole.
Themes
Hyeonseo is selected to give a TED talk (a lecture at a prominent technology, education, and design conference that is held annually), and she even goes to New York City to speak before the United Nations alongside several other defectors from a North Korean gulag. Dictatorships, Hyeonseo says, are not as strong as they may seem. She doesn’t know how long the suffering will continue under Kim Jong-un—probably until Korea is finally reunited—but she will keep fighting for the rights of North Koreans until it does. In the meantime, Hyeonseo’s relationship with Brian strengthens, and she soon asks Mother for her blessing to marry him.
The fact that Hyeonseo seeks Mother’s blessing before marrying Brian highlights the importance of family in her life and within Korean culture in general. Even though Mother remains biased against Brian, Hyeonseo still values her opinion and wants to remain close with her. Kim Jong-un is the current dictator of North Korea, and he is the latest in the multigenerational Kim regime. Oppression and human rights violations continue under Kim Jong-un, and North Koreans are still defecting and risking their lives for the opportunity to be free.
Themes
