Dick Stolp Character Analysis

A white Westerner from Perth, Australia, whom Hyeonseo meets in Laos after Mother and Min-ho are arrested by the Laotian police. The Laotian government extorts all of Hyeonseo’s money out of her, and she is left alone and stranded with no way to get Min-ho and Mother out of police custody. Dick Stolp approaches Hyeonseo on the street, feeds her, and gives her extra money; he even pays to get Min-ho, Mother, and three other North Koreans out of police custody. Afterward, when Hyeonseo is accused of being a criminal broker by the Laotian government and threatened with a lengthy prison stay if she doesn’t leave the country immediately, Dick pays her travel expenses to get back to South Korea. When Hyeonseo asks Dick why he is helping her, he says he isn’t. “I’m helping the North Korean people,” Dick says. He disappears, and Hyeonseo never sees him again. Dick Stolp’s kindness changes Hyeonseo’s life, and it restores her faith in humanity. Dick is a complete stranger, and as a Westerner, he has no connection to the North Korean people, but he helps them anyway. He proves that kindness, especially the kindness of strangers, does exist in the world, which, to Hyeonseo, often seems to be a very cold and lonely place. Hyeonseo finally finds Dick Stolp at the end of the book, and she communicates with him in Australia via email.