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Uncle Jung-gil
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.
Dick Stolp Quotes in The Girl with Seven Names
The The Girl with Seven Names quotes below are all either spoken by Dick Stolp or refer to Dick Stolp. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 48 Quotes
I’d seen Korean-Chinese expose North Korean escapees to the police in return for money. I’d known people who’d been trafficked by other humans as if they were livestock. That world was familiar to me. All my life, random acts of kindness had been so rare that they’d stick in my memory, and I’d think: how strange. What Dick had done changed my life. He showed me that there was another world where strangers helped strangers for no other reason than that it is good to do so, and where callousness was unusual, not the norm.
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Dick Stolp Character Timeline in The Girl with Seven Names
The timeline below shows where the character Dick Stolp appears in The Girl with Seven Names. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 48: The Kindness of Strangers
The man, Dick Stolp, sits down next to Hyeonseo, and she tells him that she is trying to...
(full context)
The next day, Dick takes Hyeonseo to the prison and pays for the release of Min-ho, Mother, and three...
(full context)
Chapter 49: Shuttle Diplomacy
...the embassy has no real authority in Laos. In Hyeonseo’s wallet is the $800 from Dick Stolp. The female officer takes the money, extends Hyeonseo’s visa by 24 hours, and tells...
(full context)
...taken all her money and she has nothing left. Suddenly, her phone rings. It is Dick Stolp. Hyeonseo is beginning to think he is some kind of divine being, and even...
(full context)
Chapter 53: The Beauty of a Free Mind
...(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...
(full context)
Epilogue
Hyeonseo searches the internet trying to find Dick Stolp but is unsuccessful, until he finally sends her an email after her TED talk....
(full context)
