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Allusion
Explanation and Analysis—David Copperfield:
Pachinko closes with a surprise and an allusion in Book 3, Chapter 21, when Sunja visits the Osaka cemetery. While paying her respects at Isak’s grave, she happens to meet a cemetery groundskeeper who remembers Noa’s frequent visits and reminisces fondly about his influence:
‘I’d been hoping to tell [Noa] that after I finished all the books he’d brought me, I bought more of my own. I have read through all of Mr. Dickens’s books in translations, but my favorite is the first one he gave me, David Copperfield. I admire David.’
The allusion to David Copperfield supplies a fitting backdrop for the moment and, more broadly, for the novel itself. The titular character of David Copperfield—who loses his parents during childhood and at various points lingers around the graveyard—pairs neatly with this moment’s cemetery setting. But Pachinko’s reference resonates with its own plot on a much deeper level as well. Much like Noa, David Copperfield struggles to ascend the ranks of English society. Orphaned and abused, he briefly toils in the wine bottling factory.
Yet unlike Noa, David Copperfield leads the more stereotypical success story. The young man makes his way into English society through hard work, finds success as a writer, and eventually marries the woman of his dreams. Though Noa escapes to start a new life, he shares none of the idyllic closure that David does. The protagonist of David Copperfield reaches a picture-perfect ending through his self-made striving. Noa, on the other hand, kills himself. In this moment, the allusion speaks to a Dickensian class aspiration and fulfillment that is absent from the lives of all too many Korean characters.
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