John's Blog

    The most unexpected thing about this course was what we read. I could not predict the geographic and temporal diversity we would be exposed to. This made software like Neatline suddenly very accessible and useful. Hayy Ibn Yaqzan  was a highlight for me. The first ten pages were so disorienting. I have never felt so hopeless in trying to understand a novel when reading that. Then, I passed over the mountain and eased into the story. I thought it was such a cool idea created by the author. I grew more interested as the man worked his way through logic to reach a greater understanding of the world. When he visited society, I was so surprised at how disappointed he was as well as how far ahead he was in thought.       In my own life, I often question whether being in a group or in isolation is the best way to learn a new skill. When learning individually, it seems one can be more creative and innovative because they are not restricted in any way by a ...

     Pachinko  has been an easy-to-read novel for me and I learned a lot from it. My cultural knowledge has increased the most. I never knew of the tensions between Korea and Japan before Pachinko . My previous understanding was that tensions between North and South Korea were high, but not Japan as well. The novel provides a continuous context of these tensions through the main characters' interactions with the world around them. The beginning of the novel was the only time this context was not provided since Hoonie and Yanjin lived such rural and tight-knit lives. Still, they had experiences of being marginalized. This was especially the case with Hoonie due to his cleft palate.       Once the novel shifted to Sunja's life, we were introduced to the tensions between Koreans and the Japanese. The example that jumped out most to me was when the Japanese boys approached Sunja and harassed her. Not only was this scene the introduction to the charact...

     Noa's girlfriend Akiko "would always believe that he [Noa] was someone else, that he wasn't himself but some fanciful idea of a foreign person; she would always feel like she was someone special because she had condescended to be with someone everyone else hated" (307).      Noa seems like an overly dramatic character. This passage provides an example of one of his outbursts. In some respect, he is in the right to be upset at Akiko. She seems to desire Noa's unpopularity because, by loving him, it makes her of a higher moral standard than her peers and family. Akiko still has a deep personal connection with Noa even though it may have been rooted in some selfish desires. She pushes him intellectually and challenged him to react more critically to what he read throughout his studies. Still, those selfish desires became far too central to Noa's representation of her character and personality. His breakup with Akiko triggered feelings of unbelonging that ...

     In the final part of Chapter 12 of our latest assigned reading, Yanjin is on her deathbed and reveals her true thoughts about Sunja. To Sunja, "her mother was unrecognizable to her; it would have been easy to say that the illness had changed her, but it wasn't so simple, was it? Illness and dying had revealed her mother's truer thoughts, the ones her mother had been protecting her from" (Lee 416).     This interaction is the second mother-daughter dialogue in the recent chapters. The first was Etsuko and Hana. In that interaction, the daughter was describing the mother's poor, selfish behavior. In Yanjin and Sunja's interaction, the mother was describing the daughter's lack of care for anyone besides her children. It is so difficult to navigate the correct side in each of these scenarios. Yanjin and Sunja's dialogue was very interesting to me. Yanjin accuses Sunja of not caring for her enough and not paying enough attention to her. For Sunja, her ...

  We've noted that many of the men's names in  Pachinko  are versions of Biblical names: Samoel/Samuel; Yoseb/Joseph; Isak/Isaac; Noa/Noah; Mozasu/Moses. Based on what you've read so far, what similarities (or differences) between one of these characters and his Biblical namesake do you see? Why do you think Lee chose these names for these men? From the interview we watched in class, I learned how much Lee was interested in the Bible. Every day before she would write, she would read a chapter of it. So, it makes sense that Biblical references like names would appear in Pachinko.  To me, Isak and Yoseb both seem like they could be inspired by disciples since "Joseph" was the name of one of them. Both of the brothers are depicted as extremely moral and conscious decision-makers.  Both characters display great resiliency as well. For Isak, this was in how he was able to survive the prison for so long and make it home to see his wife, brother, and sons before he die...

"The factory owner believed that if all Asian countries were run with a kind of Japanese efficiency, attention to detail, and high level of organization, Asia as a whole would prosper and rise" (Lee 182). This quote shows how Japanese culture is often perceived as highly organized, efficient, and detail-oriented. These values are all in line with striving for perfection in every facet of life. It can be seen this way by both people within the culture and onlookers. Lee contrasts Japanese and Korean culture with quotes like the one above against ones describing Koreans as dirty and poor by their Japanese counterparts.  This quote reveals a belief that Japanese culture is superior to other cultures like the Koreans. It suggests this through the owner's belief that all Asian countries should be run the same way Japan is. He sees other cultures, like the Koreans, as being inferior.  Lee may be describing the way that cultural beliefs and values can be sources of uniting and d...