Bianca Duarte's Blog

  I believe Min Jin Lee included these biblical names not only to spread awareness of the names coming from the bible, but to show the impact Christianity had on everyone during this time. I also recognized that only the male names were included in the text as the female names did not have any association with women in the bible. This is very interesting to me, and I believe the families chose to name their sons after biblical figures to have more importance and the women were plain and not as important as the men which made sense due to the gender roles during this time. I recognize the versions of Biblical names included in this novel, but I primarily would like to focus on Isak(Isaac in the bible). In the bible, Isaac was very loyal as he followed the commands from God and he was an amazing husband to his wife Rebekah. He also has two sons, and these sons were miracles because it took a large amount of prayer and time for them to eventually be born. After quickly learning about Isaa

  Over time, I definitely noticed various patterns regarding gender roles. One main issue I noticed regarding gender roles in the novel relates to the role a woman has regarding working, as women during this time primarily stayed at home and took care of the children as well as preparing meals for their husbands. The men were expected to go to work every day to provide for their families, and this was an expected duty as being a caretaker is an expected duty of women. One main difference I noticed between Sunja and Kyunghee is how it was okay for Sunja to work outside the home due to her status as a woman, but Kyunghee wa to remain in the home. One passage I would like to focus on is on page 123 when the novel speaks about Kyunghee’s dream of owning her own kimchi business. It states,” Kyunghee’s dream was to own her own business selling kimchi and pickles… Yoseb disapproved of her working for money. He liked coming home to a rested and pretty housewife who had his supper ready–an idea

     Although Hansu and Isak both have different relationships with Sunja, while reading, I could definitely tell who Sunja truly likes more and who she wants to be with. Both men differ from each other in different ways, but Hansu is on the wealthier side and he is very powerful, but he is seen as a hero to Sunja due to him saving her from the high schoolers. When Sunja speaks about Hansu, she speaks in a manner that shows her appreciation and affection towards him, but when she speaks about him there is a sense of love and adoration that is not present when she speaks about Isak. In the novel I believe it mentions that when Sunja is with Hansu, she feels like time goes by too quickly which shows the deep connection they have. On the other hand, Isak is a bit more basic and he does not cause issues, but he is seen as a stereotypical husband that does not invoke feelings from his wife, creating an almost bland marriage. With Isak, it seems like Sunja only loved him because she is his w

      In comparison to The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano , Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko definitely differs in many fundamental ways. As soon as I began reading, I noticed many major differences in style, voice, and my overall focus on the text. Equiano’s text is told from the first person point of view as he is speaking about his life and experiences, but Pachinko is told in a third person omniscient point of view. Another difference is how The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is an autobiography and Pachinko is historical fiction. I found reading Min Jin Lee’s to flow more and it was more interesting to me because within each chapter, so much had changed and as this text covers more generations, there isn’t necessarily any part I have read that is boring or repetitive. On the contrary, Equiano’s text was a bit slower at times for me as a reader, but that did not take away the importance and overall meaning behind the text. To bring another text

       The topic I was assigned for Colin’s visit is Korean Workers In Japan. The image I chose was an image of colonial workers recruiting workers in Korea to take to Japan. Due to the shortage of labor in the Japanese economy in the 1920’s, Koreans who wanted employment and educational opportunities migrated to Japan. At this time, most of the workers were mainly men, but there were women as well. These workers engaged in work involving physical labor because they were poorly educated and usually illiterate. The two jobs that were very populated by Koreans were mining and factories. According to the Stanford Program on International and Cross- Cultural Education,” Between 1939 and 1945, the Japanese government brought 700,000-800,000 Koreans to work in Japan.” A large amount of these Korean workers in Japan faced many difficulties such as racial discrimination and economic exploitation, and the Japanese nationals wanted the Koreans to fully assimilate to Japanese society by offering

       To begin with my reflection  on “The Experience” of slave ships, I appreciated how a general overview was included in the beginning of the page, because it allowed me to refresh my memory and make connections to the book. The branding and overall dehumanization of these slaves is unforgivable, however, it is good for this information to be taught. The heat, horrid conditions, and overall way of living these slaves were forced to live in is very disturbing, and I appreciated the inclusion of Equiano’s words regarding his experiences quoted from the text in order to add to the page as a whole. Moving onto the suicides in the slave ships, I found the quote, ” Through their life-ending actions they conveyed a duality of surrender and sacrifices boldly waged to reclaim power over their personal lives” to be very meaningful. Learning that the suicides of these slaves were only seen as a loss of profit for all involved instead of caring that they killed themselves is very concerning. I

       Our discussion from class was very eye opening for me because the different ideas presented in class developed my understanding of Equiano’s argument/feelings of slavery. Equiano has a very passive tone in his work and it seems like he doesn't want to anger anyone with his opinions in slavery. He does make comments regarding the issue and makes comments regarding treating slaves better, but he does not choose one side or the other. As one of my classmates stated, he may have chosen this stance because the list of subscribers contained people that were powerful and they had slaves. Equiano definitely had opinions on slavery and how slaves were treated, but he also did not want to ruffle any feathers which is why he could not pick a side and anger a certain group. He mentioned that if you treat your slaves better, they will work better, but he also does not mention completely abolishing slavery. As I was reading, I was a bit confused because of the slight contradictions he pre

       The first research excursion I viewed was Bella’s research excursion focused on the Aboriginal Experiences and Struggles Today. I appreciate how Bella started off her first paragraph with a short introduction of The Secret River in order to lead to her research excursion topic. Bella’s explanation of assimilation was very clear. It was interesting to learn that when “White Australia'' first emerged, it sought for a, “ ethnically homogeneous nation.” It is insane to continue learning about this subject and how much they wanted the Aboriginals to be completely gone. They did not have any concern for their lives which is very disturbing. I appreciated Bella’s inclusion of the word “ half castes” because learning that they were seen as superior to “full bloods” was something I did not know. Overall, Bella’s research excursion developed my understanding of the Aboriginal experiences and struggles today, and I appreciated all of the topics she covered. The next research excurs