How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
The surest evidence that the woman in the photo was Jun Do's mother was the unrelenting way the Orphan Master singled him out for punishment. It could only mean that in Jun Do's face, the Orphan Master saw the woman in the picture, a daily reminder of the eternal hurt he felt from losing her. Only a father in that kind of pain could take a boy's shoes in winter. Only a true father, flesh and bone, could burn a son with the smoking end of a coal shovel. (7-8)
Jun Do's perception of relationships highlights the misery in the world around him. He tells himself stories to account for his undeserved suffering, giving the senseless pain he feels a logical source. The denial of his orphanhood is ultimately a rejection of the needless anguish caused by a ruthless state.
Quote #2
The Second Mate closed his eyes for a moment. He removed his shoes and now he had none. The look in his eyes said that the wrongest thing that had ever happened was happening right now. And then the shoes slipped from his hand and into the water. He pretended to look at that horizon so that no one would see his face. (64)
The Second Mate and all the crew are victims of a communist state gone wild, in which citizens go without basic necessities and human dignity is of little consequence. Losing the swank new Nikes isn't just disappointing to the Second Mate. It also sparks some total existential angst: how will he survive if he can't even protect his feet?
Quote #3
"When a tunnel would collapse, in a mine, we'd have to go dig men out. Their eyeballs would be flat and caked. And their mouths—they were always wide open and filled with dirt. That's what you couldn't stand to look at, a throat packed like that, the tongue grubbed and brown. It was our greatest fear, ending up with everyone standing around in a circle, staring at the panic of your last moment." (155)
Jun Do's description of his tunnel-warfare fears not only illustrates his fear of a miserably painful end; it also speaks to the need for human dignity and the desire for self-determination. Jun Do doesn't want to wind up a spectacle or a cautionary tale. He doesn't want the horror of being suffocated by dirt. He also makes it clear that it's not only the victim of such a thing who suffers; those who witness it are scarred, too, in a different way.