You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
-Abraham Lincoln
Opinions on The Orphan Master's Son
4/27/15
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson is a novel unlike any other's I have read. Never have I felt so immersed in a book, as an experience, than when I was reading this novel. The author presented the book in multiple parts which allows a change of perspective which at first gives the reader a sense of mystery and keeps you reading as you want to find out more about the unfamiliar narrator beginning in part 2.
I enjoyed the fluidity of narrator's styles and mindsets despite the narrators being totally different people. Both Jun Do and the interrogator are inquisitive and wish to learn more about the stories of others. I felt that Jun Do being incredibly invested in the story of the 2 rowers at sea, to the point of him asking his American counterparts "There is something I must know,... When I was upon the waters, in the Sea of Japan, we followed the broadcasts of two American girls. I never knew what became of them" (149). I compared this to the narrator always desiring to finish a biography because it allowed him closure. This was a subtle continuation that aided my understanding of the transition to the second narrator further that I very much appreciated.
Although I did enjoy the mystery that came with the unexpected switch of narrators in the middle of the book it was a tough and confusing transition that, until discovered and understood, I felt detracted from the reading as I was constantly trying to uncover who the narrator was. I admit that I did have to look up an explanation as to what exactly was happening at the beginning of the second part as the characters were not very clear. The author simply ended with "nothing further is known of the citizen named Pak Jun Do"(175) and then picks back up on the next part using the pronoun "we" as if it still Jun Do's life the narrator is directly following.
Overall I do think this is a novel worth reading as it has a lot to offer in themes, one of which happens to pertain to our's of desire to escape.
Avatar and Poetry Relates to The Orphan Master's Son?
4/30/15
"Avatar" is a movie based on a waist-down paralyzed man who uses advances machinery to escape into the environment of other creatures. By going into the world of the avatars he is freed from all limitations brought on by his paralysis. Like Jun Do, he does not want to fully leave his bad situation but wants to retreat from it occasionally. He even describes the reason for his escape as "maybe I was sick of doctors telling me what I couldn't do." Him being able to function on his own in the Pandora world gives him freedom that satisfies his craving for it. In this clip it is the main character's first time to use the machinery which could be compared to Jun Do's visit to America. It is an eye-opening experience that makes both Jun Do and Jake Sulley desire what is not allowed or they are not capable of in their current situation. http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi904332313/
Along with movies comes poetry. "Escape" by Silver Dagger is another excellent material that supports the theme of desire to escape. In the poem the speaker explains how she is most active at night "I delve deep-- I visited my memories / Piles carelessly on shelves" (22) similarly to how Jun Do was active aboard the Junma mostly during the night staying up late to listen to the female American rower broadcast her and her fellow rower's progress. And then, in "Escape" when the speaker claims she has lost hope, her memories reply that "There's a door, a ladder, a vent, a reaching hand" (15) and "there's more to prison than hopelessness" (16) and that very philosophy is what probably helped Jun Do not lose hope through a harsh winter in the prison camps.
There are obviously an incredible amount of other works that could be paired with my book but I believe that these two held strong, direct connections to the novel.
4/30/15
"Avatar" is a movie based on a waist-down paralyzed man who uses advances machinery to escape into the environment of other creatures. By going into the world of the avatars he is freed from all limitations brought on by his paralysis. Like Jun Do, he does not want to fully leave his bad situation but wants to retreat from it occasionally. He even describes the reason for his escape as "maybe I was sick of doctors telling me what I couldn't do." Him being able to function on his own in the Pandora world gives him freedom that satisfies his craving for it. In this clip it is the main character's first time to use the machinery which could be compared to Jun Do's visit to America. It is an eye-opening experience that makes both Jun Do and Jake Sulley desire what is not allowed or they are not capable of in their current situation. http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi904332313/
Along with movies comes poetry. "Escape" by Silver Dagger is another excellent material that supports the theme of desire to escape. In the poem the speaker explains how she is most active at night "I delve deep-- I visited my memories / Piles carelessly on shelves" (22) similarly to how Jun Do was active aboard the Junma mostly during the night staying up late to listen to the female American rower broadcast her and her fellow rower's progress. And then, in "Escape" when the speaker claims she has lost hope, her memories reply that "There's a door, a ladder, a vent, a reaching hand" (15) and "there's more to prison than hopelessness" (16) and that very philosophy is what probably helped Jun Do not lose hope through a harsh winter in the prison camps.
There are obviously an incredible amount of other works that could be paired with my book but I believe that these two held strong, direct connections to the novel.
Theme Evaluation
5/4/15
This book couldn't have fit the theme of desire to escape better. This theme is seen across the board in characters that aren't specifically the protagonist. I believe Pak Jun Do always has a dream of escaping but his intense loyalties to people he honestly has no obligation to, such as family(he has no family) , keep him in North Korea acting as a proper citizen. It is pretty obvious that there would be escape themes circling Jun Do as he is the main character, but there is a small object that plays a major role in the novel.
Peaches.
Yes, peaches.
When Jun Do is impersonating Commander Ga (the true husband of Jun Do's beloved Sun Moon) a part of the story that is told is when a crow (the vehicle that retrieves people destined for the infamous North Korean work camps) arrives at Comrade Buc (a close friend of the real Commander Ga and who accompanied Jun Do on his expedition to America) and Commander Ga's house, Comrade Buc reveals that he has a can of tainted peaches for his family to eat in order to parish before they are worked to death at a work camp. Later in the novel when a naive intern is attempting to retrieve information from Comrade Buc "said if I brought him the peaches last night, he'd tell me everything in the morning"(279). The intern retrieved Commander Ga's can of (tainted) peaches and gave it to Comrade Buc. It is at this point in the novel where the reader understands that the peaches were a form of poison both men were prepared to utilize when the time came.
Throughout the novel there were a few sentences that stood out as familiar and actually had been repeated intentionally. When Jun Do was chosen from the orphanage for the tunnel combat work, then chosen to learn English by a military commander, then chosen to go on a fishing boat as a listener on the radio, then when he entered the work camp for the last time going by the name Jun Do, the line "the person you'd been and the life you'd been living were over," (216) and really, isn't that the goal of escaping? It seems as if, whether Jun Do desired some of these escapes or not, he successfully escaped like a magician numerous times.
5/4/15
This book couldn't have fit the theme of desire to escape better. This theme is seen across the board in characters that aren't specifically the protagonist. I believe Pak Jun Do always has a dream of escaping but his intense loyalties to people he honestly has no obligation to, such as family(he has no family) , keep him in North Korea acting as a proper citizen. It is pretty obvious that there would be escape themes circling Jun Do as he is the main character, but there is a small object that plays a major role in the novel.
Peaches.
Yes, peaches.
When Jun Do is impersonating Commander Ga (the true husband of Jun Do's beloved Sun Moon) a part of the story that is told is when a crow (the vehicle that retrieves people destined for the infamous North Korean work camps) arrives at Comrade Buc (a close friend of the real Commander Ga and who accompanied Jun Do on his expedition to America) and Commander Ga's house, Comrade Buc reveals that he has a can of tainted peaches for his family to eat in order to parish before they are worked to death at a work camp. Later in the novel when a naive intern is attempting to retrieve information from Comrade Buc "said if I brought him the peaches last night, he'd tell me everything in the morning"(279). The intern retrieved Commander Ga's can of (tainted) peaches and gave it to Comrade Buc. It is at this point in the novel where the reader understands that the peaches were a form of poison both men were prepared to utilize when the time came.
Throughout the novel there were a few sentences that stood out as familiar and actually had been repeated intentionally. When Jun Do was chosen from the orphanage for the tunnel combat work, then chosen to learn English by a military commander, then chosen to go on a fishing boat as a listener on the radio, then when he entered the work camp for the last time going by the name Jun Do, the line "the person you'd been and the life you'd been living were over," (216) and really, isn't that the goal of escaping? It seems as if, whether Jun Do desired some of these escapes or not, he successfully escaped like a magician numerous times.