Emotion

The author uses her protagonist's atypical brain condition to explore the ways in which emotion shapes the human experience. Born with alexithymia, "or the inability to express your feelings," Yunjae struggles to feign normalcy in his daily life (10). When his family and classmates begin noticing his seemingly heartless responses to other people's pain, he becomes ostracized. Though his mother works tirelessly to teach him "the basics" of "human emotion," Yunjae admits that he does not care whether he is "normal or not" (15). Unlike his mother and peers, he does not see his inability to perceive or express emotions as a deficiency. His apathy, however, does not make his social life any easier. Rather than attempting to understand him, most of Yunjae's classmates persecute him. Even teachers treat him coldly when he fails to emote in response to his mother and grandmother's violent attack.

It is not...