Summary

For these chapters, the close third-person narrative shifts to Jisun, a young women participating in the Mun-A strike. Having removed her shirt and bra during the strike, Jison now sits in a police van with the other workers who were arrested. She recalls “how terrified she had been at her first arrest, she wished she had something to offer the younger girls” (21). Next to Jisun, an ajumma (a married or matured woman) sings a peasant song that asks birds not to eat the peasants’ crops. Jisun bickers with the ajumma about the meaning and appropriateness of the song. The ajumma offers that “[o]ld songs are for comfort, not ideology” (22), which makes Jisun self-conscious about being a student activist. She calls herself a mongmul in front of the ajumma. Mongmul translates to diluted ink, a term to refer to people “who pretended...