Sunam's Calfskin Coat

Sunam's coat symbolizes his relatively high status in South Korean society as an SNU student. Such a precious coat indicates the Sunam lives a sheltered life, far from the factory floor. It also relates to a larger motif in the novel: clothes as signifiers of status and politics.

Itaewon

Itaewon represents the lurid world of sex and prostitution. More than that, it represents Korea's ambivalence towards the foreign American presence in the city. The Americans are, according to one perspective, aiding the economy by frequenting bars and brothels, just like they aided the South Korean cause in the war. According to another perspective, they are exploiting Korean women, and separating Koreans from themselves, just like they did in the war, by separating the North from the South.

Kyungmin

Kyungmin's narrative in the novels acts as a sort of alternate narrative to Namin's. When Kyungmin...