Motherhood

Motherhood is presented as the end-goal for all women in the novel. Although Jiyoung comes of age in a time of “widespread social support for women’s ambitions” (60), she is expected to be ambitious only up until the point where she must give up her career and independence in order to have a child.

The indoctrination into the cult of motherhood begins at an extraordinarily young age. When she is a little girl, Jiyoung recognizes the sacrifices her mother has made for her children: “Her life choices, being Kim Jiyoung’s mother—Oh Misook was regretting them. Jiyoung felt she was a rock, small but heavy and unyielding, holding down her mother’s long skirt train” (27). Learning from her mother as all girls do, Jiyoung started to internalize the idea that she should make sacrifices for others. When her younger brother was born, this idea became...