The Calligrapher’s Daughter
by Eugenia Kim
(Tansley Reads Rating: 74%)
Icebreaker:
1.
Are there stories in your own
family’s history that might contain the seeds of a novel?
Questions:
1.
What if Najin had been the
daughter of a carpenter, grocer, teacher, etc?
How different do you think her life would have been then?
2.
While Najin is the primary
narrator of The Calligrapher’s Daughter,
many chapters are written from the points-of-view of her father and her
mother. How did seeing Najin’s world
from their perspective alter your understanding of it?
3.
Najin’s father, the
calligrapher Han, is very traditional.
Did he fear change or was he simply stubborn? What did change represent to him? What does he gain by maintaining old
customs? What does he lose? Did your perceptions of him change as the
novel progressed?
4.
…
(a)
Why did Najin’s father refuse
to name his daughter?
(b)
What do you think of Najin’s
discovery that, by her father not giving her a name, had given her “enormous
freedom” (p.374)?
5.
…
(a)
Why do you think Najin’s father
blamed her for a lot of the bad things that happened in his life?
(b)
Why do you think Najin’s father
felt that his relationship with his daughter changed after she returns from
living with Calvin’s parents (p.294)?
6.
Ilsun, Najin’s brother (whom
she calls Dongsaeng), often seems to bring trouble upon himself and his
family. What special pressures does he
face as the firstborn son? Could you
empathize at all with his behaviours?
7.
Despite the Korean Confucian
standard of male supremacy during that era, may of the women in The Calligrapher’s Daughter managed to
find meaning and fulfillment in their lives.
What personal choices, if any, did Najin’s mother, her mother-in-law and
her two sisters-in-law (Unsook and Meeja) make within the confines of their
roles?
8.
How do you feel about the vision
Najin’s mother had before her birth (p. 54)?
[Quote: “Yes, and for your
too. In my further month with you, I
dreamt of catching a small white fish between my hands as I waded in a lovely
stream, so coo, so fresh, so clean. Such
a beautiful little, fish, it made me laugh in my dream and I woke up
laughing! That was you.”] Do you think it describes Najin’s true
character?
9.
Najin use the vision she and
her mother shared: “Like water, flowing
around beneath and through rotted trees, we would always flow” (p.184) to help
her survive in difficult circumstances (when her father was looking for a
husband for her, when she was in prison, etc.).
Why does this image help her?
10.
Najin and her mother seem to
share a deep understanding of all the bet qualities in a mother-daughter
relationship, yet the word “love” is never spoken. What are some of those qualities and how were
they conveyed?
11.
As an adult, Najin tries to
keep her personal trials to herself, such as her silence about the torture she
witnessed in prison. Where did her
ability to suppress feelings stem from?
Could she have been more expressive?
When might it have served her better if she were more forthcoming with
her feelings and difficulties?
12.
Najin experiences faith and
belief in varying degrees. When does her
faith feel strongest to her, and when does it ebb? Why do you think she is unable to sustain a
consistent belief? Given here conflicted
feelings about religion, did you think she made the right decision to marry a
seminarian?
13.
How do you think Najin’s life
would have been different if she had been able to join Calvin in the U.S.A?
14.
Most of the married couples in The Calligrapher’s Daughter (parents,
in-laws, Najin/Calvin, servant couple, brother/wives) face severe stresses
during at least one point of their relationship. Discuss the different challenges thrust upon
them, as well as how they deal with them.
What does this novel say about love?
What does it say about fidelity?
15.
Eugenia Kim has said that her
novel was inspired by the life of her mother, and that the “writing experience
radically changed my regard for my mother and my father, as well as my own
Korean-American identity, in the most enriching positive way”. Relating back to our icebreaker, can you
think of any personal instances where, by finding out more about a family
member (or other person), gave you a better understanding of their situation or
personality, and possibly a better appreciation thereof, than what you knew
about them “on the surface”?
OR
16.
In an interview, Eugenia Kim
indicates that her mother’s English was better than Eugenia’s English, which is
how they communicated most times. In
deciding whether to write about her mother’s stories, she states: “I inherently knew that with my English ears
and her Korean storytelling, my act of listening was in itself an act of
fiction, and with the MFA (Masters of Fine Arts) from Bennington College came
the conclusion that fiction was the most effective way to bring an emotional
truth to the stories and living personality to the characters”. Do you agree?
Was she successful in achieving these objectives in The Calligrapher’s Daughter?
17.
Were you satisfied with the
ending of the novel?
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