Women Gender Discriminations in South Korea Leading to Kim Ji-Young’S Hwabyung Seen in Cho Nam-Joo’S Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

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WOMEN GENDER DISCRIMINATIONS IN SOUTH KOREA LEADING TO KIM JI-YOUNG’S HWABYUNG SEEN IN CHO NAM-JOO’S KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By GRACIELLA STEPHANIE GANADHI Student Number: 174214080

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2021

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WOMEN GENDER DISCRIMINATIONS IN SOUTH KOREA LEADING TO KIM JI-YOUNG’S HWABYUNG SEEN IN CHO NAM-JOO’S KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 TITLE PAGE

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

By GRACIELLA STEPHANIE GANADHI Student Number: 174214080

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2021

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APPROVAL PAGE

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ACCEPTANCE PAGE

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STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that, to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material previously written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text of the undergraduate thesis.

February 8th, 2021

Graciella Stephanie Ganadhi

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma

Nama : Graciella Stephanie Ganadhi Nomor Mahasiswa : 174214080

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul

WOMEN GENDER DISCRIMINATIONS IN SOUTH KOREA LEADING TO KIM JI-YOUNG’S HWABYUNG SEEN IN CHO NAM-JOO’S KIM JIYOUNG, BORN 1982 beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharna hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di Klaten Pada tanggal 8 Februari 2021

Yang menyatakan,

Graciella Stephanie Ganadhi

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, an immense gratitude to God for giving me the health, resources, and motivation to push through this proses of finishing my thesis. Without his infinite blessings, this thesis would not even materialize. Second, I would like to deliver my deepest gratitude and respect to my thesis advisor, Elisabeth Oseanita Pukan S.S., M.A., for all of her time and efforts in helping me write this thesis. She truly helped me in everything from the writing process to the research and argument development process. I truly do not know if this thesis would be as concise as it is now if not for her advices and suggestions. Also, if it were not for her asking about my writing progress and making me feel slightly guilty for not progressing at all, the board of examiners would not see this thesis as fast as it was. Once again, thank you so much, miss! I would also like to thank Dra. Theresia Enny Anggraini Ph.D., my co- advisor in writing this thesis. She was so detailed that without her, I am sure quite a lot of holes are going to be found in this thesis, so thank you so much for pointing out the lacking parts of this thesis and adding your incredibly helpful suggestions. Continuing on, I have to thank my family, especially my mom for the unlimited free flow of delicious food and snacks while I am slaving away in writing this thesis. This thesis would not be finished if it were not for her food giving me motivation to keep going. Lastly, I would like to deliver my thanks to my friends. Thank you for the occasional “semangat” messages because it keeps me going. Honestly, seeing every one of us struggle to finish our thesis is somehow inspiring for me. We are in this together!

Signing off, Graciella Stephanie Ganadhi

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ...... ii APPROVAL PAGE ...... iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ...... v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS ...... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... viii ABSTRACT ...... x ABSTRAK ...... xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 4 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 4 D. Definition of Terms ...... 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 7 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 7 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 15 1. Theory of Character ...... 15 2. Theory of Gender Discrimination ...... 17 3. Theory of Hwabyung ...... 19 C. Theoretical Framework ...... 23

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...... 24 A. Object of the Study...... 24 B. Approach of the Study ...... 26 C. Method of the Study ...... 27

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CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS ...... 29 A. The Characteristics of Kim Ji-Young ...... 29 1. Kim Ji-Young as Herself ...... 29 2. Kim Ji-Young When She Experience Change in Personalities ...... 37 B. Gender Discriminations Against Women Experienced by Kim Ji-Young 45 1. Discriminations in the Private Sphere ...... 46 2. Discriminations in the Public Sphere ...... 54 C. Impact of Kim Ji-Young’s Characteristics and Her Experience Facing Gender Discriminations to Her Hwabyung ...... 61 1. Society ...... 66 2. Community ...... 67 3. Interpersonal ...... 69 4. Individual ...... 71

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION ...... 74 REFERENCES ...... 77

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ABSTRACT

GANADHI, GRACIELLA STEPHANIE. (2021). Women Gender Discriminations in South Korea Leading to Kim Ji-Young’s Hwabyung Seen in Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Women had been suffering from gender-based discriminations for a long time. In a patriarchal society, the discriminations are more severe due to the homogenous belief in its values. These discriminations toward women often causes mental issues in some individual. As a reflection of the society, literature presents itself as a suitable to speak out about social issues, gender-based discriminations being one of it. This research analyses Kim Ji-Young in Cho Nam-Joo’s Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 which had been translated from Korean into English by Jamie Chang. In the novel, Kim Ji-Young suffers from a mental illness, hwabyung, due to the discriminations she experienced as a South Korean woman in her society.

There are three objectives of this research. The first one is to find out how the author depicted Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics in the novel. The second is to identify the kinds of gender-based discriminations that Kim Ji-Young experienced. Lastly, the research tries to find out the relation of Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics and the gender discriminations that she experienced to her hwabyung.

This research utilizes library research method. The primary source of the research is Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, a novel by Cho Nam-Joo and translated into English by Jamie Chang. The research is complimented by the use of journals, books, and theses as secondary data and references. In order to reach the objective of the research, the writer uses the theory of characteristics by M. J. Murphy to find out Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics, the theory of gendered sphere by Pilcher & Whelehan to identify the kinds of gender discriminations experienced by Kim Ji- Young, and Multi-Systemic Model of Hwabyung (MSMH) by Lee, et al. This research uses liberal feminist approach cited in Standford Encyclopedia of Philosphy and as cited in Lois Tyson’s Critical Theory Todayas the perspective of the analysis.

This research concludes that Kim Ji-Young as herself is a quiet, unassertive, and passive individual yet also possessing a logical, emotional, and sensitive side. When Kim Ji-Young turned into her mother, Cha Seung-Yeon, or others, she changed into a more outspoken person. Her personal characteristics who tends to keep her emotions to herself disabled her to go against society’s notion that women are inferior to men. Ji-Young had to undergo various discriminations both in the private sphere as a daughter and a wife and in the public sphere as a working professional. Her reserved characteristics and her experience as a victim of gender discrimination caused her to develop hwabyung. Keywords: gender discriminations, hwabyung, South Korean patriarchy

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ABSTRAK

Perempuan telah lama menderita diskriminasi berdasarkan perbedaan gender. Dalam masyarakat patriarki seperti Korea Selatan, diskriminasi yang terjadi lebih parah karena kepercayaan mayoritas negara Timur terhadap nilai-nilai patriarki. Berbagai diskriminasi terhadap perempuan ini sering menyebabkan isu mental pada beberapa individu. Sebagai refleksi dari masyarakat, literatur mewujudkan dirinya sebagai bentuk kritik sosial yang mumpuni, diskriminasi berdasarkan gender adalah salah satunya. Riset ini menganalisis Kim Ji-Young dalam Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, sebuah novel karya Cho Nam-Joo yang telah diterjemahkan dari Bahasa Korea menjadi Bahasa Inggris oleh Jamie Chang. Dalam novel, Kim Ji-Young menderita penyakit mental, hwabyung, karena diskriminasi yang dialaminya sebagai seorang perempuan Korea Selatan dalam lingkup masyarakatnya. Ada tiga obyektif dalam riset ini. Obyektif pertama adalah menemukan deskripsi karakter Kim Ji-Young dalam novel. Obyektif kedua adalah mengidentifikasi jenis-jenis diskriminasi berdasarkan gender yang dialami oleh Kim Ji-Young. Terakhir, riset ini mencoba menemukan relasi dari karakter Kim Ji- Young dan diskriminasi berdasarkan gender terhadap hwabyung yang dialami oleh Kim Ji-Young. Riset ini menggunakan penelitian pustaka. Sumber utama dari riset ini adalah Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982, sebuah novel karya Cho Nam-Joo dan diterjemahkan menjadi Bahasa Inggris oleh Jamie Chang. Riset ini dilengkapi dengan penggunaan berbagai jurnal, buku, dan tesis sebagai sumber data pendukung dan referensi. Untuk mencapai obyektif dari riset ini, penulis menggunakan teori karakterisasi dari M. J. Murphy, teori lingkup gender dari Pilcher & Whelehan, dan Model Hwabyung Multi-Sistemik (MSMH) dari Lee, dkk. Riset ini menggunakan pendekatan feminis sebagai perspektif analisisnya. Riset ini menyimpulkan bahwa Kim Ji-Young sebagai dirinya adalah individu yang pendiam, tidak asertif, dan pasif tetapi masih memiliki sisi yang logis, emosional, dan sensitif. Ketika Kim Ji-Young berubah menjadi ibunya, Cha Seung- Yeon, atau lainya, dia berubah menjadi orang yang lebih berani mengutarakan pendapat. Karakteristik dirinya yang cenderung menyimpan perasaannya sendiri mengakibatkan ketidakmampuannya untuk menantang konsep sosial mengenai posisi perempuan yang lebih rendah daripada pria. Ji-Young harus mengalami berbagai macam diskriminasi dalam lingkup pribadi sebagai anak perempuan dan istri dan lingkup sosial sebagai pekerja professional. Karakteristik pendiamnya dan pengalamannya sebagai kotban diskriminasi berbasis gender menyebabkan munculnya hwabyung. Kata kunci: diskriminasi gender, hwabyung, patriarki Korea Selatan

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature, according to Dr. Roshni Duhan, can be used to “reflects the society, its good values and its ills” (2015, p. 192). Throughout the past few centuries, literature has been used by women to shed a light on the suffering that women face. In 1972, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Women: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects that is recognised as one of the earliest feminist literatures. Other works such as Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929), Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch (1970), and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) were also able to successfully bring to attention the limiting roles that women were given as homemaker and the harsh treatment of women as inferior to men. However, in the modern era, the fight against patriarchal values in order to eradicate gender-based discriminations are still in full force.

That literature is a reflection of the society is a fact that has been widely acknowledged. Literature indeed reflects the society, its good values and its ills. In its corrective function, literature mirrors the ills of the society with a view to making the society realize its mistakes and make amends. It also projects the virtues or good values in the society for people to emulate. Literature, as an imitation of human action, often presents a picture of what people think, say and do in the society (Duhan, 2015, p. 192). As a form of art that is created by members of society, it is inevitable that works of literature can also function as a critic to society.

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Women, as half of the population, still face many discriminations because of their gender. Most Asian societies still firmly believe in the clear division between men as breadwinners and women as child bearers and caretakers. Women are given the role because society deemed women unfit to be working due to their supposed lack of strength and intelligence.

In the most culture of which we have any knowledge, women are considered to be sort of a lower being, a creature human enough, but not quite human as the male; certainly not as wise, nor as intelligent; and lacking in the most of abilities and capabilities with which the male is so plentifully endowed? (Montagu, 1953, p. 27). South Korea located in East Asia is one of the countries that are still upholding

Confucian values and has strict gender-based division for its member of the society.

South Korean society believes “husbands are the dominant partner who is responsible to handle wives and provide for the family whereas wives are the submissive partner who should always show obedience, loyalty, and respect”

(Hyun, 2001) which clearly shows its patriarchal roots. The Analects, one of Korean women’s guide to virtue, shows that Confucius deliberately isolating women from the public sphere such as government and civil service occupations, indicating that women were incapable of serving in important positions or simply just mingling in social affairs (Littlejohn 2017, p. 4).

Women are assigned to handle the domestic affairs such as nurturing the children, cooking, weaving and other household work. Men, on the other hand, handle public and social affairs such as farming, commerce and, for some men, holding government office (Chan, 2000). The division in society based on gender created by Confucianism has been carried on to the modern era. Women are expected to have children and stop working once they get married, thus relying on their husbands for incomes because they are bound

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in their home. Women are excluded from workforce, politics, culture, education, and many more. Confucianism creates a patriarchal society where women are powerless against their husbands, fathers, and male population in general (Chan,

2000).

South Korea is often deemed as a wellness paradise. It has the highest rate of survival of cancer and strokes, ninth-lowest obesity rate, third-longest expectancy of a healthy life among all other countries all over the world (Watkins,

2016). However, the fate of those suffering from mental illness are not so fortunate.

Every day, around 40 Koreans commit suicide, almost twice as much compared to

Hungary, second in rank among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries in terms of suicide rate. 95% of Koreans are reported to be stressed, almost a third of them are chronically stressed. Also, 28% of elderly

Korean are depressed compared to only 10% to 15% in the U.S. Even so, 78% elderly Koreans still firmly believe in the long-held cultural notion that being depressed and seeking help mean that the individual is weak. Moreover, being a woman in a very patriarchal society such as South Korea proves to be a very challenging living situation. Women are treated as inferior to men, both in the home and in the public, thus it is of no wonder that many Korean women feels that they are being treated unfairly by the society. Their feelings of unfairness and no way to channel their emotions have led these women to develop hwabyung, a cultural depressive disorder that is distinct to South Korean (American Psychiatric

Association, 1994) later on in life. These women do not have the power to challenge

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the notion set by the society because living in a patriarchal society means that they hold zero power as they are the subordinates of men.

This study looks into a particularly popular feminist fiction literary work by a South Korean woman writer Cho Nam-Joo. The book is titled Kim Jiyoung, Born

1982 and it tells the story of the main character, Kim Ji-Young as she navigates a life in a patriarchal society. The focus of the study is studying gender discriminations that are imposed upon Kim Ji-Young as a result of patriarchal values that are culturally inherited by South Korean. Furthermore, the study looks for the relation between the gender discriminations and the eventual mental health issues that Kim Ji-Young suffers from, especially her depressive behaviour, hwabyung.

B. Problem Formulation

Related to the background of the study, there are three questions that need to be answered in this study:

1. How is the main character, Kim Ji-Young, described in the novel?

2. What are the experiences of the main character, Kim Ji-Young, that implies

gender discrimination towards women?

3. What are the impact of Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics and her experience

facing gender discriminations to her hwabyung?

C. Objectives of the Study

There are three objectives in this study. The first objective aims to find out the characteristics of Kim Ji-Young as the main character. The second objective is

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to identify the kinds of gender discriminations Kim Ji-Young experienced.

Identifying the various gender discriminations helps the writer to find out the relation between those discriminations to Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung. The third objective is to find out how Ji-Young’s characteristics and her experience facing gender discriminations impacted her hwabyung.

D. Definition of Terms

Before continuing further into the study, a few clarifications regarding the terms that is used throughout the study need to be defined and clarified.

1. Gender According to 50 Key Concepts in Gender Studies, gender is “a line of demarcation between biological sex differences and the way these are used to inform behaviours and competencies, which are then assigned as either ‘masculine’ or ‘feminine’” (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004, p. 56). In short, gender is a social term to differentiate between biological sex and as a way to control individuals to submit to patriarchy and maintain it.

2. Gender Discriminations Bernard E. Whitley Jr. and Mary E. Kite in The Psychology of Prejudice and Discrimination describes discriminations as:

A behaviour which deals with the way people act towards members of other groups and it consists of behaving differently toward people based on their membership in a social group. The term discrimination usually refers to acting in an unfair or demeaning manner or to giving someone and undeserved advantage (2010, p. 370).

Gender discriminations, thus, can be described an unfair behaviour toward people based on their gender.

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3. Hwabyung Hwabyung is an illness that occurs when “people are held back from confronting their feelings or anger as a consequence of unjust or unfair circumstances” (Rhi, 2004). Eun-ha Kim, et al. mentions that hwabyung usually occurs in people with family conflicts, in those pressured by their social roles as mother and wife, and people who have pro feminist and egalitarian attitudes toward gender roles (2013, p. 56). Ji-Eun Lee mentions that the illness might be a cultural- bound illness in South Korea because it is generally caused by the patriarchal social structure where the Korean male are traditionally dominant (2014, p. 60).

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

In conducting this research, the writer had sought reference from several other related studies in order to enrich the study and discussion on discrimination against women and its implications that act as the topic of this research. The first one is a thesis for diploma degree entitled Analisis Nilai Konfusianisme dan

Pandangan Terhadap Perempuan Dalam Novel Korea Born 1982, Kim Jiyoung by

Tiara Maya Azizah Y. N. The second related study is Representasi Subordinasi

Perempuan Korea Dalam Film “Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982” by Faizah Nur

Ainiyah. The third related study is Woman’s Struggle Against Oppressions as

Viewed by Transformative Ecofeminism in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, an undergraduate thesis by Izzul Millati Umami. The fourth related study is a conference paper entitled Patriarchal Oppression in Kim Ji-Yeong, Born 1982 By

Cho Nam Joo: A Feminist Literary Study by Siti Rahmah, et al. The fifth and last related study is a doctoral thesis by Jee Hyang Lee entitled A Cross-Cultural Study of Hwabyung With Middle-Aged Women Between Native Koreans in South Korea and Korean Immigrants in the United States.

The first related study is a thesis for a diploma degree by Tiara Maya Azizah

Y.N entitled Analisis Nilai Konfusianisme dan Pandangan Terhadap Perempuan

Dalam Novel Korea Born 1982, Kim Jiyoung. The study aims to find out the various

Confucianism values and Korean views toward women as depicted in the novel.

The study itself analyses the novel by presenting the description of the comparison

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of the novel’s plot to the reality in Korean society through articles and journals. The study focuses on the Confucianism values in relationship between husband and wife, elders and youngsters, and many others. The analysis to the Korean views toward women was done by seeing the discriminations that the main character had received from her family and surroundings. Finally, the study concludes that

Confucian values cannot be separated from South Korean society as it is already deeply integrated into every part of their daily lives. Moreover, Confucian values birthed gender discriminations toward women, one that the main character had to experience. The same values had caused the entirety of the society to think that women are subordinates to men.

The first related study and this study have the same object of the study which is the novel Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 which makes the study relevant to be used as a reference of this study. However, the first related study analyses the original version of the novel in Korean while this study analyses the English version of the novel. The first related study uses descriptive analysis to see the Confucian values and Korean views towards women in the novel while this study uses liberal feminism to see the kinds of discriminations that the main character experienced.

The first related study focuses on identifying the different Confucian values and how Korean views women while this study tries to find the gender-based discriminations that the main character experienced. Moreover, the first related study had not discussed about the main character’s mental illness, thus it differs from this study as this study tries to find the relation between the discrimination that the main character experienced to her mental illness.

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The second related study is a final thesis by Faizah Nur Ainiyah entitled

Representasi Subordinasi Perempuan Korea Dalam Film “Kim Ji-Young, Born

1982.” This study aims to find out the representations of South Korean women subordination in the film Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. The study utilizes John Fiske’s semiotic analysis as an approach and the analysis to the story was done by applying several social codes with varying level as presented in the film. There are three level that were used in analysis namely reality, representation, and ideology. In the reality level, the writer utilizes eight different social codes: appearance, expression, dress, make up, environment, behaviour, speech, and gesture. In representation level, the writer utilizes technical representative codes such as camera angle, lighting, editing, background music, and sound mixing. Lastly, the writer utilizes social codes in women subordination for analysis in the ideology level which is related to the dominant social belief in the society. In her analysis, the writer separates the discussion into three which are women subordination as a daughter in the family, women subordination as a wife and housewife, and lastly women subordination as a career woman. The writer concludes that as a daughter, women are seen as less than men who were expected to be able to inherit the family business and carry on the family name, thus men are prioritized more often in South Korean family. The second conclusion is that as a wife and housewife, South Korean women are responsible for the domestic affairs while also carrying the heavy burden of child care. Moreover, in South Korean society, housewives are stereotypically seen as a leech that suck out their husbands’ money and all they do at home are relaxing. This stereotype materializes in the reality that most women lost the chance to take care

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of themselves because they are expected to be fully devoted to their family. The last conclusion is that as a career woman, South Korean women were not given the same opportunity as men due to the various career hindrance, work evaluation based on gender, discriminations against career mothers, and public sexual assaults.

Housewives are underestimated because they do not generate income while career women also received bad reputation for handing over child care unto someone else when it is expected of them by society.

The second related study and this present study have the same object which is Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. However, this study analyses the novel that has been translated into English while the second related study uses the film starring Jung

Yu-Mi and Gong-Yoo. The difference in the format of the object creates slight difference in the detail of the story because the film version carries a more compact version of the plot. The second related study uses John Fiske’s semiotics analysis method by analysing the television codes consist of three sub-chapters namely women subordination as daughter, as wife and housewife, and as a career woman.

This present study uses Pilcher & Whelehan’s theory of gender sphere to see the discrimination experienced by the main character, Kim Ji-Young. While the second related study does not analyse the impact of those subordination treatment against women, this present study analyses the impact of those oppressions against women to Kim Ji-Young’s mental health as she is described to be having depression and behaving oddly in the novel.

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The third related study is an undergraduate thesis by Izzul Millati Umami titled Woman’s Struggle Against Oppressions as Viewed by Transformative

Ecofeminism in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian. This study aims to find the different kinds of oppression experienced by the main characters that are presented in the novel, namely physical, psychological, verbal, and sexual oppressions. The study also tries to find out the factors that led Yeong-Hye to finally fight against the oppression and how it relates to the issues in transformative ecofeminism. The writer uses transformative ecofeminism as an approach in which the novel is going to be analysed. The approach is used to help the writer a framework to review the novel critically. The author collects data regarding women’s fight against oppression through the point of view of transformative ecofeminism and continues on to identify the cause of those oppressions. The study focuses on the data related to the four kinds of oppressions that are listed as the objective of the study such as psychological, sexual, physical, and verbal oppression. The author also only analyses the main character, Yeong-Hye’s, reasons that led her to fight against the oppressions and her struggles doing it. The study reached the conclusion that

Yeong-Hye, the main character, experiences all four kinds of oppressions. The writer concludes that physical oppressions is the most frequent kind while the other three kinds of oppression’s frequency are not mentioned. Yeong-Hye’s fight against the oppressions that she experiences is fuelled by her trauma that is caused by those oppressions. In relation to transformative ecofeminism, Yeong-Hye’s fight that avoids violence and is done by raising awareness toward violence against animal and nature is in line with the idea of transformative ecofeminism.

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The third related study has a few differences with this present study. First, the object of the study, while having the same theme about gender oppression on women in Korean society, is different from the present study. The Vegetarian has a more radical storyline compared to Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 which is more slice- of-life themed. Second, the present study focuses on seeing how the various oppression relates to the main character’s eventual mental illness while the third related study focuses on identifying the kinds of oppressions and how the main character finally breaks free from those oppressions. Third, the approach that this study uses is liberal feminism while the third related study uses transformative ecofeminism. In short, the second related study is still relevant to be used as a reference as it is still having the topic of gender-based oppressions or discriminations against women as the topic of the study. The fact that the third related study uses a novel that has a similar topic to the novel of this current study makes the third related study suitable to be this study’s reference.

The fourth related study is a conference paper entitled Patriarchal

Oppression in Kim Ji-Yeong, Born 1982 By Cho Nam Joo: A Feminist Literary

Study by Siti Rahmah, et al. This research aims to explore and examine the ways in which the author depicts and portray the struggle for gender equality in the novel through the perspective of feminist literary criticism. It utilizes descriptive qualitative approach to build a descriptive data-oriented feminist literary study. The identification of the structural elements such as characterizations, plot, settings in the novel, and elements of social criticism that focus on how society views unemployed women were presented as ways to answer the problems formulation.

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The research done by Siti Rahmah, et al. has been able to draw two conclusions regarding the patriarchal oppression in South Korea depicted through the novel,

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982. The first conclusion is that the novel was written with the purpose of encouraging women to be more willing to open their voices and stand up for themselves in dealing with inequality as well as gender-based harassment in society. The second conclusion is that the novel was also promoting the notion that it is okay for people to ask for experts help in dealing with depression and the burden of life in general as South Koreans tend to be more closed-off when it comes to seeking professional help.

The fourth related study is similar to this present study as it uses the same object which is the novel written by Cho Nam-Joo, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982.

However, this present study uses the novel that had been translated into English by

Jamie Chang while the third related study uses the novel that was translated in

Indonesian. In terms of the approach, the fourth related study utilizes the feminist literary criticisms to see how women are represented in the novel and how the text realized gender relation between men and women. The research done by Siti

Rahmah, et al. cited the theory of gender concepts by Sugihastuti and Suharto as the basis of their analysis. This study, however, uses liberal feminism specifically to see how women are oppressed both in the public and private sphere in accordance to the usage of the gender sphere theory by Pilcher & Whelehan. The fourth related study is still relevant to this present study as it offers useful insights on the kinds of gender-based oppression that the women characters of the novel experienced.

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The fifth related study is a doctoral thesis by Jee Hyang Lee entitled A

Cross-Cultural Study of Hwabyung With Middle-Aged Women Between Native

Koreans in South Korea and Korean Immigrants in the United States. The thesis aims to find out the difference between hwabyung patients that reside in South

Korea and those who reside in the United States by conducting quantitative tests.

The writer conducts the test by having at least 200 randomly selected participants for each group of patients. The participants from South Korea are randomly chosen from five major cities such as Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daejeon, and Gyeonggi

Province. The Korean-American participants are selected from three different cities namely Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. However, the writer set a variable that obliged all the participants to be in similar proportions of age which requires them to be in their late 30s until middle 60s. The tests are done both by paper-pencil and web-based method, depending on the participants’ preferences that is also influenced by their ability and familiarity in using the internet. The survey included five instruments which are: the Hwabyung Scale (Kwon, Kim, Park, Lee, Min, &

Kwon, 2008), Life Stress for Korean Women (Chon & Kim, 2003), Stress Response

Inventory (SRI) (Koh, Park, & Kim, 2000), Anger Regulation (Hahn, Chon, Lee,

& Spielberger, 1997), and demographic background that measures the variables used in the study. The study concludes that there was no significant difference in the level of hwabyung between native Koreans and Korean-American immigrants.

There is a difference in how native Koreans and Korean-American handle the effect of life stress that causes their hwabyung. Native Korean tend to react with cognitive stress responses while Korean-American use somatic stress responses.

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In this study, the writer conducts the research, instead of on a population of

Native Koreans and Korean Americans, but on the main characters of a novel, Kim

Ji-Young. This research utilizes a qualitative method of analysis instead of quantitative analysis. The related study done by Lee provides an insight to the difference between hwabyung patients in South Korea and in the United States, thus helping this research to understand more about hwabyung, it’s patients’ symptoms and reaction, along with how the society and values in South Korea influence the development of the illness.

B. Review of Related Theories

There are three theories namely theory of character, theory of gender discrimination, and theory of hwabyung that are used to analyzed the object of the study.

1. Theory of Character

Characters are a vital part in literary criticisms. Often, it is the most analysed part of a story. According to M. H. Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary

Terms, characters are defined as

the persons represented in a dramatic or narrative work, who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with particular moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the persons say and their distinctive ways of saying it—the dialogue—and from what they do—the action. The grounds in the characters' temperament, desires, and moral nature for their speech and actions are called their motivation (1999, pp. 32- 33). In short, character is a person in a literary work with their own distinct qualities that can be interpreted by readers from their dialogues and action.

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Murphy (1972, pp. 161-173) theorizes that there are nine ways to identify the characteristics of the characters in a literary work. a. Personal description

The character’s appearance such as clothes, skin tone, face, etc. can provide

a clue to the character’s characteristics because each of them is distinct. b. Character as seen by another

Readers can gain insights about the character characteristics from the other

characters’ eyes. c. Speech

The characteristics of the character can be analyzed through their speech such

as in dialogue, conversation, and mention of opinions. d. Past life

The character’s past life can be reflected through direct comment, thoughts,

or the character’s conversation with others. e. Conversation of others

Conversation between characters can reveal the character’s particular

characteristic. f. Reactions

Readers can learn about a character's characteristics through their reaction to

a specific event or situation which can also give them insights about the

character’s thoughts and motives.

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g. Direct comment

The author provides a straightforward comment or explanation about the

character’s characteristics which can ease the readers in finding out the

characteristics of each character. h. Thoughts

The author provides the readers with the ability to know what is the character

thinking and feeling which can give them insights about the characteristics of

that particular character. i. Mannerisms

The author can describe a character’s habits and behaviours.

2. Theory of Gender Discrimination

Gender discriminations is a main topic that is scrutinized in this study.

Bernard E. Whitley Jr. and Mary E. Kite in The Psychology of Prejudice and

Discrimination describes discrimination as:

A behavior which deals with the way people act towards members of other groups and it consists of behaving differently toward people based on their membership in a social group. The term discrimination usually refers to acting in an unfair or demeaning manner or to giving someone and undeserved advantage (2010, p. 370).

Gender discrimination, thus, can be described an unfair behaviour toward people based on their gender. This type of discrimination usually manifests in the form of gender roles. Men and women are expected to fill their different roles in society.

Women are often expected to “fulfil the role as wives who serve the husband, do housework, and take care of their children” (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004).

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Gendered spheres are spaces where only “a specific gender is accepted and deemed appropriate” (Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004). They also theorize that there are two gendered spaces in our status quo. a. Private sphere

This sphere is deemed as the domain of women. Women should stay at home

and take care of their domestic life. Pilcher & Whelehan state that “women

have primary responsibility for the management and performance of

housework and caring work (such as cleaning, laundry, shopping, cooking,

and caring for children)” (2004, p. 31). They mention that “women are largely

confined to the household sphere and have limited participation in public life”

(2004, p. 95). Even if this sphere is designated for women, gender-based

discrimination is still prevalent with the existence of gender roles at home. In

their own domain, women are still powerless and being limited of freedom. b. Public sphere

This sphere is said to be the domain of men as breadwinners. In this sphere,

women’s expected participation is only secondary (pp. 125-126). In this

sphere, men are expected to be a hard-worker with a reputable position and a

huge salary to support his family financially while the women stayed at home

and taking care of the house. Women’s participation in the public sphere is

thought to be unnecessary because women’s role is not to be a breadwinner,

thus the discrimination in the public life, especially in the workplace with

women having less opportunity to work and less salary than men.

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3. Theory of Hwabyung

This study peers into Kim Ji-Young’s depression specifically as hwabyung from the point of view of biocultural approach. The biocultural approach to hwabyung is chosen because the approach seeks to understand depressive behaviours beyond the scope of scientific symptoms and takes the cultural influence that might impact the development of the illness into account instead of seeing the depressive behaviour only from neuroscience point of view.

Hwabyung is an illness that occurs when “people are held back from confronting their feelings or anger as a consequence of unjust or unfair circumstances (Rhi, 2004). It is usually found in patients with family conflicts, in those who feel pressured by their social roles as mother and wife, and in those who have pro feminist and egalitarian attitudes toward women’s gender roles (Kim, et al., 2013, p. 506). Ji-Eun Lee, et al. mention that the illness might be a cultural- bound illness in South Korea because it is generally caused by the patriarchal social structure where the Korean male are traditionally dominant (2014, p. 60). Women are treated as inferior and having to always obey men because society made it impossible for women not to rely on men. Women relying on men means that women has to serve men so that they don’t lose their living support, however in doing so, women are losing their freedom. Many women, especially those who are aware of Western feminist values, start to feel that they are being treated unjustly

(Littlejohn, 2017) (Chan, 2000), but due to the lack of ways to express their feelings as it is still taboo in South Korean society to express one’s feelings, these women had to suppress their feelings.

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In their research, Lee, et al. elaborates on a new model to provide a clearer framework called Multi-Systemic Model of Hwabyung (MSMH) to understand hwabyung as a complex phenomenon with various factors. In their model, there are four interconnected factors which might contribute to the development of hwabyung.

1. Society: Korean traditional culture that is mainly influenced by Confucianism

which in turn carry patriarchal values such as gender roles and familial roles,

stigma around mental illness, and stigma around individual expression of

feelings and emotions.

2. Community: religious community. This can serve as a double-edged sword

where the community can create a sense of guilt in the individual when they

do not perform religious rites, but they also offer haven for women to share

burden with one another.

3. Interpersonal: family conflicts, marital conflicts, awareness of Western

gender roles that are deemed to be less oppressive compared to Korean

traditional gender roles. These conflicts and different understanding and want

among married couples or between the wife and her in-laws can cause a build-

up of anger and stress that might lead to hwabyung.

4. Individual: age, personality, educational background, acculturation stress,

commitment to traditional Korean values, self-victimization, etc. Hwabyung

occurs more often in middle-aged and elderly women with a low educational

background as those women are still imposed upon the stigma that depression

and expressing their emotions must be repressed.

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There are several differences between the common type of depressive disorder to hwabyung. Being a culturally-bound illness, hwabyung does not create a sense of suicidal behaviours in its patients, unlike the common type of depression

(Cho, 2020). Furthermore, while depression can be caused by many factors, hwabyung is caused specifically by the feeling of unfairness (uk-wool/boon) (Min, p. 13).

According to Yong-Chon Park, Hwabyung can be seen from two points of view which are longitudinal and cross sectional. a. Longitudinal view: a disease process and the symptoms are dynamic. It is

based on the traditional Korean view where the body and the mind are one

entity. In this view, hwabyung can have symptoms ranging from mild

physical and mental symptoms, including neurosis and somatization, to

psychosis and death. This view also refers to all symptoms caused by anger

as hwabyung. b. Cross sectional view: a mental disorder with physical and mental symptoms

and focused on the phenomenological understanding. In this view, the

symptoms were statistically processed and hot or heat sensation, feeling

oppressed, sensations of something pushing-up in the chest and epigastric

mass are the four major symptoms of hwabyung. This view diagnosed patients

using Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM) criteria

with somatization disorder, depression, and anxiety as the most frequent

diagnoses.

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There are several noticeable symptoms in those who suffer from hwabyung.

Those symptoms can be separated into physical symptoms and psychological symptoms (Min, et al., 2009). The physical symptoms include heat sensation with anger-related somatization such as flushing, redness, intolerance to a hot environment, a feeling of something pushing-up in the chest, palpitation/heart- pounding, respiratory stuffiness/oppression, a mass in the epigastrium or chest, sighing often, tearing, talkativeness when asked about their struggles, impulse to open doors/get out from a closed space, dry mouth, insomnia, anorexia, and psychosis/hysteria. Hwabyung also can be identified by its psychological symptoms which are subjective anger, feelings of unfairness (uk-wool/boon), and hatred and guilt. It is important also to note that not everyone shows the same symptoms or undergoes all of the symptoms. Moreover, native South Korean women living in

South Korea are more inclined to show cognitive stress response compared to

Korean-American imigrants living in the United States who are more likely to show somatic stress response (Lee, 2014).

In short, hwabyung is a culture-bound illness that is caused by pilled-up anger due to unjust and unfair situations, such as oppressive gender discriminations.

Hwabyung occurs more often on middle-aged women with terrible family conflicts and those who are aware of a more-lax Western gender role. As an illness, hwabyung has many symptoms including physical and psychological. It can range from continuous sighing, anxiety, insomnia, feelings of anger and hatred, to psychotic hysteria.

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C. Theoretical Framework

This study required several theories to be able to answer three problem formulations in the first chapter. There were three theories that was used to analyse the gender discrimination experienced by the main character of Kim Jiyoung, Born

1982, a novel written by Cho Nam-Joo and translated by Jamie Chang.

The first theory was the theory of character and characterization by Abrams and Murphy. The theory revealed the characteristics of the character through her speech, description of her appearance, her action, etc. In this study, the main character, Kim Ji-Young, was the only character analysed characteristically. The second theory was the theory of gender spheres that was used to help the writer to identify the kinds of roles and discriminations that were faced by the main character.

The analysis was differentiated into two: gender discriminations in the private sphere and gender discriminations in the public sphere.

The theory of hwabyung was the last theory used in the study. Although this theory is a psychological theory, this theory helped this study to identify the impact of those gender discriminations that are inflicted upon Kim Ji-Young that led to her eventual strange behaviours. The analysis was done by identifying the factors of hwabyung as mentioned in Lee’s theory that were suffered by Kim Ji-Young and relating it to her experience regarding gender discriminations. Then, the writer found out the relation between those imposed gender discriminations and Ji-

Young’s hwabyung symptoms.

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CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 was written by Cho Nam-Joo, a South Korean television scriptwriter. First released in October 2016 in Korean, this novel sale skyrocketed in May 2018 after the Justice Party’s floor leader, Roh Hoe-Chan, gifted the book to the President of South Korea, Moon Jae-In (Im, 2018 in The

Korea Herald). The novel was translated into English in 2018 by Jamie Chang and adapted into a movie in October 2019 starring highly acclaimed South Korean actors, Gong-Yoo and Jung Yu-Mi. As of November 2018, the book had sold more than 1 million copies, becoming the second novel to reach the first million-selling

Korean novel since Shin Kyung-Sook’s Please Look After Mom in 2009 (Im, 2018 in The Korea Herald). In 2020, it became longlisted for the U. S. National Book

Award for Translated Literature (Baik, 2020 in The Chosunilbo) and the French

Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature (2020 in The Chosunilbo).

The author, Cho Nam-Joo mentioned that it only took her two months to write the novel because she feels that the main character, Kim Ji-Young, lives a very similar life to hers and that is why she was able to write so quickly without so much preparation. However, the release of the movie which inevitably heightened the spotlight for the story cause so many outrages among anti-feminist in South

Korea. Many of them even signed and sent a petition to the Blue House to boycott the release of the movie. Several South Korean public figures such as Bae Suzy,

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Irene of Red Velvet, Yoo Jae-Suk and RM of BTS were facing backlash after showing their support for the story by recommending it to their fans, seen while holding the book, and liking Instagram posts that promoted it (Lee, 2018 in The

Korea Herald, Kim, 2018 in the BBC). Unfortunately, even the backlash was better for Jae-Suk and RM, who are men, rather than for Irene and Suzy.

The novel itself tells the story of Kim Ji-Young, a thirty-three years old woman living in the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea. The story vibrates through the heart of many South Korean women because the name, Kim Ji-Young, is noted as the most common name for South Korean women. It creates the sense of possibility that anyone can be the main character of the story.

The novel consists of six chapters. The first being the story when she first acted strange and elaborate on her continuous strange behaviours in Autumn 2015.

The second and third chapter are focused on her childhood and adolescence time when she was faced with so many gender discriminations. The fourth chapter tells the story of her early adulthood when she is around the age of a fresh graduate. In this story, the highlight is the gender discrimination that she faced in the public sphere which is in her workplace, a small marketing agency. The fifth chapter tells the story after she got married and the pressure she faced from both sides of the family regarding her expected roles as a mom and a good wife. Lastly, the sixth chapter is set in 2016, a year after her husband started to notice her strange behaviours. This chapter is told from the point of view of her psychiatrist, unlike the other chapters which were told from a narrator point of view. This chapter also told the case of gender discrimination from a male point of view, since the

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psychiatrist is a man, unlike the other chapters where the stories were told from a genderless narrator point of view. It is not focused only on Ji-Young, but rather also tells about his observation on the issue as it happened to his wife and his employee.

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 is a story of a common South Korean woman who was faced against so many gender discriminations. The novel reveals so many things about living a life as a woman in a traditional and patriarchal South Korean society, especially about the expected behaviours and values that women have to follow through. It tells the impact of the immense pressure imposed upon women through the experience of the main character, Kim Ji-Young.

B. Approach of the Study

This study utilizes liberal feminist approach in order to see how Kim Ji-

Young’s characters and her experience in facing gender discrimination lead to her hwabyung. Liberalism, the ideology itself, value freedom above all else and it strives to ensure freedom for all individuals (Liberal Feminism, 2020). Feminist approach sees how economic, political, social, and psychological oppressions of women are reinforced and undermined by literature and other cultural productions

(Tyson, 2006, p. 84). Liberal feminism strives for the same goal as liberalism which is freedom for all individuals, including and primarily concerning women. It seeks to free women from the oppressions such as traditional gender roles. Traditional gender roles is often used to justify gender inequalities such as excluding women from leadership positions in any field available in the society, giving women lesser salary than men even when they work in the same job and position, and limiting working fields for women (Tyson, p. 85). The examples are just few among many

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other kinds of gender-based discriminations. In short, feminist approach examines how women are oppressed in the field of economy, politics, social, and psychology by society. Liberal feminist approach is used in this thesis because it aligns with the objective of this study which is to find out the kind of gender discriminations experienced by Kim Ji-Young that limits her from being a true member of her society.

C. Method of the Study

This study is conducted using library research. The writer uses sources from both online and offline books, journals, and articles. The primary source of the study is Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo. The secondary sources are taken from online and offline books, articles, and journals. The theories to analyse the characteristics of the character, to identify the kinds of gender discrimination, and to find out the impact of the discrimination on the analysed character’s mental health are taken from A Glossary of Literary Terms by Abrams, An Introduction to

Literary Criticism, Understanding Unseen by Murphy, 50 Key Concepts in Gender

Study by Pilcher & Whelehan, Hwabyung: An Overview by Bou-Yong Rhi,

Symptoms to Use for Diagnostic Criteria of Hwa-Byung, an Anger Syndrome by

Sung-Kil Min, et al., A Review of the Korean Cultural Syndrome Hwa-Byung:

Suggestions for Theory and Intervention by Ji-Eun Lee, et al., and Hwabyung:

Symptoms and Diagnosis by Yong-Chon Park.

There are several steps that were taken in conducting this study. Firstly, the writer read the novel several times to gain an in-depth understanding related to the story. The writer also focuses on the main character, Kim Ji-Young, as the one that

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is being analysed. After finishing reading and understanding the novel, the writer formulates some problem formulations to be used as the writing guidelines.

Secondly, the writer was finding and understanding appropriate theories to be applied in the study. The theory of characterization was the first to be found and applied to analyse the first problem formulation. The theory of gender discrimination was used to see and identify the different treatments that causes women to be in disadvantages. The theory of hwabyung is applied to analyse the impact of Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics and her experience in facing discrimination against her gender to her mental health. After deciding the appropriate theories, the writer was making an analysis on the novel regarding the discrimination against women in the South Korean society and the impact it created upon women. Lastly, the writer drew a conclusion based on the analysis that has been done.

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CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter analyses the three problems that have been formulated in the first chapter. The first discussion is the portrayal of the main character Kim Ji-

Young as a woman in a patriarchal South Korean society. The second discussion is the kinds of gender discriminations against women that are experienced by Kim Ji-

Young. Lastly, this chapter analyses the impact of those gender discriminations towards Kim Ji-Young’s culture-bound depression, hwabyung.

A. The Characteristics of Kim Ji-Young

In this novel, the main character, Kim Ji-Young suffers from hwabyung―South Korean culture-bound mental illness―that causes her to have several different characteristics and behaviours that differ from her usual self. The analysis of her characteristics is differentiated into two, Kim Ji-Young as herself and Kim Ji-Young when she behaves like others due to her illness.

1. Kim Ji-Young as Herself

Kim Ji-Young, the main character in the story, is a thirty-three years old woman who lives in a small rented apartment in suburban Seoul with her husband of three years, Jung Dae-Hyun, and her one-year old daughter, Jung Ji-Won. She used to work for a small marketing agency while her husband is still working for a mid-size IT company. A few weeks before her due date, Ji-Young left her job to focus on raising her daughter. Her husband usually comes home at midnight on weekdays and goes to work at least once on weekends, making Kim Ji-Young her daughter’s sole carer.

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A character’s characteristics can be seen from how others depict her as per

Murphy’s theory of characteristic. Ji-Young’s husband, Dae-Hyun, mentions that

Ji-Young was a cheerful person. According to Dae-Hyun, Ji-Young had been a person full of laughter and was always able to make him laugh with her impressions of celebrities (pp. 2-3). When Ji-Young started to act strange, Dae-Hyun immediately caught on that something was wrong with his wife because she acted so out of character.

As a girl, Kim Ji-Young was innocent and empathetic. These characteristics can be seen as per Murphy theory that a character’s characteristics can be seen from the author’s direct comment on the character’s past life or their conversation in the past with other characters. When little Ji-Young and her mother were having a conversation about her school assignment, her mother blurted out that she had wanted to be a teacher when she was young. Ji-Young immediately laughed because she thought that the idea itself was absurd as mothers can only be mothers (p. 26).

Her mother brushed off the blatant childish mockery aside and continued talking about how she could not be a teacher because she could not go to school, instead she and her sister had to work to pay for her brother’s education fees. Ji-Young innocently asked her mother about why she does not just train to be a teacher now, to which her mother answered that she cannot be a teacher now either because she has to work to pay for her children’s education.

Jiyoung felt she was a rock, small but heavy and unyielding, holding down her mother’s long skirt train. This made her sad. Her mother saw this and warmly swept back her daughter’s unkempt hair (p. 27).

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Her mother’s answer made little Ji-Young sad, like she was a rock that weighs her mother down, showing her empathetic nature. This little snippet shows that Kim Ji-

Young as a little girl was innocent, she was still blissfully unaware of the discriminations against women that are imposed upon women in her surroundings.

As a schoolgirl, Kim Ji-Young was quiet, acted somewhat cowardly, and cried quite often. However, she was also logical and determined. These characteristics are shown in the part of the story when Ji-Young was harassed by her classmate that happened to be a boy.

Her first obstacle in school life was the ‘pranks of the boy desk-mate’ that many schoolgirls experienced. To Jiyoung, it felt more like harassment or violence than pranks, and there was nothing she could do about it besides run crying to Mother and Eunyoung (p. 28). This particular boy had started to hit her, pretending to knock her shoulder or arm by accident. He also began to borrow her stationeries and never gave it back. When she confronted her about the whereabouts of her belongings, the boy got her in trouble instead for arguing with him. After she resolved never to lend him her stationeries, the boy started to make fun of her dressing style and her speech while often hiding her school bag and shoes. Ji-Young never even once dared to report her desk-mate’s behaviour to her teacher and when she got into trouble because of the boy, her other friend had to speak out for her which proves her coward nature.

While Ji-Young felt that the boy’s action was harassment, her mother and teacher thought otherwise. Her mother had said that the boy merely wanted to play with Ji-

Young, she even chided Ji-Young when she cried and complained about the boy’s behaviour (p. 28). Her teacher mentioned that the boy might be interested in Ji-

Young and that was why he had continuously annoyed Ji-Young. She even went as

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far as suggesting that Ji-Young should tolerate his behaviour and be friendlier to him instead of changing seats immediately (p. 31). Her teacher’s opinion made little

Ji-Young confused as she could not understand how being mean to someone can be interpreted as a sign of attraction.

He likes me? He picks on me because he likes me? Jiyoung was confused. She went over the series of incidents that she had suffered because of him, and still couldn’t make sense of what the teacher was saying. If you like someone, you’re friendlier and nicer to them. To friends, to family, to your pet dogs and cats. Even at the age of eight, this was common sense to Jiyoung. The desk-mate’s pranks made school life so difficult for her. What he’d put her through was awful enough, and now the teacher was making her out to be a bad child who misunderstood her friend. Jiyoung shook her head. ‘No, miss. I really, really don’t want to.’ (pp. 31- 32) Her reaction to the situation shows Little Ji-Young’s characteristics that are logical and filled with childish innocence, as per Murphy’s theory of character. She found the reason why the boy was being mean to her was because he liked her to be outrageous. She was quiet and acts rather cowardly because she never blatantly confronted her desk-mate or reported him to her teacher. However, she was determined to stand her ground to change seats and did not immediately eat up her mother or her teacher’s suggestion to be friends with the boy because she felt that the boy had made her suffer.

At school, Ji-Young was the unassertive type as she never voiced out her opinion or concerns. When her group of girlfriends was conversing about their difficulty as slow eaters who never got enough time to eat properly when they were forced to eat quickly during lunch because their lunch time was put in order of birthdays with boys first before girls, Ji-Young felt that the situation was unfair, but

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she could not point out exactly where things are unfair nor she voiced out her concerns.

Jiyoung felt the same way. What the teacher was doing was wrong. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was wrong about it, but she knew that something was unjust and frustrating. But Jiyoung had a hard time voicing her complaints because she wasn’t used to expressing her thoughts. She was just nodding at her friend’s protestations when Yuna, who’d been quiet until then, spoke up: ‘It’s unfair.’ (p. 34) When her friends finally complained to their teacher about the order of lunchtime and their agreed to change the order, Ji-Young, who was still located in the middle of the order and was not quite impacted by the change, preserved to get out of the slow-eater group and her determined characteristic showed up again when she finally succeed to get out of the group.

When Kim Ji-Young was in her adolescence, she was still very much the quiet and unassertive type. Murphy mentions that a character's characteristics can be seen from his/her reaction to a certain situation. Ji-Young’s cowardly characteristics can be seen from her reaction to a near-sexual harassment that was going to happen to her. When a male classmate stalked her home, she could not tell him off. Instead, a woman on the bus had to step in and prevented the harassment before it actually occurred. When her father chided her for wearing inappropriate clothing and going to a too-far school when she was taught to dress and behave conservatively, she did not once deny her father’s accusations because she had thought that it was her fault. However, she is the type to bury everything inside and that incident traumatized her. She quitted school, she stopped smiling and being nice to strangers because that the male classmate mentioned that he thought Ji-

Young was flirting with him because she smiled at him, she became afraid of men

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in general. The trauma even went so far as her jumping around in fear when she accidentally bumped into her brother in the stairwell.

Jiyoung quit the cram school. For a long time, she couldn’t go near a bus stop after dark. SHe stopped smiling at people, and did not make eye contact with strangers. She was afraid of all men, and she screamed sometimes when she ran into her younger brother in the stairwell. But she kept thinking about what the woman said. Not my fault. There’s far more great guys out there. If the woman hadn’t said that to her, Kiyoung would have lived in fear for even longer. (pp. 56-57) Her only consolation to her is the woman from the bus’s reassurance that the incident was not her fault and that there were a lot of men that behave better than the classmate. This shows that Ji-Young is the type of person that needs constant reassurance and consolation.

When South Korea underwent an economic crisis in 1997, Ji-Young’s family was also impacted by the uncertain economic condition. Her father, a low- level civil servant, was laid off and her sister, Eun-Young had to leave for college.

Ji-Young’s mother had suggested Eun-Young to train as a teacher instead of pursuing her dream of becoming a television producer because of the limited amount of money that their family possessed. The day Eun-Young moved to her dorm in the teacher training school, her mother felt guilty for even suggesting her eldest daughter to be a teacher just because she thought that being a teacher is a secure job for a working mom. Ji-Young being a sensitive soul sensed her mother’s guilt and reassured her that Eun-Young was not feeling forced into applying to a teacher training school (p. 62). Immediately after her mother stopped crying and left her room, the author writes that Ji-Young was elated to even have her own room. Her thoughts and reactions to Eun-Young leaving for university and

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conversation with her mother shows that Ji-Young was actually sensitive to her surroundings, but at the same time, she behaved like a common teenager that is still a little bit selfish. She was sad to see her older sister go, but she was also happy to have a room for herself at home.

Murphy theorizes that a character’s characteristics can be seen from the character’s thought as described by the author. Kim Ji-Young has the characteristics as being passive and unassertive as mentioned in the previous analysis. This characteristic is still carried well into her early adulthood. As a student about to graduate, Ji-Young applied to several marketing companies in hope to obtain a position as a marketer. After applying in more than forty different companies, Ji-

Young finally got a call for an interview. She practiced late into the night and prepped the best she could. She could not fall asleep because of the nerves and ended up waking up tired. She fell asleep on the bus, missed her stop, and had to hail a taxi. The taxi driver asked if she was going in for an interview, to which she answered with a short ‘yes’. The taxi driver then talked about how he never took women as his first customer of the day and he was being generous by doing so now.

Giving me a ride? Jiyoung thought for a moment whether he meant she was getting a ride for free, then figured out what he meant. Am I supposed to thank the on-duty driver for graciously letting me pay him for his service? Jiyoung didn’t know where to even begin, nor did she want to start an argument that would go nowhere, so she leaned back and closed her eyes. (p. 88) Ji-Young understood that the man’s sentence was ridiculous because what was there to be grateful for if she was still paying for the ride? However, her being passive and her tendency to avoid conflict prevented her from speaking up about her concerns.

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After she got married, Kim Ji-Young was still very much the logical, sensitive, and emotional person that she was. She got angry at her husband when he did not defend her in front of his relatives when she got criticized for not getting pregnant after a year of marriage. They accused her of having health problems when in reality it was the couple’s decision not to have children straight away. Her husband, Dae-Hyun, argued that he did not defend her because he did not want to offend the elders, but Ji-Young could not understand his logic and explanation. He even mentioned that she was overreacting and calmly suggested that they should just have children to get the elders off their backs. Ji-Young was saddened by his utterance and exploded at her husband for suggesting an outrageous idea as if having children is similar to choosing what food to buy. Deciding to have a child was not an easy thing to do, which proved Ji-Young to be logical, always thinking of the consequences of her actions first before she proceeds to do so. When Ji-

Young mentioned that she feels like she will sacrifice a lot of her while her husband would not have a drastic change in his life when he has a child, her husband merely said that he will have the important job as the family’s financial support. Dae-

Hyun’s statement made her emotional and sad (pp. 121-124).

Ji-Young’s tendency to overthink is shown by the author’s narration when

Ji-Young was weighing her options to work as a part-timer in an ice cream shop.

She thought that the job would not escalate to a career, but on the other hand, the extra income would be very helpful to the couple. By the time she made a decision, the position was already filled by someone else (pp. 148-152). The other evidence can be taken from the scene where Ji-Young was having coffee with her daughter,

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Ji-Won, and she accidentally overheard people gossiping about how she is just a mom-roach, the kind of woman who stays at home and ‘steals’ from their husbands.

Even though Ji-Young knew that she is not at all what they described her as and she mentioned it herself that she deserved to drink a 1500 Won cup of coffee after working hard at home and pushed out a human out of her, she could not help but feel offended and saddened because of the gossipers. She could not focus all day and ended up messing her house chores all day. From that day forward, the author mentions that Kim Ji-Young often turned into someone else. Dead and alive, all women that Ji-Young knew.

2. Kim Ji-Young When She Experience Change in Personalities

The previous discussion has described the characters of Kim Ji-Young as a child and teenager was quite timid, unassertive, and not the type to speak out her mind, but empathetic and innocent. She had always been quite emotional but logical and she carried that trait well into adulthood and marriage life. Her husband described her as a cheerful person that cracked joke often and had made him laugh.

However, a while after she got married, she had developed several personalities that are very different from her usual self. Those personalities resemble more of the other women around her, both dead and alive.

The discussion into Ji-Young’s behaviour as others is separated into three different points. The first one being her mother, the one she most often embodied.

The second will be Cha Seung-Yeon, her college friend. Lastly, the writer will include a brief description on her other different characteristics shifts that were not mentioned to be specifically belong to other characters in the novel.

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a. Kim Ji-Young as Her Mother

In the novel, there were two specified parts in which Ji-Young acted exactly like her mother. The first time she changed into her mother was when Ji-Young was at home with Dae-Hyun.

Jiyoung’s abnormal behaviour was first detected on 8 September. Daehyun remembers the exact date because it was the morning of baengno (‘white dew’), the first night of autumn when the temperature drops below dew point. Daehyun was having toast and milk for breakfast when Jiyoung suddenly went to the veranda and opened the window. It was quite sunny out, but the cold air rushed in as soon as the window was opened and reached the kitchen table where Daehyun was sitting (p. 2).

They were having breakfast when Ji-Young suddenly talked like her mother. She called her husband ‘Jung seoba-ahng’ (‘son in-law’), used elongated syllables like her mother usually speaks, and even imitated her mother’s signature right-eye wink.

Jiyoung returned to the table with her shoulders hunched and, as she sat down, said, ‘I knew there was a little nip in the air these past few mornings, and today’s baengno! White morning dew on fields of gooold, on baengo when the nights grow cooold.’ Daehyun laughed at his wife, who was talking like a much older woman. ‘What’s up with you? You sound like your mum.’ ‘Take a light jacket with you, Jung seoba-ahng. There’s a chill in the mornings and evenings.’ Even then, he thought she was just joking around. Her imitation of her mother was flawless, down to her signature right-eye wink when she was asking for a favour, and the elongated last syllable of ‘Jung seobang’ (p. 2).

Dae-Hyun was worried because her behaviour had seemed to be so out of character.

Throughout the novel, there was no mention of Kim Ji-Young as an overly caring or motherly person, but through the speech uttered by her in the short excerpt above clearly showed that Ji-Young was behaving abnormally. She had spoken like a much older woman according to the author’s direct comment. However, Dae-Hyun her husband had brushed off the incident, thinking of it as Ji-Young’s attempt in

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pranking him because he had been used to the usual Ji-Young who’s a generally cheerful person and always full of jokes that had made Dae-Hyun laughed. He had thought nothing better off it and came back home later that night to find Ji-Young fast asleep alongside their daughter and both were sucking their thumbs.

The second behavioural change happened during Chuseok, Korean harvest festival, when Ji-Young, Dae-Hyun, and their daughter, Ji-Won, were driving down to Busan from Seoul. They were visiting Dae-Hyun’s parents for the festivity. The drive itself took around five hours and Dae-Hyun had driven the whole way down while Ji-Young took care of their fussy child. Upon their arrival, they had lunch with Dae-Hyun parents and afterwards, Dae-Hyun had retreated to take a nap while

Ji-Young did the dishes, took a coffee break, and accompanied her mother in-law to shop for Chuseok food. Ji-Young had helped her mother in-law for the whole afternoon and evening to cook and clean dishes. The next day, Ji-Young had prepared breakfast and lunch when her sister in-law, Su-Hyun, arrived in her in- law’s house. Su-Hyun had asked if her mother had made all of the elaborate traditional dishes at home and when she answer that indeed she did, Su-Hyun chided her for being too hard on herself and made life difficult for Ji-Young too.

‘Mum, did you make this at home?’ ‘Of course I did.’ ‘Mum, how many times do I have to tell you? Don’t make food at home! I was going to mention this before, but don’t make ox-bone broth, either. Buy the pancakes at the market, and get the rice cakes from the shop. Why do you make so much food when we don’t even hold ancestral rites here? You’re too old for his, and it’s hard on Jiyoung.’ (p. 9).

Su-Hyun had handled the ancestral rites in her own in-law’s place, so she knew how much labour needed in preparing all the dishes. Moreover, their family did not even

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hold the ancestral rites at their home, so it was not even necessary for Ji-Young’s mother in-law to cook all of the elaborate dishes and made Ji-Young worked hard on it too. Ji-Young’s mother in-law’s immediate reaction was to put Ji-Young on the spot by asking if the work were really too much for her. Ji-Young’s response was something that’s so out of her usual character who rarely speaks out her mind.

At this, Jiyoung’s expression softened, her cheeks flushed into a gentle pink, and a warm smile emerged in her eyes. Daehyun was nervous. Jiyoung responded before he could change the subject or get her out of there. ‘Oh, Mrs Jung. To tell you the truth, my poor Jiyoung gets sick from exhaustion ever holiday!’ (p. 9).

The usage of ‘Mrs Jung’ alone had shown that Ji-Young was not behaving as herself. If she were to follow Korean tradition, Ji-Young would have called Dae-

Hyun’s mother as eommonim (‘mother’) and in the excerpt above Ji-Young did not do so. Furthermore, the usage of ‘my poor Jiyoung’ had clearly shown that the point of view of the speaker was not Ji-Young herself because she had referred to herself as a third-person (possessive pronoun ‘my poor Jiyoung’) instead of using a first- person pronoun such as ‘I.’

The incident showed that Ji-Young was behaving like her own mother when she answered in a way that’s exactly like her mother.

‘Jung seoba-ahng! You’re to blame, too! You spend all your holidays in Busan and drop by our place just for a quick bite. This year, try to come earlier,’ she said, winking her right eye (p. 10).

Again, Ji-Young had called her own husband as Jung seoba-ahng which was highly unusual because only her parents would be able to call him that. It is clear that through her speech, she spoke just like how her mother would. Her habit was also an exact imitation of her mother because she had winked her right eye again. Right

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eye wink was Ji-Young’s mother signature when she was trying to gain a favour as mentioned in the previous discussion. So, not only her speech changed, her habits were too. She was not only pretending to be her mother because she was not even aware of the gravity of the situation.

The real Ji-Young who were not the type to speak her mind was openly arguing with her father in-law, which was also something that was so out of character. It was clear that Ji-Young had behaved like her mother when she scolded her father in-law.

‘Mr Jung, with all due respect, I must say my piece,’ Jiyoung said in a cool tone, pushing Daehyun aside. ‘As you know, the holidays are a time for families to gather. But they’re not just for your family. They’re for my family, too. Everyone’s so busy nowadays and it’s been hard for my children to get together, too, if not for the holidays. You should at least let our daughter come home when your daughter comes to visit you.’ (pp. 10- 11)

Once again, Ji-Young in the short speech above had called her father in-law as ‘Mr

Jung’ instead of abeonnim (‘father’) which was unusual when she had already married to his son. She had also talked about ‘my children’ which would be weird if Ji-Young’s children could not get together if not for the holiday when Ji-Young had only had one one-year old daughter who was very much not busy. When Ji-

Young referred to herself as ‘our daughter’ in the speech, it was clear that she had talked as her mother and not herself.

Throughout this sudden change in habit, behaviour, and speech, Ji-Young had truly acted like her mother. In the previous discussion of Kim Ji-Young as herself, the writer had discovered through her speech, past life, direct comments, and many other aspects that she was quiet, unassertive, and rather was the type to

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keep her opinion to herself. However, in this discussion, she was rather more caring and outspoken in her speech and action, showing that she behaved unlike her usual self. In this part of the discussion, she had behaved like her mother. The most evident difference was when Ji-Young would call her husband as Jung seoba-ahng and her in-laws as Mr and Mrs Jung. Her different pronoun when she used ‘my’ and

‘our’ when she referred to herself was also something that was quite questionable if she had really been behaving as herself. b. Kim Ji-Young as Cha Seung-Yeon

The other characters that was specifically mentioned to be imitated by Kim

Ji-Young was Cha Seung-Yeon, Ji-Young’s friend during college who died a year before. Ji-Young had abruptly become Cha Seung-Yeon a few days after the first incident during the day of the first dew (p. 3). Seung-Yeon was Ji-Young’s senior, three years older than her and was in the same year as Dae-Hyun. The three of them were all part of the university hiking club. Seung-Yeon was described through the author’s direct comment as a caring person.

Seungyeon had always been good to her fellow female club members, on top of which she and Jiyoung had something in common: they didn’t actually enjoy hiking. They became friends and kept in touch and met up frequently even after Seungyeon graduated (p. 4).

The short excerpt above had shown that Ji-Young and Seung-Yeon had been good friends with each other. Seung-Yeon’s wedding reception was also the place where

Ji-Young and Dae-Hyun met each other despite of them attending the same university. Ji-Young and Seung-Yeon were such good friends that the news of

Seung-Yeon’s death because of childbirth hit Ji-Young hard.

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Ji-Young and Dae-Hyun had been drinking together late at night and the sudden change in behaviour happened after Ji-Young almost finished a can of beer.

When Jiyoung had almost finished a can of beer, she tapper her husband on the shoulder an abruptly said, ‘Hey, Jiyoung is having a hard time. Raising a toddler is emotionally draining. You should tell her ever chance you get: You’re doing great! You’re working so hard! I appreciate you!’ ‘Are you astral-projecting, hon? Fine, fine. Yes, you’re doing great, Kim Jiyoung. I know that you’re going through a tough time. I appreciate you and I love you.’ Daehyun lovingly pinched her cheek, but she swatter his hand away, irritated. ‘You still see me as the lovestruck twenty-year-old Cha Seungyeon? Who shook like a leaf in the middle of summer confessing her feelings?’ (pp. 4- 5)

As discussed previously, Seung-Yeon was the caring type. She “swept Ji-Young under her wings” when they were in the hiking club (p. 55). She was also braver and more outspoken. When the male members of the hiking club were treating the women as if they were “flowers among weeds” (p. 55), Seung-Yeon had said that

“girls don’t need special treatment – they just want the same responsibilities and opportunities.” (p. 55). When the male members argued that the girls had “brighten up the club with their mere existence”, Seung-Yeon had said, “I’m not here to support you, if the club needs brightening up, get a lamp.” (p. 55). The continuous outspoken behaviour was so similar to Seung-Yeon and thus, Ji-Young being outspoken to her husband was more like Seung-Yeon’s characteristics rather than her usual withdrawn self. Ji-Young also refer to herself as she was talking about someone else in the speech “Hey, Jiyoung is having a hard time.” The undeniable evidence that Ji-Young had indeed behaved like Seung-Yeon when she had said

‘You still see me as the lovestruck twenty-year-old Cha Seungyeon? Who shook like a leaf in the middle of summer confessing her feelings?’ which explicitly

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mentioned that she had been Cha Seung-Yeon with the usage of ‘me’ and ‘Cha

Seung-Yeon’ when Ji-Young referred to herself. Dae-Hyun, her husband, had tried to shake Kim Ji-Young back into reality by calling her name three times, but instead of answering as herself, Ji-Young had uttered “Hah dude, stop calling me by her name. I get it, I know – you’re a model husband!” (p. 6). Ji-Young had not given the proper response when her name was called, instead she was feeling irritated as if it wasn’t her name. Furthermore, the author’s direct comment had revealed that

Seung-Yeon often said the phrase ‘hah dude’ over and over when she was drunk (p.

6). Ji-Young had once again truly become someone else. In this case, she became

Cha Seung-Yeon when she perfectly mimicked Seung-Yeon’s signature speech.

Dae-Hyun had been confused, suspicious if the whole thing was just a joke since

Ji-Young was known to be quite the joker herself, but when Ji-Young quietly fell fast asleep beside their daughter, he was convinced that it was not a joke at all. Kim

Ji-Young was not drunk either. After all, she only had one can of beer and she had woken up the next morning with no recollection of her speech and behaviour the night before. c. Kim Ji-Young as Others

Not only she had been behaving like other specified characters, there were several times when she behaved as other unspecified characters.

Her odd behaviour continued sporadically. She’d send him a text message riddled with cute emoticons she never normally used, or make dishes like ox-bone soup or glass noodles that she neither enjoyed nor was good at. Jiyoung was starting to feel like a stranger to Daehyun. After all this time – the stories they shared, as countless as raindrops, the caresses as soft and gentle as snowflakes, and the beautiful daughter who took after them both – his wife of three years, whom he married after two years of passionate romance, felt like someone else (pp. 6-7).

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The sudden change in character was the most palpable to Dae-Hyun, Ji-Young’s husband. Ji-Young had started to use emoticons that she never used and cook dishes that she did not enjoy nor like, which was not Ji-Young’s usual characteristics who were always a bit hesitant to change things up. Not only that, much later in the story,

Ji-Young had confided in Dae-Hyun after people called her mum-roach and Dae-

Hyun had soothed her. However, after that she really did change into someone else from time to time.

Jiyoung became different people from time to time. Some of them were living, others were dead, all of them women she knew. No matter how you look at it, it wasn’t a joke or a prank. Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person. (p. 155).

It was not like she was having different personalities, but she truly did imitate the other characters’ behaviour, speech, and habits. She really became the exact copy of those other characters’ and having no recollection of her ever behaving differently afterwards.

B. Gender Discriminations Against Women Experienced by Kim Ji-Young

Living in as a woman in South Korean society is not a pleasant experience for many women. In a society where women are treated as subordinate and expected to be obedient, loyal, and respectful to the dominant (Hyun, 2001), women face various types of discriminations. This discussion looks into the different type of discriminations based on gender faced by the main character, Kim Ji-Young, using the gender sphere theory formulated by Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan namely discriminations in the private sphere and in the public sphere.

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1. Discriminations in the Private Sphere

Private sphere is the domain where women are designated to be in charge

(Pilcher & Whelehan, 2004). The private sphere as in Pilcher & Whelehan’s theory mentions that women’s primary responsibility is caring for the household affairs such as cleaning, cooking, and taking care of the children (2004, p. 31). As women’s sphere is in the private sphere, women’s domain is often truly limited to the household (2004, p. 95). Kim Ji-Young as South Korean woman was not exempted from being subjected into confinement in this sphere. She was expected to be a dutiful daughter and an obedient wife. a. Kim Ji-Young as a Daughter

Kim Ji-Young is a middle child among an older sister and a younger brother.

Her sister is 2 years older and her brother is five years younger. Her family was not rich, but they were not exactly poor either. Her father worked as a civil servant and her mother was a housewife. Her family lived with her father’s mother in a 35- square-metre house with two bedrooms, one dining and living room, and one bathroom (p.13).

When she was a child, Ji-Young had liked her younger brother’s formula so much. She would scrap the bits that spilled on the floor and taste it. Sometimes, her mother would give her a spoonful of the powder that left a very satisfying nutty taste in her mouth. In fact, her earliest childhood memory is about her grandmother smacking her head so hard that powdered formula went flying through her mouth and nose. Her grandmother, Koh Boon-Soon, detested the very idea of Ji-Young and her older sister, Eun-Young, eating their younger brother’s formula. Ji-Young’s

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observation had led her to conclude that it was not because both of them were too old to be eating formula, but rather because she did not want anyone to take something from her grandson.

Their grandmother wasn’t scolding them just because they were too old for formula or because she was worried there wouldn’t be enough formula for the baby. The combination of her tone, expression, angle of head tilt, position of shoulders and her breathing send them a message that was hard to summarise in one sentence, but if Jiyoung tried anyway, it went something like this: How dare you try to take something that belongs to my precious grandson! Her grandson and his things were valuable and to be cherished; she wasn’t going to let just anybody touch them, and Jiyoung ranked below this ‘anybody.’ Eunyoung probably had the same impression. (pp. 14-15).

In their household, if they have to share anything, it goes in the order of father, brother, grandmother, and the rest. The order goes for the fresh rice, perfect pieces of tofu, matched school set, and many others. Ji-Young and Eun-Young had to make do with whatever school necessities that were given to them while their brother had a matching set. The girls also had to share umbrella, blanket, treat, and many others if there was only one available while their brother would get one of his own. Ji-

Young had always known that it was unfair for her and her sister, but she rationalized it by telling herself that she was only being a generous older sister and it would make more sense for her to share with her sister since they were both girls

(p. 15).

As a woman, Ji-Young is expected to bear children later on when she got married. However, when she was a having her first period, it was not celebrated nor seen as something that was worth congratulating. Seeing as menstruation is a vital factor if a woman is expected to be carrying children, the notion that patriarchal society dictates about period being taboo and gross is questionable.

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One of her friends got a bouquet of flowers from her father when she started her periods, another had a family party complete with cake. But to most girls it was a secret shared only among mothers and daughters. An irritating, painful, somehow shameful secret. It was no different in Jiyoung’s family. The mother avoided referring to it directly, as if something that should not be said out loud had happened, as she offered her ramen soup. (p. 49).

In Ji-Young’s household, period is seen as something shameful. When Ji-Young leaked blood through her clothes at home, her mother would jab her as if she had done something terrible and signal her to quickly change (p. 50). Period also brings many discomforts to Ji-Young. Her body aches everywhere and she could not take painkillers that was advertised for headaches, toothaches, and menstrual cramps because the pill made her dizzy and nauseous. When she questioned Eun-Young about why pharmaceutical company did not just create a pill that would cure menstrual cramps when half of the population in the world goes through the same pain every month, Eun-Young had answered with “The world wants our uterus to be drug-free. Like sacred grounds in a virgin forest.” (p. 51). Ji-Young could only laugh in the midst of her menstrual pain. The exchange between Ji-Young and Eun-

Young proves that their society still discriminates women, even for their biological reaction that they could not prevent nor put an end to by themselves. Period is seen as something taboo and shameful, including in Ji-Young’s household, while Ji-

Young and many other women is still expected to be child bearer. Their society sees woman as a tool in which children are created from but they refuse to pay attention to the factors that helps the creation of said children.

Living in a conservative family means that Ji-Young is subjected into a conservative way of thinking, especially from her father. Ji-Young took a class in a cram school thirty minutes away from her house. One day, the cram school ended

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up later than it usually would and Ji-Young had to take a bus to get home. A male student started talking to her, inquiring if she had wanted him to escort her home.

She had replied that it was not necessary for him to do so and that she could get back home just fine by herself. She even got into the bus at the last minute to avoid the male student following her but the male student managed to hop into the bus after her. Ji-Young was scared out of her mind when she caught the male student trained his eyes on her the entire bus ride. A woman asked if she was okay and Ji-

Young ended up texting his father to pick her up from the bus station using the woman’s phone. When she got off, the male student did too. He cornered her and started to spewing accusations that Ji-Young was being unfair. He mentioned that

Ji-Young had always sit in front of him in class, smiled at him when she passed him handouts, said ‘hi’ and ‘goodbye,’ but now that he decided to talk to her, Ji-Young treated him as if he was a predator. Ji-Young had not even remembered who sat behind her in class. Before the male student could physically harass her, the woman from the bus earlier suddenly appeared and helped Ji-Young under the pretence of

Ji-Young leaving her scarf in the bus. The male student had cursed and ran off at the sight of the older woman (pp. 51-55). When Ji-Young’s father arrived at the bus stop, Ji-Young had told him everything, including the part that she did not even know the boy. Later on, that night, instead of consoling his daughter who almost run into a sexual assaulter, Ji-Young’s father gave her an earful instead.

But that night, Jiyoung got an earful from her father. ‘Why is your cram school so far away? Why do you talk to strangers? Why is your skirt so short?’ Jiyoung grew up being told to be cautious, to dress conservatively, to be ‘ladylike.’ That it’s your job to avoid dangerous places, times of day and people. It’s your fault for not noticing and not avoiding. (p. 56).

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Ji-Young was told that she took a cram school that was too far away when it was only thirty minutes away by bus. She was not talking to strangers when she was talking to her classmates. Her skirt should not be the reason that she had almost got assaulted by a person that attended the same class as her on the daily. It is a form of discrimination that only women were told to pay attention to their clothing, behaviours, and surrounding. There was zero mention in the book where men were told to do the same. The discriminating treatment made women’s position as the one at fault when they got assaulted by the more dominant gender. b. Kim Ji-Young as a Wife

After Ji-Young got married to Dae-Hyun, she was already put under scrutiny. Her mother-in-law had thought that Ji-Young remembered that she does not drink coffee, instead Ji-Young had bought herbal tea for her when she was coming down with a flu after they got off a call. It stressed Ji-Young out that her meaningless action could be interpreted in so many ways. It was not because Ji-

Young remembered, the herbal tea was the store clerk’s recommendation within Ji-

Young’s price range that she mentioned to the clerk. Dae-Hyun had not been subjected into so much stress over having to please his in-laws like Ji-Young had.

Furthermore, Ji-Young’s mother had joked that Ji-Young had not been able to keep a house clean and proper because she studied all the time and had no time to help around the house/ Ji-Young’s mother even jokingly blamed herself that it was her fault for not being able to left a house chore unattended. Ji-Young’s mother-in-law agreed with her mother that their daughters are not good in keeping the house in order. In the joke, Ji-Young had been expected to be able to take care of the

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household matters right after she got married, but she was being undermined at the same time about the fact that she could not really take care of the house before she got married. Ji-Young’s mother-in-law had concluded that she would do a good job, not even once considering that Dae-Hyun needed to be good in keeping the house in order as well (p.115). Both Ji-Young and Dae-Hyun knew that Dae-Hyun was better in taking care of house chores because he had been living by himself for years while Ji-Young had only lived under her parents’ roof.

After a year of being married, Ji-Young and Dae-Hyun had been pestered by both sides of family because Ji-Young was not pregnant. It was not because Ji-

Young or Dae-Hyun had been infertile. The decision of not having children just yet was because they had decided to hold off on having children right after marriage.

However, on Dae-Hyun’s father’s birthday celebration, the couple was cornered relentlessly by families and relatives for not having children, especially Ji-Young.

As they made, ate and cleared lunch, the topic of the conversation among the family elders was whether Jiyoung had ‘good news’, why not, and what they were doing to get pregnant. Jiyoung said they weren’t planning on having children yet, but the elders were convinced, regardless of Jiyoung’s input, that she couldn’t get pregnant, and proceed to investigate. She’s too old… She’s too skinny… Her hands are cold… She must have bad circulations… The zit on her chin is a sign of an unhealthy uterus… They concluded the problem was her. (p. 120).

Ji-Young was uncomfortable being the centre of attention, especially when the elders were talking about her like she had huge physical illness. Moreover, Ji-

Young was also hurt because Dae-Hyun had not stepped in to help her when the elders began to cross the line. Dae-Hyun had said that he did not want to ‘ruffle feathers and blow the problem out of proportions by taking her side’ (p. 120) which only angered Ji-Young more. Dae-Hyun proposed the idea that the couple could

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just have a child to get the elders off their backs. He had said it casually, just like how he would suggest something trivial. When Ji-Young inquired about who would take care of the child, Dae-Hyun had said that he would help out around the house.

Ji-Young felt that it was unfair for her because she was pressured to get pregnant, gave up her job and dreams, underwent drastic physical change, and still expected to take care of her child all the time while her husband could just ‘help out’ as if it was not also his responsibility to take care of the child and household (p. 131). Even the children would take Dae-Hyun surname because of the hoju system in South

Korea. If a child is sporting their mother surnames, society would see them as if they are child that were born out of ‘accidents’ and there will be a lot of questions regarding the child’s parental situation (pp. 118-119). Ji-Young would have to endure a lot of hardships and might have to lose her freedom in the process just to have the child be named after her husband to appease the society.

Shortly before she gave birth, Ji-Young had quit her job to become a housewife. The decision was taken because between Ji-Young and Dae-Hyun, Dae-

Hyun had much bigger salary, even if their position in their respective company is similar. It would not make sense for Dae-Hyun to quit, so Ji-Young did (p. 130). Ji-

Young stayed at home all the time, rotating between doing laundry, preparing food, cleaning the house, and taking care of their daughter. She was basically always exhausted and overworked. On top of that, her wrists were hurting so bad that she could not move them at all. She left Ji-Won, their daughter, at home with Dae-Hyun and went to a nearby orthopaedist clinic. Her wrists were inflamed and when she mentioned that she just recently gave birth, the doctor just nodded as if saying ‘that

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explains it’ (p. 136). The doctor could not prescribe a strong dose for her because she was breastfeeding and she did not really have time to come for a therapy with a mountain of house chores waiting at home. The doctor had merely said that she just needed to rest her wrist because there was no other alternative to heal it. Ji-

Young had said that she could not do that either because she had to take care of the baby, handle laundry, make food, and myriads of other chores, the doctor mocked her saying ‘Back in the day, women used clubs to do the laundry, lit fires to boil baby clothes, and crawled around to do the sweeping and mopping. Don’t you have a washing machine for laundry and vacuum cleaner for cleaning? Women these days – what have you got to whine about?’ (p. 136). Ji-Young had suspected that the male doctor had never operated a washing machine or vacuum cleaner ever in his life as he did not know that the clothes still need to be loaded inside the machine and hung on the clothesline to dry and the vacuum cleaner certainly does not roll around cleaning by itself. Both tools need human to operate it and both need movement of the wrist, something that Ji-Young suffered from but was not allowed to complain because she had it better than women before her. Even after she went through something as life-changing as giving birth, Ji-Young’s domestic labour were undermined and seen as something unimportant.

Ji-Young’s work as domestic labourer when taking care of the household chores and caring for a child was clearly undermined by the society in general. Ji-

Young had sat on a park bench, calmly sipping on her Americano and enjoying the nice weather after she had picked Ji-Won up from day-care. Ji-Young had looked around and spotted several people that might be her age. Ji-Young had felt envious

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because they looked exhausted and frustrated from working. Ji-Young could not help but overheard their conversation, ‘I wish I could live off my husband’s paycheque… bum around and get coffee… mum-roaches got it real cushy… no way

I’m marrying a Korean woman…’ (p. 153). Ji-Young rushed out of the park, feeling baffled after being referred to as a mum-roach. Ji-Young was not bumming around at home. She had been working hard to maintain her house and caring for Ji-Won.

She rarely went out and the one time she decided to have a time for herself while her daughter was asleep in front of her and went out to a park and bought a 1500

Won coffee, society jumped at her and accusing her of leeching off Dae-Hyun’s salary. It was not because Ji-Young had not wanted to work and earn her money by herself. She was forced to act her part as a good wife and a good mother. Instead of praising her for her hard work, society had reduced her existence to mere ‘vermin’ in the society (p. 154).

2. Discriminations in the Public Sphere

Pilcher & Whelehan describes public sphere as an area in which men are expected to be in charge. In this area, women’s participation is deemed as secondary

(pp. 125-126). In public sphere, men are expected to be in power, such as holding high position in their respective career so they can fulfil their role as the breadwinner for their family. Women’s role in society is as caregiver and child bearer, therefore their role in public sphere as career women is not at all supported by the patriarchal society who has different expectation regarding women’s roles.

This discrimination against women in the public sphere happens not only in a workplace, but other public area such as a school.

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When Kim Ji-Young was attending school and university, she had been objected into several discriminations. Starting from when she was only a little girl in elementary school, the teacher already discriminates boys and girls during lunch.

In Ji-Young’s school, students were listed based on birthdays for lunch time. Boys were number one to twenty-seven, girls were listed from number twenty-eight to forty-five. Ji-Young, being born in April, got listed on number thirty, right in the middle of the list. This list was used to determine who got to eat first during lunchtime. Ji-Young and other girls who were included as slow-eaters were struggling to finish their lunch before the lunchtime is over. They could only eat lunch after the lower-numbered boys were finished with their lunch, so they always ate in a rush. One of the girls, Yu-Na, bravely protested their teacher for the unfair arrangement. She suggested that they change the order periodically and the teacher agreed to reverse the order every month. However, the change did not really matter to the slow-eaters, they were still forced to eat quickly so that the rest of the boys could quickly eat.

A small sense of accomplishment was the reward. They had stood up to a figure of absolute authority and rectified an unfair arrangement. This was a valuable experience for Yuna, Jiyoung, and the high-number girls. They developed a bit of a critical eye and confidence, but even then they didn’t see why boys came first on the roster. Number one on the roster was a boy, everything began with the boys, and that felt like the right, natural thing. Boys lined up first, boys led every procession no matter where they were headed, boys gave their presentations first, and boys had their homework checked first while the girls quietly waited their turn, bored, sometimes relieved that they weren’t going first, but never thinking this was a strange practice. Just as we never question why men’s national registry numbers begin with a ‘1’ and women’s begin with a ‘2’. (p. 36) In a school which categorized as a public sphere, women were already treated differently since they were little girls. In a world where women are often

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stereotyped as weak and slow, it does not make sense to make girls eat quicker than boys. However, in a sphere where men dominate and are prioritized, it does make sense that boys were put first in the list before the rest of the girls.

Ji-Young’s time at middle school was not easier than elementary school.

She went to a school that just recently became co-ed the year Ji-Young entered. At fifteen years old, Ji-Young and other female students had to face discriminations in the form of uniform’s dress code. For boys, the only code that they had to follow was that their trousers’ legs are not too loose or too tight (p. 42). Other than that, boys were generally allowed to wear anything they wanted. The situation was drastically different for the girls.

The school dress code was strict, especially for girls. According to Eunyoung, it became stricter when the school went co-ed. The skirt had to be long enough to cover the knees and roomy enough to hide the contours of the hips and thighs. As the thin, white fabric of the summer blouse was rather sheer, a round-neck undershirt was mandatory. No spaghetti straps, no T-shirts, no colours, no lace, and wearing just a bra underneath was absolutely not allowed. In the summer, girls had to wear tights with white socks, and just black tights in the winter. No sheer black rights, and no socks allowed. No sneakers, only dress shoes. Walking around in just tights and dress shoes in the middle of winter, Jiyoung’s feet got so cold that she wanted to cry. (p. 42). Boys were only given one rule to follow whereas girls were given a million different rules that were not only discriminating but also making them uncomfortable. A female student was held up at the gates because she was wearing sneakers and the teacher made her do laps of squat-walk around the school field when she protested about the discrimination. The teacher reasoned that boys were given different dress code because they are inherently more active than girls, so it had made sense to put them into clothes that they are comfortable moving with. The girl had argued that she was also active and wanted to move around freely if not for the restricting

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clothes that the school deemed as appropriate for girls. She did the squats while flashing her underwear, trying to show the teacher how uncomfortable the uniform was for her. After that incident, the dress code did not change, but teachers had begun to overlook some of minor violations. This scene clearly shows that in public sphere where men are prioritized, women’s participation is only secondary. Thus, making sure that they are comfortable and valued is definitely not a primary case.

Society has deemed that boys are more active than girls, therefore they accommodated boys’ activeness with allowing them to wear clothes that support their characteristics.

During high school Ji-Young had attended a cram school thirty-minutes away from her house. One day, the cram school had let her out later than usual and as she stood waiting for her bus, a familiar looking male classmate said hi to her.

She could not really place who he was exactly, so she politely nodded at him albeit a little awkward. She could not help but feeling that the boy actually stalked her when he hopped on the same bus as her and stared at her from his seat at the back of the bus. Ji-Young texted his father to pick her up from the bus station using a phone that she discreetly borrowed from an older woman sitting nearby. When she got off the bus, her father had yet arrived at the bus station and the boy whom she assumed to be her classmate had followed her off the bus. The boy almost assaulted her if not for the previous woman from the bus running to her, saying that Ji-Young had left her scarf on the bus when everyone could see that the scarf belonged to the woman herself. When Ji-Young’s father arrived, he had profusely thanked the woman and they waited together with the woman for the next bus to pick her up.

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But that night, Jiyoung got an earful from her father. ‘Why is your cram school so far away? Why do you talk to strangers? Why is your skirt so short?’ Jiyoung grew up being told to be cautious, to dress conservatively, to be ‘ladylike’. That it’s your job to avoid dangerous places, times of day and people. It’s your fault for not noticing and not avoiding. (p. 56). Instead of hearing consolation from her family after she almost got raped, Ji-

Young’s father had lectured her instead. He made the incident to seem like it was

Ji-Young’s fault for being too nice to strangers, for wearing skirts that was too short, or to go to a place that was too far away from home even if it were only thirty- minutes away. Whereas women were chided for wearing inappropriate clothing and behaving unladylike such as being rude towards others who disrespect her, men were not given the same rules. According to a 2010 National Intimate Partner and

Sexual Violence Survey, 90% of the assailants of sexual violence against women are men. In a sphere where men are dominating, women are always at fault. It was not Ji-Young’s fault that she almost got raped by a person that thought she was flirting with him when she was just being polite, but her father scolded her anyway for not being careful when her father should have gotten mad at her abuser.

Understandably, in a patriarchal society, rapes are commonly blamed on the victim for being too inviting rather than on the rapist for having the inability to control themselves.

South Korea ranked 115 out of 145 countries in terms of economic participation and opportunity for women (World Economic Forum). The patriarchal society in South Korea favours men rather than women when it comes to employment in the public sector. Choosing women as an employee is seen to be an unreliable decision because women will have to take maternity leave or abruptly quit when they have children while men do not need to do the same thing. Ji-Young,

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as a South Korean woman, went through the same discrimination that most women in her country went through as well. As a recent graduate, Ji-Young had set her ideal job as she applied in a food company with a certain size, however when she did not hear back from any of the forty-three companies she applied to, she began to lower her standard. She applied to every company that was hiring, not caring about the company’s industry or size. She finally got a call for an interview from a company to which she had sent the wrong cover letter into. Ji-Young prepared thoroughly for the interview. She practiced late into the night with Eun-Young, trying to calm her nerves. However, when the interview was held, the interviewer was asking question about what she would do if there is a client that harass her sexually (pp. 88-89). Ji-Young had answered that she would try to find a natural way to leave the room by making up excuses to remove herself from the situation.

The second woman who attended the interview had said that she would outright call him out for harassment and threaten to press charges if he does not stop. The last woman said that she would check her outfit and behaviour to see if there is anything that might trigger the inappropriate behaviour from the client. Ji-Young had thought that the last candidate had the highest chance to be accepted into the company while the second one was most definitely not going to be hired. Later, Ji-Young found out that none of them had made it into employment, even after they had to endure the verbal harassment by the interviewer. Luckily, Ji-Young ended up finding a job in a small marketing agency. She entered the company along with another woman and two other men. She had done a spectacular job in the company and had her team leader praised her for a job well done. Unfortunately, when it came to a promotion,

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Ji-Young, a woman, was not given the opportunity. Instead, her male colleague had been the one chosen when it was clear that Ji-Young is much more capable than he was. The head of the company had chosen the male employee because he had a longer prospect in staying in the company rather than Ji-Young who is a woman and expected to leave the company after she gives birth. It is such an unfair situation for Ji-Young because as a woman, she could never advance in the job because the company would not even consider to give her an opportunity. The head of the company thought that hiring an employee that can be loyal to the company was much more cost-effective rather than trying to accommodate the needs of his employee such as creating better hours and benefits so that women can stay on the job as well (p.111). In addition to the that, women like Ji-Young made less than men. Ji-Young had found out that the male colleagues who entered the same company as her were paid better from the very start (p. 112) and her husband, Dae-

Hyun, had made more money than her (p. 116). Dae-Hyun had been able to save more money while living alone compared to Ji-Young who lived with her parents back home. According to the World Economic Forum, South Korea has one of the largest pay gaps between genders among other OECD countries. South Korean women only make 36.6 percent less than men. When Ji-Young found out how much money Dae-Hyun had been able to save from his salary, Ji-Young had felt dejected of the situation.

In the public sphere, Ji-Young as a South Korean woman is discriminated in many things. During school, girls and boys had different dress codes. Girls had more complicated codes than boys and often had to be punished for violating the

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codes. The discrimination continues in the other public sphere which is the workplace. Ji-Young as a woman was not chosen by the head of the company to receive a promotion despite being more capable and skilled than her male colleague who were chosen. During pregnancy, she had to work the same hours as other employee even if she felt sore all over. On top of that, Ji-Young’s salary is less than her male colleagues, ignoring the fact that she works the same job and the same hours as the other men in her company.

These various gender based discriminations both in the public and private sphere are undeniably limiting Kim Ji-Young and eradicating her rights to freedom or at least from being treated equal to her male peers. Her situation of having little to no freedom to express herself prompted her to repress her feelings, especially her anger regarding the unjust society, to herself. These repressed feelings and anger developed into hwabyung later on as she continued to have limited channel to deliver her feelings.

C. Impact of Kim Ji-Young’s Characteristics and Her Experience Facing

Gender Discriminations to Her Hwabyung

Kim Ji-Young is one of many other South Korean women who suffer from depression that is caused by societal pressure. In his note, Ji-Young’s psychiatrist had said that he initially suspected that Ji-Young suffered from dissociative disorder based on Dae-Hyun’s description of Ji-Young’s symptoms. However, he changed his diagnosis to a typical postnatal depression that progressed into childcare depression based on his initial session with Ji-Young. Later on, the psychiatrist himself started to doubt his diagnosis on Ji-Young’s illness.

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Looking at the moments and scenes in Kim Jiyoung’s life that she chose to share in our sessions, I realise that I may have diagnosed her hastily. I’m not saying I was wrong, only that I’ve come to realise there is a world that I wasn’t aware of. (p. 157).

By saying that, Ji-Young’s psychiatrist indirectly was trying to say that there are parts of Ji-Young’s story and symptoms that do not fit into the criteria of dissociative disorder, postnatal depression, or childcare depression. Ji-Young was not trying to spill out all of her suffering, nor does she revisit her childhood traumas.

She was able to articulate long-buried memories by herself and describe the event calmly and logically. This part clearly fits Ji-Young’s character as a quiet and logical person who does need a little coaxing before speaking up.

Ji-Young’s psychiatrist’s failure in clearly diagnosing Ji-Young’s illness might have to do with one of her changing behaviours when she went through an episode. Before coming to the definition of hwabyung and its relation to Kim Ji-

Young’s story, the writer first needs to analyse the failure in the psychiatrist’s diagnosis.

The first wrong diagnosis that the writer analyses is dissociative disorder.

Ji-Young’s psychiatrist had initially diagnosed Ji-Young with dissociative disorder based on Dae-Hyun’s description of Ji-Young’s symptoms. Assuming that Dae-

Hyun mentioned about Ji-Young’s seemingly changing behaviours every now and then but always forget about the incident afterwards might be prompting the psychiatrist to diagnose Ji-Young with dissociative disorder. Some of Ji-Young’s symptoms really do fit with the symptoms of those with dissociative disorder.

According to American Psychiatry Association, there are three main symptoms of the disorder: the existence of two or more distinct identities that changes the

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person’s behaviour, memory, and thinking, ongoing gaps in memory about everyday events, personal information, and/or post traumatic events, and lastly, the symptoms above cause nuisance in the patient’s social, occupational, and daily life.

Ji-Young’s symptoms while similar with those of dissociative disorder, does not really fulfil all of its criteria. Ji-Young did shift into her mother and Cha Seung-

Yeon in some of the scenes in the book, however, those two personalities did not become part of Ji-Young as it would with those who actually suffer from dissociative disorder. Ji-Young’s mother and Cha Seung-Yeon’s characteristics and behaviours were not mention as being reoccurring constantly in the book.

Moreover, people with dissociative disorder had reported that they feel like they become the observer of their own action and they feel like there were changes in their bodies, which clearly Ji-Young did not experience. Dissociative disorder patients change their behaviours under a certain triggering events such as those that prompts their trauma to act up. Kim Ji-Young, on the other hand, had casually slipped into being Cha Seung-Yeon while having a drink with her husband and there was no particular trigger that might cause the shift. It is true that Kim Ji-Young never seems to remember the part when she turned into another woman, there was no mention in the novel that there were any overlapping gaps in regards to Ji-

Young’s memory. Furthermore, as Ji-Young is a housewife, thus she does not have a functioning social life, her changing personality does not seem to give much impact to her life.

The second failed diagnosis made by Ji-Young’s psychiatrist was diagnosis her with postnatal and childcare depression. In his note, Ji-Young’s psychiatrist

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changed his diagnosis from dissociative disorder into postnatal depression that progressed to childcare depression. However, he said later on that he became more and more less convicted by his own diagnosis as time went on. In the novel itself, there were not many scenes in which Ji-Young is seen interacting with her daughter aside from playing with her during the drive from Seoul to Busan on Chuseok (p. 7 and p. 11) and taking her on a walk on the park (p. 152). There was a brief mention of Ji-Young suffering from postpartum depression.

Seungyeon died giving birth to her second child due to an amniotic fluid embolism. Jiyoung was suffering from postpartum depression when she heard about Seungyeon’s death, and the shocking news on top of everything else made it hard for her to handle everyday tasks. (p.4). That goes to say that while it was mentioned that Ji-Young suffered postpartum depression a year after she gave birth to her daughter, there were no explicit mention of her actually suffers from the common symptoms of postnatal depression such as persistent feeling of sadness, trouble sleeping at night and feeling sleepy during the day, difficulty bonding with her baby, withdrawing from contact with other people, problems concentrating and making decision, or having frightening thoughts such as harming her baby (NHS UK). If any, from the three interaction that the novel supplies of Ji-Young interacting with her baby, she seems to be a caring mother and not once there was a display of situation where Ji-Young seems of feels difficulty in bonding with Ji-Won, her daughter, or has the thought to harm her. Therefore, while Ji-Young might have suffered from postnatal depression, it cannot be concluded as such based on the limited interaction that could be seen of her and her daughter in the novel.

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In the novel, the author repeatedly wrote scenes related to gender discriminations that Ji-Young faced, therefore based on the analysis of those injustices, the writer suspects that Ji-Young suffers from hwabyung. Ji-Young’s most apparent symptoms of having mental issues is where she behaved as someone else such as her own mother and Cha Seung-Yeon. This behaviour is not something that is commonly faced in the psychiatric world. After analysing Ji-Young’s psychiatrist’s statement, the writer declares that it is highly possible that Kim Ji-

Young suffers hwabyung as she exhibits one of the extreme symptom of hwabyung which is psychosis. Ji-Young’s changing behaviors cannot be explained logically using scientific term other than psychosis. Her changing behaviors are a result of her immense stress of not being able to express herself while also being oppressed and treated differently than her male peers. Moreover, it makes sense for Ji-Young, a native South Korean woman, to have cognitive stress response in handling hwabyung as opposed to Korean-American imigrants living in the United States who woiuld be more likely to have somatic stress response (Lee, 2014). It is, however, worth noting that the lack of study done concerning hwabyung might slightly hinder the conclusion of this study.

Hwabyung itself is an illness caused by the pent-up anger due to the unjust or unfair treatment (uk wool/boon) (Rhi, 2004) which fits Ji-Young’s overall experiences. Hwabyung differs from other kinds of depression because the trigger that cause the illness to develop is distinct mainly to the South Korean society. Jieun

Lee, et al. mentioned that hwabyung is generally caused by South Korean patriarchal society where men are dominating while women are treated unfairly as

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inferiors (2014, p. 60). Moreover, unlike other types of depression, hwabyung does not inflict suicidal thoughts to those who suffers from it (Cho, 2020).

South Korean culture is one that regards men higher than women, thus the various gender discriminations and roles that are imposed upon women such as Kim

Ji-Young are ones that are very much unfair. According to Lee, et al. in their Multi-

Systemic Model of Hwabyung (MSMH), hwabyung is a complex phenomenon with various factors. They have identified four factors including society, community, interpersonal matters, and individual background as those that might contribute to the development of hwabyung (2014, p. 60). In the following section, the writer will discuss each factors that might contributes to Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung.

1. Society

Society might have a role in Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung because the South

Korean traditional culture which is inherently patriarchal has created stigma around mental illness and expression of feelings and emotion. Patriarchal society in South

Korea has also created gender roles and familial roles that creates discriminations between genders and family members (Lee, et al., 2014, 60). Kim Ji-Young is not exempted of the societal pressure of South Korean patriarchal values. As discussed in the second discussion, Kim Ji-Young faced various kinds of gender discriminations. As a little girl and a member of her family, she was already imposed into unfair treatments and roles such as the differentiation between her and her elder sister’s meal and school supplies compared to her younger brother who was given better things from their parents. At school, she had to undergo other discriminating treatments such as having to wear uncomfortable uniforms (p. 42)

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and being blamed for almost being a victim of a sexual assault (p. 56). The gender discriminations did not stop even when she reached adulthood and entered professional working field. She was imposed into various gender discriminations at work such as having to receive less salary than her male co-workers (p.112), not being given the same opportunity as her male co-workers in terms of work projects

(p. 111), and not being given proper maternal leave while she was pregnant (p. 125).

After getting married, Ji-Young was once again imposed to the patriarchal values that women have to be a good wife and tend to the house (p.115) while also having to fulfil their role as a mother (p. 120). Throughout all of those discriminations that she experienced; the author had repeatedly given insights to Ji-Young’s thoughts.

Ji-Young had not agreed with all of those treatments that she received and had expressed her anger on several occasions (p. 122, p. 126, p. 131). but Ji-Young herself never outright presented a behaviour in which she would directly act upon her anger (p. 124). As mentioned in Lee et. al.’s theory that the society might be one of the factors to someone’s hwabyung, it is clear that in Ji-Young’s case, society did contribute to her reserved and quiet characteristics, thus making it harder for her to not develop hwabyung.

2. Community

Community, or rather, the lack of it might trigger hwabyung in some individual. Lee, et. al. describes that community might be a double-edged sword

(2014, p. 60). Community can burden women when it comes to their involvement in the community. Member of the community must follow the rules set out for them and partake the roles laid out for them. Failure to do so might result in the expulsion

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from the community. However, community also serves as a space for individuals to come together as a group and rely in each other. For some people, the existence of community provides safe haven for them.

Kim Ji-Young throughout the novel never really shown herself as a member of a particular community. She had no close friend group that she could rely on and be honest to. Her only community outside her family is her workplace.

Unfortunately for Ji-Young, her workplace did not serve as a safe haven from her as elaborated in the previous chapter regarding discriminations in the public sphere.

In her office, Ji-Young was still treated less than her male peers in terms of job opportunity and salary. She was not given equal opportunity to her male coworkers and she received less pay for the same if not even more workload as her male coworkers who entered the company at the same time as her (p. 112).

The discrimination against women in her office did not stop in the gender pay gap. After Ji-Young quit the company to take care of her daughter, one of her female co-worker, Kang Hye-Su, came to her house to visit her. She mentioned that there was a case of sexual harassment circulating in Ji-Young’s former workplace.

Apparently, a security agent had planted hidden cameras in women’s bathroom and uploaded the recording to a pornography site in which a male section manager in the company had been a member (pp. 141-145). Upon realizing that the subjects of the recording were his own colleagues, the manager had shared the recording with his male colleagues in the office instead of reporting the crime to the police. When the issues were reported, the complicit male colleagues refused to be blamed, instead they blamed the women for being too harsh on them for simply enjoying

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the recording. They argued that they were not participating in the making or distribution of the recording, thus they were not guilty of the crime. The situation was very unfair because while most of the women had to leave the company, undergo theraphy, and take medications, the male were refusing to even acknowledge their mistakes. This example itself shows that women in South

Korean society are so undervalued and discriminated. They could not even be free in a community that they frequented such as their workplace. Kim Ji-Young, upon hearing the news, had been speechless and left wondering If she would have to take medications to handle the shock as well.

Ji-Young’s workplace community that should have been able to be used as a support system for most people as it provides them with a sense of economical security and pride had proved to be another place where women are limited from their freedom. The lack of a functioning community where everyone is treated equally and can be used as a space for its member to share their burden with each other possibly leads to Ji-Young’s hwabyung. In her only community, Ji-Young could not have a place for her to share her opinions and feelings. She had to be confined into society’s expectation and had to endure being treated less than her male coworkers.

3. Interpersonal

Family conflict, marital conflicts, and awareness of Western gender roles might act as contributing factors to someone developing hwabyung. This includes the different understanding between married couples or between the wife and her in-laws that can result in a pent-up anger which might lead to hwabyung. In Ji-

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Young’s case, there are several conflicts that can be suspected as the cause of her hwabyung. First conflict is the scene where her father scolded her for dressing inappropriately when it was not her fault for almost being a victim of sexual assault

(p. 56). Ji-Young was severely traumatized by the incident to the point that she jumped whenever she was faced with her younger brother, yet her father scolded her like it was her definite fault. The anger that Ji-Young felt at how unfair the situation was for her might be a contributing factor to her hwabyung. Second conflict is between Ji-Young and her husband, Dae-Hyun, when Dae-Hyun had easily suggested that they should just have a child in order to get the elders off of their back (pp. 120-124). The way Dae-Hyun suggested the idea casually had angered Ji-Young because she was the one who was pressured by the society and their family to get pregnant and take care of the baby. In the process, she had to sacrifice her life including her health, her job, and her freedom while Dae-Hyun might not even be directly impacted by the pregnancy. Ji-Young had felt anger, but true to the symptom of hwabyung, Ji-Young had felt guilty if she expressed her anger directly, thus she tried to keep her emotions down and tried to be understanding of her husband’s arguments. The last conflict that might hugely impact Ji-Young’s hwabyung in regards to her relation to her husband is the scene where the couple was debating on how they would carry on with caring for the baby

(pp. 129-131). It was decided that Ji-Young would quit her job since no other option was available for them. Ji-Young had screamed in anger when Dae-Hyun said that he would help out in caring for the baby as well. Ji-Young thought that caring for the baby should be Dae-Hyun’s responsibility too, so he should be involved directly

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and not only helping out. However, as hwabyung symptoms is often described, Ji-

Young had felt guilty for screaming at her husband. Instead, she began apologizing for voicing out her thoughts and opinions that seemed unfair for her.

4. Individual

Individual factor includes the individual age, personality, educational background, acculturation stress, commitment to traditional Korean values, self- victimization, etc. This factor plays a huge part into Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung as she decided not to fight back against the injustice treatments that she received. As discussed in the first discussion, Kim Ji-Young has a tendency to be more reserved and quieter. She was not used to speak out her opinion or express her feelings, therefore it makes the possibility of her developing hwabyung even more possible because hwabyung is caused by repressed feelings, especially angers toward injustice circumstances. Moreover, Kim Ji-Young, a thirty-three years old South

Korean woman, is statistically more likely to develop hwabyung (Kim, et al., 2014).

Being raised in a conservative household, disabled Ji-Young to be more independent in regards to her own thoughts and behaviours. Her mother had set an example in which a woman should be obedient and treat men as superior than themselves. When a male classmate harassed Ji-Young in elementary school, Ji-

Young’s mother had told Ji-Young that he just wanted to play (p. 28). When her younger brother had spooned a lot of dishes into his plate before their mother even had the chance to, Eun-Young scolded him and Ji-Young observed the situation

(pp. 46-47). In Korean culture, elders should be served food first before the youngers can begin to spoon some into their own plate, so it does make sense if

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Eun-Young had scolded her younger brother for being disrespectful. However, their mother had given the ample dishes back to the brother’s plate, saying that it is okay since he was still a little boy, but it was more because he was a boy, so he got better things than the girls who were left with the leftovers. That goes to say that as someone who lived with their family up until she got married, Ji-Young must have been exposed to many other examples on how to treat and behave around men set by her mother. The lessons stay with her until later on in her life and while she felt that it was unfair for her to be treated as inferior, she did not dare to directly oppose the practice because her character is one that tended to keep things to herself.

Adding her father’s treatment and her environment throughout her school life that told her that men are rarely in the wrong, if any women should know better and remove themselves from the scene if they felt like they were treated unfairly. Ji-

Young, as a logical person, has logicalized the argument by repeatedly saying to herself that she was just being a good sister, a good wife, and a good co-worker by conforming to the value of patriarchal society. In a sense, she had developed an internalized sexism in which she believes that men are indeed the superior gender.

Ji-Young’s hwabyung had turned her into someone else, as depression often does to an individual. In Ji-Young’s case, her hwabyung is quite severe to the point that she suffers from psychosis in which she turned into someone else. In the novel, there were two occasions where she became her mother (p. 2 and pp. 9-11) and Cha

Seung-Yeon, her college friend (pp. 3-7). The symptom differs from dissociative disorder where an individual will develop a new alternate personality while sharing consciousness (American Psychiatric Association). In Ji-Young’s case, she did not

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develop an alternate personality that can channel her frustration toward her circumstances like a DID patients would, rather, she turned into women that she knew, whether they were dead or alive (p. 155). Currently, there are no scientific research that presented a likelihood of someone with hwabyung to experience incidents in which they turned into someone that they knew, so the scenario that Ji-

Young did undergo this symptoms might have to do with the fact that Ji-Young’s case is entirely a work of fiction. The author might strategically write scenes where

Ji-Young turned into her mother and Cha Seung-Yeon to show the difference in characteristics and personality. Ji-Young’s mother and Cha Seung-Yeon have more of an outspoken characteristic than Ji-Young has. Her mother had gone against her mother-in-law and husband (p. 39) to defend her daughters, an action that might be frowned upon by society. Cha Seung-Yeon had bravely spoken back to her male colleagues in the hiking club (p.78), yet another action that was unexpected and not one that Ji-Young would have dared to do.

While there are many factors that might contribute to Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung, her quiet personality and society’s gender discriminations that she faced are the biggest reasons. The pressure from society both in private sphere and public sphere had prompted Ji-Young to build-up her anger toward the unfair treatments inside. Moreover, her quiet personality was not helping her case against the society, thus Ji-Young stayed silent and followed society’s rule obediently. Her anger that were stored inside without any way to channel it out had caused her to develop hwabyung.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

This chapter concludes all three discussions of the research’s problem statements. The first problem is how Kim Ji-Young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo describes the main character, Kim Ji-Young. The second problem is what are the experiences of Kim Ji-Young that implies gender discriminations toward women.

Lastly, the research investigates the problem on how the discriminations that was experienced by Ji-Young relates to her hwabyung, a type of South Korean culture- bound mental illness.

In the analysis of the first problem, the writer utilized Murphy’s theory of characteristics. The discussion was separated into two points, Kim Ji-Young as herself and Kim Ji-Young as others. As herself, Ji-Young was often found to be unassertive, quiet, and passive. When she was faced with injustice, she often keeps her thoughts to herself rather than speaking up. These traits were shown several times throughout her time growing up such as the lunchtime order during elementary school and the incident where her father scolded her for dressing inappropriately even after she almost got molested. However, Ji-Young was also a very logical and sensitive individual, albeit having an emotional side to her. These traits showed up when she was having an argument with her husband concerning their family. The couple was pressured by their family to have children as soon as possible while Ji-Young was not ready. She realized that having a child means that she would be giving up her life and freedom, especially in her society where childcare will be most burdensome to the mother. She was saddened by the fact that

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her husband could not understand that she would have to put her own life into a complete stop if they were to have baby while her husband’s life would not be bothered too much. In contrast, when Ji-Young shifted into her mother and Cha

Seung-Yeon, she turned into someone who is more outspoken and forward as she dared to talk back to a figure of authority such as her father in-law and her husband which is considered a taboo in the society. This blatant difference in characters made her husband, Dae-Hyun, became alarmed.

The second problem was answered by using Pilcher & Whelehan’s theory of gender sphere. In the private sphere, Ji-Young was discriminated both as a daughter and as a wife. As a little girl, Ji-Young and her older sister were treated differently from their younger brother. Their younger brother was always given better things and could be first in everything while the girls had to share everything and always left with the leftovers from their brother. When she got married, she was expected to care for her house and bear children while no one had directly spoke of her husband’s duty as a good husband. As a woman, she was even more discriminated in the public sphere. She was treated inferior to her male schoolmates and almost got assaulted by a male classmate. She was blamed for the incident by her father, saying that she went to a school that was too far and she was wearing inappropriate clothing. Ji-Young could not do well in a professional career either because of the limitation for women put by society. She was not given the same salary and opportunity as her male co-workers even when she was performing better than he was.

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The third discussion concluded that Ji-Young’s characteristics and her environment in a gender-discriminating society really have impact to her hwabyung. Ji-Young, a quiet and reserved woman, who were brought up in a conservative household with a continuous exposure to patriarchal values by her parents had undoubtedly develop an internalized sexism in which she ended up relented to. Ji-Young realized that she was treated unfairly and she even got angry several times. Her hwabyung, however, prevents her from not feeling guilty after she bursts out of anger because guilt and shame after a display of emotion are symptoms of hwabyung. The symptom is closely related to the South Korean values that sees a display of emotion as weakness, thus most people including Ji-Young chose to repressed their emotions.

In conclusion, Kim Ji-Young’s characteristics and South Korean gender discriminations really have impacts to Kim Ji-Young’s hwabyung. Ji-Young as a quiet and unassertive individual who grew up in a South Korean discriminating society ended up developing an internalized sexism which prevents her from rebelling against the common society notion that women are inferior to men.

Although Ji-Young realized that she was being treated unfairly, she succumbed to the injustice and keep her thoughts and feelings to herself. The repressed thoughts and feelings, especially anger toward the discriminations, led to her developing hwabyung.

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