Korean American Families (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3 (A), Humboldt-University of Berlin (Anglistics/American Studies), course: Asian American Literature: Foodways and Cultural Transformation(s), language: English, abstract: "Your life can be different, Young Ju. Study and be strong. In America, women
have choices."1
Korean people tend to define women as wives, mothers, caregivers, or
just simply as girls, always with regard to their sexual behavior rather to their
individuality as a person. For over five hundred years Confucianism has been
the mainstream of Korean culture and tradition, setting the social role of
Korean women. Koreans still strongly believe in Confucian values, behave,
feel, and think in Confucian ways, despite the fact that Koreans, particularly
Korean Americans and specifically Korean American women, have
experienced new social realities and such social changes as modern
socialization, westernisation, Christianization, industrialization, and immigration
to the American socio-cultural setting.
The major premises for this paper are (1) a view on women in Korea and
Confucian values in Korean society. (2) What happens when a traditional
immigrant couple arrives in America and that a departure from traditional
roles often results in domestic violence. (3) The role of Korean children in
Korea and in America. These considerations build the theoretical background
for (4) an examination of a Korean American novel of a family experiencing
new social realities upon arriving in the United States.
The paper will show that the Confucian values are still dominating in
Korean American families and that a departure of the traditional family
setting is hard or impossible for single family members, especially for the men
who see their patriarchal authority over their wife and children erode. The
women begin to question the superior position of their husbands and children
experience a time of confusion and frustration for their parents often disagree
about new ways of raising them. This paper will also show that the problems
and examples given in the novel A Step from heaven by An Na are typical for
Korean American immigrants and that children are again the ones that suffer
the most.
1 Na, An: A Step from heaven. New York, 2000