Pachinko - My Thoughts

         I really liked reading Min Jin Lee's novel Pachinko – second only to Home Fire, this was definitely one of my favorite novels that I read during the past two quarters. More than anything, I feel that this novel really showed me how little control we have over our own lives. Sunja never deserved all the hardships and pain she had to go through, Noa shouldn't have committed suicide, and Koreans shouldn't have faced horrible injustices at the hands of Japanese colonizers. But yet, all of this still happened. The ending of the book was not happy, because it shows the reader how unfair and out of control life can be. 

        I feel like the purpose of this book was to not only show the reader the injustices faced by Koreans at the hands of the Japanese during the mid 20th century, but also show how life can be and is unfair. The book shows the perseverance that hardworking people like Sunja carry in the face of unfortunate circumstances, even when the game of life seems 'rigged' against them. Overall, I feel that this book was a sad but important life lesson, showing how sometimes life is unfair and seems 'out of control' and as a result made me feel a lot more thankful for my own peaceful and pleasant life.