Aikiko's relationship with Noa

The relationship I chose to look at was Akiko and Noa’s. Noa, maybe due to his inferiority complex, because he thinks he is being held back by his blood, finds that Akiko is with him because she feels special for lowering herself to his level. This belief could be because he also believes that he is lower than her, so he thinks small signs that can mean nothing such as her saying that her parents would think he is a good Korean means that she thinks he is at a lower level than her. 


However, assuming that Noa’s judgment was correct, this shows just how built in the Japanese belief they are superior to Koreans is built into their brain. Akiko doesn't even know that she offended Noah by saying that Noa is not on her level.


This relationship is similar to Sunja and Hansu in the sense that Hansu also assumes that he is lowering himself to be with Sunja, so Sunja should just accept to be his mistress. Hansu also could have wanted Sunja just because she was just a “fanciful idea of a foreign person” that he could be with. 


The aspects of colonialism that I think are ingrained is indoctrination. As two people born after the colonization, Noa and Akiko, both, believe that the Japanese are superior to Koreans because their surroundings told them this, and even if Akiko does not consciously believe it it is embedded into her subconscious through her language that she believes so. She likes that she thinks she lowered herself to be with Noa. It is something similar to playing a white savior card, and a white savior implies that they are superior by their actions, which means Akiko is a part of the problem of colonialism.


 

Comments

  1. Hilary LeMarch 11, 2023 at 6:50 PM

    Hi Paulos! It's interesting to consider how Noa's perception of Akiko's condescension towards him may be rooted in his own feelings of inferiority due to his Korean heritage. This speaks to the way in which discriminatory beliefs can be internalized and perpetuated even by those who are themselves the targets of discrimination.

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  2. AnonymousMarch 13, 2023 at 10:10 PM

    Hi Paulos, I feel like you put this topic into words much more elegantly than I could figure out. I agree that Noa's internalized negative beliefs about himself contribute to his sensitivity towards this issue. Simultaneously, Akiko has the very same internalized beliefs, and thus her language comes out extremely condescending towards Noa, who deep down just wants to be treated as a human despite thinking he wants to be treated as a Japanese person.

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