The Island of Sea Women

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On page 120, Young-sook’s mother-in-law, Do-Saeng, says “There’s modern, and then there’s tradition. As a result, an abalone must be approached carefully and the tip of the bitchang inserted under the shell and flipped off the rock in one swift movement before the abalone can clamp down on the tool attached to a diver’s wrist, thereby anchoring her to the rock. On page 189, there is mention of haenyo from a different village rowing by Young-sook’s collective to share gossip. Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom joined us for more conversation, a walk around the gardens, and to spot the turtles.

The two main characters Mi-ja and Young-sook are young girls, but already being groomed to become “Haenyeo”, strong women divers who gradually learn to hold their breath long enough to dive to the ocean floor. A stupendous multigenerational family saga, See’s latest also provides an enthralling cultural anthropology highlighting the soon-to-be-lost, matriarchal haenyeo phenomenon and an engrossing history of violently tumultuous twentieth-century Korea. This reading group guide for The Island of Sea Women includes discussion questions and ideas for enhancing your book club.As my grandmother and her friends filed outside to work on the shore, Mother motioned to Yu-ri to help me get ready. SPOILER alert: They remain friends until one day in January 1949, when their friendship is destroyed. Here, women are the primary breadwinners, the heads of household in all but name, and yet, as Mi-ja and Young-sook come to realize, there are limits to their control that can prove devastating. I hoped their loyalty would now expand to include Mi-ja, and they’d watch out for her in the same way they did each other.

Compelling, heart-wrenching, and beautifully written, The Island of Sea Women will plunge you into a world and a story you’ve never read before and remind you how powerful women can and must be to survive. See was the recipient of the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the History Maker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum.Those women were quick and powerful, going down a body length, another body length, deeper and deeper into darker blue water. Mi-ja finally gets up the courage to ask Young-sook’s mother if she could be taught how to dive and join the collective.

While not everyone on Jeju has found forgiveness, how and why do you think those communities, neighbors, and families have been able to forgive?She is also the author of On Gold Mountain, which tells the story of her Chinese American family’s settlement in Los Angeles. Both houses were built from stone and had thatch roofs weighed down with additional stones to keep the island wind from blowing them away. They are best friends growing up in a Korea run by the Japanese, who made a colony of Korea in 1910.

while the fragile connection between mi-ja and young-sook is the heart of this novel, i think the thing i found most interesting was learning about the haenyeo and the semi-matriarchal society that was established on jeju island because of their significance. Once they’ve cleared the beach and have bounced up onto the road, she says in a softer tone, “Drive me around for a while. Now the ends of the ribbons had been tucked into the wall’s rocky crevices, their tails flapping in the breeze that squeezed through the cracks. Two girls, Mi-ja and Young-sook, are the best of friends waiting for their time to be old enough to join the diving collective. But now that the swells were rising, and the dipping and swaying of the boat was getting increasingly worse, all I wanted to do was go home.Triumphant because, like the inspiring haenyeo with their amazing abilities, again and again these Island people propelled themselves from the depths and to the surface.