Cranes Essay

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Cranes Cranes by Hwang Sun-won is the story of how two childhood friends separated by war reconnect as prisoner and guard. Song-sam and Tok-chae are both sons of farmers that grew up in the same village at the Thirty-eighth parallel, the line dividing North and South Korea. During the war Song-sam fled to the south, leaving his family behind while Tok-chae stayed in the village. They both meet again as adults when Song-sam returns to the village with another police officer from the south. To his surprise Song-sam find that his childhood friend Tok-chae is tied up as prisoner in front of the village’s police office. Song-sam learns that the prisoner is to be escorted to another nearby village named Chontae and Song-sam offers to do it himself. During the walk to Chontae they pass a field where they had as boys captured a crane with a snare unbeknownst to the adults. Song-sam recalls the event in his memory and remembers that one day when the boys learnt that someone had come with a permit to catch the cranes they had both hurried to release it. But was the memory of the crane event so deciding? Just as the crane was set free of its snare so was Tok-chae of his. Tok-chae was appointed to Vice-chairman of the Farmers Communist League, even though Tok-chae says himself “They made me vice-chairman of the league because I was one of the poorest and I was a hard-working farmer /…/ the only thing I’m good at is digging the soil”. Song-sam assumes right away that Tok-chae has killed men in the war, which indicates that Tok-chae’s position has a political value. This does not add up with the Tok-chae’s story though, since he is a poor farmer only good for digging soil. I think the communist party knows this, and knowing Tok-chae will eventually get caught they appoint him to the role without giving him the implied beneficial power that comes with it.
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