Please Look after Mother

 

1) Summary 

A mother is lost in a crowded subway station and doesn't reappear. Only after she went missing did all the family members care about her and realize her love and devotion while tracking down her traces through Seoul streets.

The first son, whose role is pivotal in every Korean household, didn't live up to his mother's expectations and accordingly feels regretful. The author-daughter, on whom the illiterate mother takes much pride, is contrite for neither listening to her mom's repeated worries and requests nor taking earlier measures on her chronic illness. The father is also guilt-tripped because he walked far ahead of his wife, as usual, on the day of her disappearance and didn't notice his wife wasn't on the train. His wife was more like a neglected slave rather than a lifetime companion. He has been immature and irresponsible as a head and once abandoned his family to live with another woman.

At the end, the daughter prays to ask for her mom's well-being in front of Pieta Maria who cries over dying Christ, but sadly, Mother is dead. The mother, even as a reincarnated bird, visits her family to see if they're fine.

 2) Thoughts

It's very heartbreaking to imagine that the mother suffering from dementia has wandered through Seoul. According to several witnesses, she is wearing blue plastic sandals cut to the foot bone whose pustulant wound attracts flies. The image looks so sad that I hoped they had seen a different woman.

From the beginning the author addresses the daughter and Father as "you," which is embarrassing and hard to understand the story. As I got used to it, I realized that the writer is smart enough to use this literary device as a scolding tool to intentionally make readers penitent.

The mother's name is So-nyo which means an innocent, demure girl. The witnesses say Mother's eyes are as honest and gentle as cows. She is indeed the epitome of sacrificial, devoted mother of the particular generation. Isn't it too much that Mother even secretly worked at an orphanage in her spare time? I've cried enough.

The mother figure in the book makes me keep thinking of my mom who has also lived a life of sacrifice. I've been overwhelmed by my busy life and burden at work and taken my mom's love for granted. Sometimes I even thought mom's worries about me are annoying. Now I'm aware that my mom wasn't born as a mom and she also had a time of being a girl. She wants to look beautiful, regardless of how old she is. I have to be a reliable friend who has a special bond with her. By the way, the other day when my mom called me on my way home from work late in the evening, I wasn't that kind to her, to tell you the truth. I'm always her daughter. I can't help it.