Single mothers in Korean society suffer cultural stigmatism that is matter-of-factly inflicted upon orphans in Korean society as well. Approximately 200,000 Korean children have been adopted out of Korea since the 1950’s, with the majority having been abandoned. Korean society exacts a multitude of social and cultural pressures on single mothers and their children within a number of  unwritten norms and prejudices that are causing Korean women to abandon their children. If Jane Re was born in Korea from the same mother and father, she would not be considered a Korean citizen. In Korea, children of Korean citizen women, who had either a non-Korean father or no known Korean father were not Korean citizens, even if born in Korea. However, children whose “right of blood” could not be determined (orphaned, abandoned, or stateless), but are found within Korean sovereign territory are considered Korean citizens under South Korea’s citizenship laws. Mothers often...

The first traumatic event of Wide Sargasso Sea occurs only two pages into the story. Antoinette's mother's horse is killed, left dead under the frangipani tree: "...he was dead and his eyes were black with flies. I ran away and did not speak of it for I thought if I told no one it might not be true" (Rhys 16). The frangipani tree, although beautiful when in full bloom, has a contrasting wintertime nickname: "the ugly duckling." When winter approaches, the beautiful tree turns into an ugly skeleton of branches (Delvalle). This transformation parallels the storyline of Jane Eyre, or in in this case the prequel to Jane Eyre. Rhys opens with the horse death under the frangipani tree to foreshadow a transformation from something beautiful to something ugly, just as Antoinette and Bertha spiral into insanity.

Bibliography: Delvalle, Terry Brite. “Garden Help: Plumeria go from ugly duckling to swan plant.” The Florida Times-Union, 20 May 2017,...

When Miriam is on her death bed at the hospital, she asks Gemma to tell her a selkie story (Livesey 111). Gemma starts the story, positioning it as a woman living in the village by the sea. According to the OED, the selkie story is "also, in folklore, a creature or spirit having the appearance of a seal; spec. one able to assume human form” (“sealkie”). Elisabeth Gifford is a prose writer who also reflects on and has an interest in the selkie story. She writes, "The legend of the Selkie is told along the Western coast of Scotland and as far down as Ireland. Selkies are seals in the water, but once on land, they take off their skins and become human. If an ordinary mortal sees a Selkie in human form, they will inevitably fall in love. The Selkie legend has several variations but never ends happily. The husband or wife of a Selkie may hide away their seal skins, but once their hiding place is discovered the Selkie is powerless to resist the call of the sea. He slides back...

In The Flight of Gemma Hardy, Gemma discusses why “G” is her favorite letter, and ends up revealing a snippet about her name: "Because it's the first letter of the name of a little clam called a Gemma gemma. And it's a letter in your surname. And it's the first letter of garage" (Livesey 324). In many works of literature, the process of naming characters is a way to add depth to a story. Gemma sounds a lot like "gem" or "gemstone.” In fact, according to Behind the Name, it is a, “Medieval Italian nickname meaning "gem, precious stone." It was borne by the wife of the 13th-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri” (Gemma). In addition to this, Gemma’s name could also allude to, as Gemma Hardy states, a little clam. If one looks at an image of a “gemma gemma” via Google, they would see it is a very small clam (Gemma's size is noted as being small throughout the entirety of the novel). This physical parallel is the obvious way the two are...