How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
Jun Do never looked. He knew the televisions were huge and there was all the rice you could eat. Yet he wanted no part of it—he was scared that if he saw it with his own eyes, his entire life would mean nothing. Stealing turnips from an old man who'd gone blind from hunger? That would have been for nothing. Sending another boy instead of himself to clean vats at the paint factory? For nothing. (22)
When Jun Do first sets foot on Japanese soil with Gil, he feels the chip on his shoulder growing. His life of depravation—all in the name of a sociopolitical ideal—suddenly seems hollow. This first experience with another culture gives Jun Do an inkling of just how wrong things in his own country really are. As his moral flexibility is tested further, the giant TV sets will be the least of his worries.
Quote #2
... Jun Do saw a passenger jet crossing the sky, a big plume behind it. He gawked, neck craned—amazing. So amazing he decided to feign normalcy at everything, like the colored lights controlling the traffic or the way buses kneeled, oxenlike, to let old people board. Of course the parking meters could talk, and the doors of businesses open as they passed. Of course there was no water barrel in the bathroom, no ladle. (26)
As Jun Do moves through Japan on his way to kidnap Rumina, his exposure to modern life in a developed country overwhelms him on every level. There is no lack of comfort in this place (flushing toilets, people)—and it makes him miserable. Unlike Gil, he has no plans to become part of the luxury. All the things that amaze him here are the things that separate him even further from Japanese society, because they're things he can't have.
Quote #3
"If you slept with one of these girls," Gil said, "you'd know it was because she wanted to, not like some military comfort girl trying to get nine stamps in her quota book or a factory gal getting married off by her housing council." (28)
Gil has reached a level of understanding about North Korea that Jun Do has not yet attained—hence the tension between the characters. Gil gets it: life in the free world means self-determination, the right to do as you please, particularly in the most intimate moments. This is a basic freedom that Jun Do cannot grasp at this point.