How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #7
"This is what hunger must feel like," she said, "this hollowness inside. This is what people must feel in Africa, where they have nothing to eat." (259)
Jun Do/Imposter Ga has just made it up to Pyongyang after a nasty stint in a prison camp, so Sun Moon's perception of hunger as something that happens in other places really sets him on edge. In reality, Sun Moon knows all too well what it means to starve. Her denial that such things happen in North Korea insulates her from her own reality and helps her tell a different story about her life.
Quote #8
Here were the names of all the boys he'd known, and looking at their busts, it seemed as though they'd made it to adulthood—here they had mustaches and strong jaws and broad shoulders... It was as if, instead of starving at nine or falling to factory accidents at eleven, they'd all lived into their twenties and thirties like normal men. (294)
When Jun Do/Imposter Ga walks through the Martyrs' Cemetery, it's like entering a parallel universe. In that new dimension, all the desperate things he did to protect himself (like sending other children to untimely deaths) have no real consequences. It's a dream world, but it also highlights the horror of a past that has to be suppressed in order for Jun Do to face the reality of his present life.
Quote #9
"Soon, I'll be able to fold up another one of Su-Kee's dresses and put it away. That's how I mark our life. When I'm old, it's what I hope to leave behind—a chain of unworn white dresses." (375)
Comrade Buc's wife is living a life of unspeakable psychological pain, knowing that at any moment a "crow" can come and cart her family off to a prison camp. She and her husband are determined to end it all—for themselves and their children—before any such thing can happen. Her dignity and self-control in the face of such existential stress is symbolized by those white suicide dresses she makes for her daughters. The fact that she marks time by how many the children have outgrown—that's how many times they've cheated death—makes us feel like we've entered alternative universe.