Identity In Playing With Fire And The Rainy Spell

Identity is how someone distinguishes oneself from others. Over time, several factors can affect how one identifies oneself, including one’s family and the people one associates with. Identity is essential because it shapes the way people make decisions and how they associate with other people. The mental and physical components of one’s identity are malleable by altering ideology and persuasion. The shifts in ideology throughout the generations and in influence of beliefs and perspectives of Bae Jomsu and Hyongmin portrayed in Playing with Fire and of the entire household in The Rainy Spell exemplify the complex desire for revenge and complicated attempt of reconciliation of a divided Korea. The shift in ideologies of the characters throughout

Bae Jomsu sought to seek revenge for the situation of his family, who were serfs under the control of the Shin clan. The desire for revenge that resulted from an intense war grew to become increasingly personal. Bae Jomsu was, at least in his perspective, fighting for his family and for his freedom. On the other hand, Shin Byongmo’s wife did not physically go out to seek revenge for her husband’s death and for her sexual assault at the hands of the Bae Jomsu. She kept that desire in her heart throughout her life until she was on her deathbed and instructed her son to find her husband’s murderer and exact revenge. The main characters of Playing with Fire represent the generation that witnessed the atrocities of war. However, a shift in ideology occurred as the next generation took the spotlight and was no longer attached to the Korean War. Hyongmin, Bae Jomsu’s son claimed, “he knew nothing about the Communist invasion except what he had read in books, seen in exhibitions of photographers or heard from his elders (Chong-Rae 46).” Since the next generation did not witness the war first-hand they did not see a need to be

The conflict that endured between the Shin Clan and the serfs created a desire for revenge between both sides of the relationship. After Pang instigated Bae Jomsu to feel like a hero, Bae Jomsu was consumed by the idea of exacting revenge for all that his family suffered at the hands of the Shin Clan. However, after the violent episodes concluded and thirty-eight Shin people were murdered, the Shin Clan decided to take action because of the rancor building up inside them. As a result, both sides grew increasingly vengeful in hopes of protecting their own people. Even though the physical conflict ended, the brutal memories were kept alive by the Shins through their stories, such as when Shin Junggol recited the story of the terrible violence to Hyongmin. The 38th parallel is extremely significant when mentioning a divided Korea because that is where the divide between two ideologies exists. In Playing with Fire, the resemblance of the violence that ensued during the Korean War is shown through the thirty-eight people that were buried in the Shin Clan’s sacred mountain, Sambongsan. This visual representation in the novel served as a reminder of the violence that brewed a desire for revenge against the Communist invaders. On the other hand, in The Rainy Spell, the persisting conflict was within