CONSTRUCTS OF IDENTITY IN “PERSON OF KOREA” BY PAUL YOON
ELAINE M. FERRER
I think the main crisis/ question of the identity of Maksim, the main character of “Person of Korea” is that he was trying so hard to hold on to his remaining family. Maybe, just maybe, his father was the only remaining anchor that he had about his history and nationality. He is a Korean who is in a foreign land so his father is the only connection that he had with his Korean family and identity. Upon listening to many reports in this course, tight family relation is one of those Asian constructs of identities that is ever-present. This construct of identity is always seen in literature regardless of nationality, socio-economic status, religion, and other aspects of human life. It is the same for Maksim.
I haven’t been abroad and away from my family. The longest that I was away from them was because of a 14-day quarantine. However, I can say that I had the same predicament as those Filipinos abroad and Maksim. Being in a place that is away from home, one always longs for a connection to people and things that he/she is used to. Most of the time, it is one’s family. It is a personal belief that to be connected to my identity means to be connected with my family. Maksim was also like that. He ventured in an unsure journey to meet his only remaining family, his father. Filipinos temporarily working or permanently living abroad, I think, are also this way. If they can’t be with their family, they seek connections with Filipinos who are also away from their families and start to build their own community.
If I get to give a new ending for this, it will be this way. “It is then that he realized that he needs to decide. He needs to decide to start building his own identity, an identity apart from his family. He needs to build his own, as a person of Korea in Russia. And he accepts it. He accepts that his identity need not be with his family by blood. He knows that he can build a new identity with other people who are different but somehow the same as him. He was young, and being young comes along with having enough time. Time is all he has at the moment. So, he decides.”
-oOoThe author is Teacher III at Northville High School