This paper is a comparative study of INa Yoon’sBaby and Nora Okja Keller’s Fox Girl. The purpose of this paper is to show the meanigful similarities and differences between a Korean female writer’s novel and a 1.5 generation Korean-Ameirican female writer’s novel by describing in their novels the prostitutes’ lives in South Korea who serve for the U.S. military. As well as to explore their novels’ significance and limitations.
These novels effectively represent the prostitutes’ miserable lives in South Korea who serve for the U.S. military as victims. But the tragic narrative of these novels each unfolds differently.Baby concerns the endless wars in Korea which includes real wars, i.e. the SecondWorld war, the KoreanWar, the VietnamWar and Gulf War, along with those warsBaby’s main character GeumSoon’s life is described as war as well. And It exposes Korean citizen’s ambivalent attitude toward the prostitutes in South Korea who serve for the U.S. military. On the other hand,Fox Girl concerns themultinational sexploitation for the purpose of maintaining the stability of the countries(Japan, Korea, and the USA). And It shows that the prostitutes in South Korea who serve for the U.S. military are scorned by Korean citizens and this perspective of contempt continues in the life of her child of mixed race.
But these novels don’t stagnate in the tragic narrative, they progress further and the narrative changes into the developing narrative. These stories’ main characters attempt to obtain the woman’s independence and grow on as they choose a existence of mother’s affection. But the details vary, for exampleBaby’s character’s goal(her home) differ from Fox Girl’s(the USA). As the stories progress, Baby’s main character GeumSoon has grown fromthe US soldiers’ baby depending on other person, to young US soldiers’ and prostitutes’ mommy(mother figure). Fox Girl’s main character HyunJin has grown from a fox girl(the nickname that roots fromKorean traditional folk tales’ main character and Fox Girl’s creative character which is created by writer) to her niece’s momwhich is abandoned by biological parents.
The achievements of the stories have completed the valuable works and posed new problems by recognizing the prostitutes who serve for the U.S. military’s important problems in South Korea. But they have limitations in logical jumps and outcome of mother’s affection.