I like origami.
Not in a crazy passionate way or anything, but I can appreciate it.
Origami can be as complex as those huge origami “butterfly balls” or as simple as a paper airplane. Airplanes are probably one of the first things people learn to make, likely followed by a paper crane. Simple to make, yet with a sophisticated look. That’s exactly the kind of story Cranes is.
Cranes is a short story by Hwang Sun-Won. This title immediately jumped off the page at me. I was excited at the possibility of reading an Asian writer’s work and I really hoped the story was about paper cranes, like the story I read in elementary school: Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. While that was a reasonable prediction (no doubt one that Nabokov would’ve scorned at), I was a little disappointed to find out it was about actual cranes and not origami. But don’t worry, because this is the only part of the story that was a letdown.
When I say that it’s short, sweet, and simple, I actually mean that. Set in a town along the 38th parallel in Korea, the story centers on an encounter between two childhood friends who find themselves on opposite sides of the war. Song-sam , who fled from the North when war broke out, finds that at his village’s public peace police office, there is a man who is tied up. Upon closer inspection, he recognizes Tok-chae, his playmate from childhood. He offers to escort him, and as they travel together they slowly are able to rekindle their friendship.
The premise of the story is fairly common, as is the main theme presented, friendship. We can think back to some of the stories from O’Brien’s “The Things We Carried”, “The Book Thief” and countless other war stories. However, the cultural and historical background of this piece is, in my opinion, pretty unique. I’ve yet to read anything about the Korean War, and even in history classes, I’ve personally never explored it in depth.
This context functions in two ways – on the one hand, it shows how all civil wars are different because each carries distinct cultural contexts unique to that time and region. You couldn’t really say the division of North and South Korea and the division of the Union and the Confederacy are the same, because one revolves around communism and the other slavery. On the other hand, we still get the sense that at its core, all war is the same. No matter when or where, war is based on ideological divides, and those divides may pit neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend.
Similarly, the story conveys this sameness and distinction through its craft. While the symbols used such as cranes, chestnuts, and cigars are unique to the story, what they represent are not. The freedom and humanity shown in the acts of grace throughout the story show that we are capable of overcoming differences and reaching understanding.
Sun-Won is also able to convey the power of nostalgia and acceptance. Song-sam criticizes Tok-chae for being a communist, but quickly realizes that Tok-chae does not truly hold those beliefs. He was appointed to his position because he was a poor farmer, and he had only remained in the North to care for his sick father. The two estranged friends then set that aside and remember when they were carefree kids, not bound to any ideology.
Some have criticized Cranes for being too optimistic in pushing for unification. However, a closer read shows that the story is bigger than that. Professor Kim Seong-kon’s review puts it perfectly:
“We often tend to be intoxicated with political ideologies and firmly believe we are absolutely right, while all others are wrong. If and when we become captive of some dogmatic ideology, however, we end up losing so many precious things in life: innocence, friendship, dignity, love and affection ― that is, all of the things we call humanity. Indeed, at the end of “Cranes,” humanity prevails over ideology.”
More than the prose, symbols, or characterization, we have to see the bigger picture they point to – what Seong-kun cites as humanity.
That’s what’s compelling about this story. It’s so short and simple, just the length of a brief walk between the two main characters. But it reveals to us a truth universal to all war, and to all discord – that there’s more to us than just our ideology. Like Stevens from The Remains of The Day, we can’t let ourselves lose out to something that takes away our humanity. While Stevens may not ever overcome his need for dignity, Song-sam and Tok-chae are able to overcome their rift as they remember their camaraderie.
The next time I fold a paper crane it will be so much more than a paper crane. Like Song-sam and Tok-chae, the crane will represent friendship and freedom-true forces of nature to be reckoned with.
This short story sounds really interesting! There was a time that I was heavily interested in origami, so the title and picture captivated me right away. The part of this story that entices me the most is the idea that the review brought up, about humanity prevailing over ideology. As you brought up, disagreement over ideology is seen day in and day out. It’s seen far too often that people are divided over ideology, and this divide can create irreparable damage at local, state, and national, and international scales. But if we can truly understand the message that Sun-Won is trying to convey, many of our problems would diminish. I appreciated the connection to Remains of the Day, because this was such a clear example of someone losing their humanity, and we see the negative effects of that in Stevens life. I definitely plan to give Cranes a read, and hope to appreciate a paper crane more after reading the story.
Glad you liked it Mehak!! It’s only 4-ish pages so you could finish it in less than 10 minutes. I think it does tie really well with a lot of the reading we’ve done in the past, because the same theme is really prevalent throughout time. Even now, the political landscape in America is characterized by distrust and resentment. Now is definitely a time for Sun-Won’s message to shine!
I find this story very compelling especially since this can relate to our current political climate. There is sharp divide between the right and the left and I think that this story elaborates on divides that exist in ideologies among people who perceive other people with different ideologies to be enemies. It’s interesting to see how Sun-Won and Tok-chae rekindle their friendship despite having political differences over the years. Hwang-Sun Won’s use of Cranes as symbolism in the story gives it a serene and peaceful feel to it, as if there may be peace between the North and the South. I think that the criticism of the story being “too optomistic” is unfair and unwarranted. Recently, South and North Korea officially ended the war and have talked about Unification. The Korean woman’s hockey team was made up of North and South Koreans; there’s plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Even if these things didn’t happen, the story offers people hope that there can be reunification, or at least friendship between the two countries.
I loved your blog. We so often close off our minds to any opinions that don’t agree with out own. In our country, it is so polarized because people refuse to have civil discussions about their opinions. People are also very reluctant to make friends with people of other political parties just because of their beliefs, but sometimes you can have really interesting talks and learn a lot from people that have opinions that are different from yours. It is also important to remember that just because they have an opinion that is different, they are not a bad person.
Like Mehak, I was also intrigued by this title because of my childhood fascination with origami and cranes. I remember being inspired by the same 1000 paper cranes story in third grade, which created my goal of folding 1000 cranes. Unfortunately, I didn’t even make it to 50 cranes.
In the one version of the story I read (out of the multiple versions), Sadoko didn’t actually made it to 1000, but died before she could finish. However, her friends and family finished the rest for her. In doing so, they demonstrate the power of unity and also friendship.
It’s really amazing how both stories manage to use cranes as a symbol to represent not only friendship, but humanity and compassion. What I especially love about this story is the fact that how friendship was able to prevail over ideology. Although, I agree that Cranes might have been overly optimistic but I also agree that if we get too caught up in ideology and always being correct, we lose out basic humanity. In the end, I do believe that it was necessary for Cranes to be written as it was, to inspire readers to overcome odds for friendship.