As full-length novels written during the Korean War, 『Sa-rang-eui-haw-cheop』(1952) by Lee, Moo-Young and 『Ae-jeong-moo-han』(1951) by Jeong, Bi-Seok convey ethics and value reasonable for the period of war, through romantic relationships between men an ...
As full-length novels written during the Korean War, 『Sa-rang-eui-haw-cheop』(1952) by Lee, Moo-Young and 『Ae-jeong-moo-han』(1951) by Jeong, Bi-Seok convey ethics and value reasonable for the period of war, through romantic relationships between men and women.
Firstly, 『Sa-rang-eui-haw-cheop』 describes a married couple who have the shape of a virtuous nationalist and a corrupt anti-nationalist. As a Catholic priest and a nun, they fall in love and come back to the earthly life. However, for the nation and the people that the husband decided to newly serve as Gods, he devotes himself to relief work.
In the presence of this cause, the wife's personal desire is regarded as trifling. In the end, the wife defects to North Korea along with her husband who is a communist. But here, North Korea is almost like hell. The wife realizes that the important things are a mind, not a body, and the people, not individuals, after being punished to fall into hell. The wife's repeated confession makes her degrade to the perfect status of a sinner, rather than to save her. Therefore, the novel ends, under the assumption that she would die or get lost.
On the other hand, a female desire in 『Ae-jeong-moo-han』 seems to be thought, positively. One man feels affection for a woman who is his co-worker, while working in the propaganda division of North Korea, hiding his status. This woman takes the lead in mental and physical combination with him, proving the fact she isn't a communist. However, in fact, this woman does nothing but moves as the man desires, not being independent.
In this novel, the Korean War is described as violence brought about by communism which is an absolute evil, and disillusions the male character. He tries to relieve his disillusionment, by loving a dutiful woman. Thus, the female character here is merely an utopia created by the fantasy of a man experiencing self-splitting and a sense of loss. Besides, she becomes an object of romantic remembrance, by dying a death.
As explained above, each of these two novels shows a corrupt woman and an idealized woman, but they are both used as tools for supporting identities of the male characters, and stress the theme, anti-communism. In this respect, they have some characteristics in common.