About the book Memories of my Ghost Brother by Heinz Insu Fenkl, focusing on Asian American Women

1. Memories of My Ghost Brother
Heinz Insu Fenkl

2. Main Points/Overview
 Book is divided into 7 parts, named after Chinese elements
1. Moon
2. Water
3. Fire
4. Metal
5. Wood
6. Earth
7. Sun
 Narration of the story is interspersed with italicized parts: dreams,
visions, or flashbacks of main character Insu/Heinz

3. Moon:
In the House of the Japanese Colonel
 This section is “Moon” possibly due to the many references to moonlight
and ghosts, the setting of the Colonel’s house and the emotions it
evokes in Heinz/Insu
 Set in Post Korean War Korea
 Story begins with Insu and family moving into a new house that is
rumored to have been owned by a Japanese colonel who was rumored
to have tortured and murdered tens of thousands of Koreans for his
amusment. The house has also been a haven for refugees of the war.
 Here, fear of ghosts and spirits is first introduced. Mr. Hwang, the new
owner of the house, has performed exorcisms of the house

4. Characters
 Characters that live in the house:
 Insu: naïve narrator
 Insu’s mother (Mahmi)
 Emo & Hyongbu (Aunt and Uncle) with two children, Yongsu and
Haesuni
 Gannan (niece from the country)
 The house is a character itself: “quiet and parklike” at some times,
violent and frightening at others
 “I often heard whispers which I knew were lamentations of the refugees
who had died during the war. Sometimes when I looked toward the
boulders, I would see the ghost of the Japanese Colonel standing
quietly under the trees, gazing at me with his sad a lonely eyes”

5. Gannan
 Close relationship with Insu, we first see them interact when he comforts her as she cries
 She is a niece from the country, spends a lot of time on American army base, can be
presume that she is a prostitute there
 Has a yellow-haired boyfriend (American Soldier, GI) who gets her pregnant and won’t
marry her.
 Gives Insu advice: “‘When you’re grown up, you must have compassion. Good things and
bad things will happen, but you must remember this always, ungh? You must have
injong.’”
 Instructs him that he must never forget about injong, but once she commits suicide, he
cannot remember
 Insu has anxiety that night as he falls asleep because he can’t hear Mahmi breathing,
and then:
 “…I saw Gannan, dressed in white, waving to me from under the brances of the chestnut
tree. I smiled and fell, unafraid, into a deep sleep.” ”
 Her death affects the whole family: Haesuni and Yongsu fought more, Mahmi and Emo
have less to talk about, Insu is lonely, Hyongbu drinks more often

6. Water:
Blood and the River
 Meaning of the sections title
 Water & river: Haesuni, Hyongbu’s daughter, is almost drowned in
river,
 Blood from Hyongbu’s story about mosquitos
 The house is more silent since Gannan’s death. “I imagined at
times that I waded through it, as if it were an invisible fluid that
swirled between the rooms…”
 Hyongbu is moody, drunk, violent, beats children
 Insu begins to see Gannan: “A ghost in white with long, black hair
and an etherally beautiful face would often come to me in the
garden at night and smile at me with a sorrowful expression. She
spoke only when it rained…”

7.  Hyongbu tells elaborate stories to Insu, usually obviously fictional and
highlighting his own strength and intelligence. These are his only
interactions with Hyongbu throughout the story
 Hyongbu takes Insu, Haesuni, Yongbu on a boat ride. Haesuni is
nervous and keeps asking to turn back, but Hyongbu is stubborn. She
falls out of the boat and rather than helping her, he makes her hold on
until they reach the shore.
 “…we had seen Haesuni’s spirit on the verge of leaving her body.”
 Another Hyongbu story: mosquitos and how they are from his great
grandfathers fox demon wife
 “…But shes just a girl. A woman. A woman can ruin an entire bloodline. A
woman can suck you dry of your strength. And she’s going to grow up into a
bitch, just like the rest of them.” (regarding to Haesuni) Extremely
disrespectful of women, determined to pass this down to Insu.
 Throughout the first two parts of the story, Insu is often found singing.
Singing is a form of comfort for him, especially in the tragic situations
he finds himself in (Gannan’s suicide, Haesumi’s near drowning).
Gannan also cries from Chongi’s mothers song on the night she
commits suicide.

8. Fire: Insignia
English
 English lesson
 The bad English words which learned from Hyongbu
 Sunday school  making fun of Insu (language and father)

9. Insu starts to go to American school
The first bus trip:
•“Emptiness” “everything had gotten mixed up” 
suggests Insu wont fit into American school  lack of
internal strength and confusion of mixing culture
•“fresh air”  freedom
•Met “a fat Korean woman in a black muumuu” and her
son James
•MP checked ID cards of Korean but not GIs 
discrimination

10. First day in school:
•Meeting the teacher who spoke “smooth English that
made my mother sound like she was speaking the
wrong language” “disapproving glance”  the “inferior
status” of being Korean vs the “superior status” of being
American
•Names: Insu vs Heinz  conflict of identities
•Different colored hair  most obvious feature of
identity
•Struggle to fit in during recess  keep drinking water
•Throw up lunch  discomfort to absorb both cultures

11. •Moved to the new house in Tatagumi  not as good
as Japanese Colonel’s house  afraid of ghosts
•Met Jani in the new neighborhood “If you don’t belong
in this neighborhood, you have to fight me”  yellow-
haired Korean and white mixed blood, father died in
war  later became Insu’s best friend
•Song about the black people  social rank
discrimination

12. •First time riding bus alone to school  went to eat hot
dogs and ice-cream  rubbing sticks together like
Indians  symbol of American culture
•Skipped the morning with James  resistance to
assimilation
•No speaking Korean  push to accept American
culture  harsh punishments
•Group of Korean kids bond to each other  Jongsu
“big brother”  going to US next year  vanishing of
Korean group
•Incident of “penis”  “the most wonderful American
word”  influenced by American culture

13. Insu’s father came back from Vietnam:
•Waiting seven hours in airport
•“leaner and darker” “step more cautious than I
remembered, a step more suited for someone in
camouflage fatigues”  alert when surrounded by
Asian
•“My father was happy but uneasy… he seemed
preoccupied by something”  influence of war
•Told his father that he enjoyed school  want to
please his father

14. •Father taught Insu how to eat “European-style” 
assimilation
•Father talked about wars  how beautiful lands
turned into hell
•Father doesn’t want Insu and his mother to appear
near the camp  “Korean wife undermined his
authority” discrimination against Korean
•Invasion of North Koreans  retribution to Vietnam
War
•His military insignia  “Kills people whose skin is the
color of mine. Indelible”  conflict between the white
and the Asian  rewards from killing people

15. Fire  symbol of struggle and conflicts
1.Insu’s internal struggle between Korean identity and
American identity 
Assimilation forced by school  resistance
American way of living immersed in his daily life
unconsciously however still impossible to become fully
American
2.Society’s conflict between different races of people.
Ex. white vs yellow vs black
3.Wars bring tragedies  father’s insigma
representation of death of Asian people

16. Metal:
Images from a Stolen
Camera
 Chapter title represents their obsession
with material things and moneybenefits
and abuses
 Train is a technological advancement but ends
up injuring Kisu
 Expensive, nice cameras leads Insu to help
steal camera for money

17.  People led difficult lives in Korea
 played with sticks and stones
 Begged and stole for money
 Compared with Americans who could
afford expensive items like cameras

18. America is a Superior
Country
 GI refers to America as “The World”
 Indicating that it is the most important country
 What happens in Korea does not have as great of an
impact
 American items signify wealth
 Is saved by an American doctor after falling through a
window
 Insu is presented with Coca Cola by hiim

19. Role of Asian Mothers
 Had protective, caring qualities
 Dogshit calls for his Mother when he is scared
 When Jani scared him walking across the rails
 When he dangled under the bridge while the train
passed , “Mother, what am I to do?”

20. Expectations for the Younger
Generation
 The adult generation toils to earn money
to provide a better future for the younger
generation
 Long Legs says, Your mothers work so
hard…You should be studying to be
great men to help your families, and you
study to be thieves?”

21. Wood: Dead August
 Children did not just play around, had to earn
money themselves
 Insu and Jani bought items from ASCOM and sold it
to Koreans at a higher price
 Took orders from store owners

22. Wood: Dead in August
 Also refers to Korea being inferior
 Mr. Paek says “Things like this would never happen
in another country”
 Referring to chaos over maid dropping baby into well
 American items represent wealth
 Insu is presented with Coca Cola from the American
doctor
 American cigarette explicitly named

23. Role of Asian women
 Nurturing and caring nature
 Insu commented on the maid’s concerned voice
when he left off his bike
 Insu’s fear of the night, well, and maid disappeared
once he went home and saw Emo
 Emo helped him clean up his bloody nose

24. Trying to forget the past
 Everyone tries to forget the incident at the Apollo
Club
 Not spoken of
 Everyday life resumed
 It made Insu sad that people were trying to forget
though and erase the past
 Relates to how his mom and died tried to hide the
fact that he had an older brother

25. Wood
 The chapter title, Wood, represents Insu’s
immobility and inability to change his
circumstances
 In his dream, he becomes stiff like wood, watching
the old lady about to kill someone
 He does not sacrifice himself
 He can only stand and watch the scene play out
 Could not save his brother

26. Earth:
The Ginseng Hunters
 • Changmi bartering to get a
black son, James’ death.
Parallels to woman who kills
her son.
 • Insu harassed by prostitutes
on walk home
 • Story of the Ginseng Hunter
 •conclusion: Hongbu hangs
himself, Suzie who got sliced
by razor and father dies

27. Sun:
Memories of My Ghost Brother
 • Insu’s mother has daughter
Anna
 • Mother has a miscarriage,
father gets cancer
 • Car ride with GI and dad
 • The men and the monkeys
story, metaphor for Korean vs.
USA
 • Kuristo’s story revealed in the
end

28. THEMES
 Importance of dreams: how they represent repressed
memories, fears, and hopes
 The meaning of being black or white or Korean
 Desire to be a part of the intangible American dream
and how that desire shows itself in peoples’ selfish
actions
 Realization of the shallowness of the white ideal
 The influence of American culture and it’s positive
and negative effects
 “interruption” and dilution of Korean culture, erasure of
some of their own traditions