Shelter: Violence Hidden in the Dysfunctional Immigrant Family

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Violence eventually becomes the only outlet of Jin’s dissatisfactory towards family members. The affected harmony would have stayed longer if Jin’s authority in the family has not been challenged by Mae. According to Jin’s words to Kyung: “And you know what she finally said to me after thirty six years of marriage, after I’d spent nearly half of them trying to make up for what I did? She said she was leaving. She was going to work-ha!-she was going to work for that friend of hers.”(216) The word “ha!” strongly conveyed Jin’s contempt to Mae’s behavior. Wife’s going out to work independently with the price of giving up what he made up for her is the most ashamed thing that can happen to a husband in Korean family. The peace existing in the family over the years through carefully maintained by everyone breaks when the uncontrollable rage breaks out. Later in the novel, Perry remembers the brutal abuse that Mae has suffered: “‘Her husband was beating the crap out of her.’ Perry motions forward his face. ‘She was all banged up, her lip was bleeding everywhere.’”(300) The brutal scene of Mae being abused is the outlet of Jin’s insistence on the traditional cultural context. Back to the opening scene of the novel, Mae appeared in the backyard of Kyung’s house as naked and beaten. Recalling the first image of Mae showing up: “Mae’s face is filthy. Her skin is covered with dark brown streaks.”(15). Without being aware of where herself if: “She just stands there, trembling as he takes in everything that he missed before. The scratches on her arms and breasts. The bloody patches where her pubic hair has been ripped out. Bruises everywhere. Bruises again.”(16) The way Mae showed up stands for the significant change of this family dynamic. Out of Jin’s expectation to his abuse, the result of this violence is disastrous, as the home invasion brought unrecoverable trauma to the family. The tragedy leads to the breakdown of what they carried from their original country and what they have been cultivated here in America - the respectful prestige as well as the admire from Korean immigrant community.

In the case of Jung Yun’s Shelter, one can learn, through the dysfunction of two families, that culture conflict plays an important role in the immigrant family in both positive and negative ways. The sacrifice of Mae and Kyung portrays an imbalanced construction of family harmony. By following the shifts of family dynamics, one is able to see that the influences of home culture as well as patriarchal dominance eventually cause the breakdown of a family. With outside pressure coming from different community resources and inner drive to seek acceptance from America, the tragedy of this family manifests in the violence towards every member. The Cho family would not have the dysfunctional and disastrous ending without the strong will to succeed according to two sets of cultural norms.

Works Cited:

Yun, Jung. Shelter. Picador, 2016.