Daniela May F.

Tampus 11- HUMSS WEBER

Mimetic Literary Critique

SAMPOONG DEPARTMENT STORE

By: Jeong Yi Hyun

This critical reading argues that Jeong Yi Hyun’s story entitled “Sampoong
Department Store” signifies a true relationship between two persons who had a great love
and acceptance for one another even after the tragic event.

The story begins when the main character named Sally (a nickname given by her)
narrated about Sampoong Department Store which suddenly collapsed on June 29, 1995 at
exactly 5:55. This event triggers her to remember her four year old self.

When she was still four years old, Sally’s mom send her to school and unfortunately,
she always come late and she reasoned that nobody will make breakfast for her. She stated
that she will always wake up early in the morning and do her routine but her mom and
Suk-ja (their home-help) are still asleep. Her mother doesn’t want her to be a failure so she
promised to make her breakfast and wake up early. However, her mother broke the
promise.

Her parents was so proud of her command of language making her superior from
the other children but being gifted with the superiority of language, she doesn’t have the
ability to look at figures like time and had a hard time recognizing her left hand from the
right, not until she suddenly slashed her left wrist against their glass door.

After stating those childhood days, she shifted her narration to the present time. She
applied for jobs but the movie company was the only one who called her. She was later
informed that her job would be to review the draft of international movie mostly porn
which would be marketed as videos that would not came out to cinemas.

She went to the Q-brand outlet market and had meet R- her new friend who
happens to be a school batch mate before. They were both graduates from same high
school before but they almost didn’t have any interaction because R was a silent and lonely
person.

Sally, together with her best friend S goes to the Q-brand outlet one time and the
first conversation with R happen there again and she discovered R was working there as a
sales lady. R inscribed her pager to Sally and even gave the key to her home. They eat
together one time at a noodle shop and talk about R’s work. They became close to each
other rapidly. They exchange paying supper, go to R’s place, watch a video and drink beer.

Those moments were slowly fading away from Sally’s memory and she became busy
with her job.

On June 29, 1995 when the weather was so hot, Sally entered the Sampoong
Department Store. She was muttering down the lobby, at 5:43, she walked out of the store,
5:48 she arrived at home, at 5:53, she opened her zebra colored journal. She had just
written few words when she heard a great crash.

It was exactly 5:55 when the Sampoong Department Store collapsed. She never
heard about R again and she didn’t make any confirmatory move for her friend because she
was just afraid of the fact that her friend already disappeared.

Sally moved to another neighborhood and the Sampoong Department Store which
was once abandoned for a long time has already made some apartments and stores.

This argument was supported by the mimetic criticism or mimetic critical theory
which considers a literary piece as an imitation. Mimetic criticism often asks how well the
literary work conveys universal truths where moral values and modes of personal conduct
will be thought to the readers. (Adam)

This story was based on a real life tragic story which teaches us the value of
friendship despite of all the tragic happenings in life. It also teaches us to value one and all
those people around us because we don’t have any idea when will our life be taken. Each of
us has been raised differently and we all have different views, opinions and perspectives in
life and we must accept it for it is the best way to achieve an undeniable and accepting love.

The text tells a story of a girl named Sally who was raised differently and her new
found friend R who changed her life. It was very evident that the story teaches and shows
relief situations where we meet a new friend who will influence and change our life.

Sally considered R as her new friend considering that R wasn’t known to anybody
because of her quietness to the point here you can’t notice her either she’s there or not. She
still considers and remembered that they were classmates/ batch mates since then.

My new friend.

Nobody knew about her, I had first met her that spring.

R and I were both graduates from the same high school. While we were at school we
had almost never spoken. There was no particular reason. She was so quite you
never noticed if she was there or not.

Sally tried her best to not create an awkward atmosphere between her and R so
their first conversation turned to be a normal one.

“Why hello!” R greeted me first. “Oh, hello.” I replied. That was our first
conversation. “I work here.” R stubbornly insisted on telling me something I already
knew. “Well never! I didn’t realize. I often pass here. “Hmm. I recently moved here
from the Lotte Store in Myeong-dong.”

They were slowly building a relationship as time goes by and they do simple things
like eating together, exchange paying for supper, drinking together, watching videos
together and a lot more as a proof of their friendship.

After supper, we would go to R’s place and watch a video or drink beer. With the
beer we would nibble peanuts or onion rings.
 Their friendship has gained trust to the point where R gave Sally a key to her home.
This means that R was too only and her only companion was Sally. The key represent that R
has trusted Sally and has given her the consent to have an access to her life.

“If you have nowhere to go during the day, shall I give you a key to my place?” I had
no other friend who would ever have said such a thing. I just laughed”. Since it’s
empty in any case, you can make yourself at home, cook some instant noodles, read
books. So long as you wash up the dishes you use”.

Even though their friendship was tested by a tragic happening, she still manages to
look for her friend R in a website called Cyworld hoping that R was still alive.

As I began to write this, I did a search for R’s mini- homepage using Cyworld. There
were twelve girls born in 1972 with the same name as R. I clicked on the names one
by one. The twelve R’s… At the entrance to the eleventh mini- homepage there was a
photo of a little girl. She looked to be about three or four years old. I enlarged the
photo of a little girl… I sincerely hoped that the girl might be R’s daughter.

Thus, the story “Sampoong Department Store” by Jeong Yi Hyun, signifies that true
friendship can’t be tested by any tragic event.

REFERENCES:

https://www.penandthepadcom

https://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/terms/M/mimesis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampoong_Department_Store_collapse

Critique Paper: Sampoong Department Store

: Mimesis
Analysis 20 pts.
Evidence 20 pts.
Organization 5 pts.
Mechanics 5 pts.