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Muhammad Oktrianda Arrafi

Dra. Eva Najma, M.Hum

ING62218 - Comparative Literature

July 4th, 2023

How American and Korean Short Stories Portray the Role of a Father: A Comparative Study

on Moralism Aspect from the Short Story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

and “One Lucky Day”.

Abstract

This comparative study explores the portrayal of the role of a father in American and

Korean short stories, specifically analyzing Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going,

Where Have You Been" and Hyeon Jin-geon's "One Lucky Day." The study employs the

moralism aspect of literary theory to examine how these stories convey ethical considerations

and lessons related to fatherhood. In the American short story, the father figure is largely

absent, creating a strained relationship within the family. However, when faced with danger,

the protagonist still acknowledges her father's role. On the other hand, the Korean short story

depicts a father who fails to provide for his family and becomes abusive. This cautionary tale

emphasizes the importance of fathers in protecting and providing for their families. The study

also considers the cultural and societal contexts in which these stories were written and

highlights the evolving role of fathers in the 21st century. By examining these two narratives,

the study provides insights into the significance of the father's role in literature and society.

Keywords: fatherhood, comparative literature, short stories, moralism, role, American,

Korean.

Introduction

A literary work is a written fictional piece of literature, this includes novels, short stories,

and poems. Depending on the genre, literary works could be telling any story, from heroic
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stories to epic poems, each of them tells a different story with different settings and

characters which makes every literary work unique in its own way. Literary criticism is an

evaluation, interpretation, and analysis of literary works using various theoretical approaches

and methodologies. It involves the examination of literary texts to understand their artistic

qualities, themes, cultural significance, and social implications. Comparative literature,

however, is a study where someone analyzes and compare 2 different literary work from

different background, culture, language, and or any other differences to find the similarities

and differences that it has represent. This study explores the interconnectedness and shared

themes, motifs, and techniques found in literature across various societies and time periods.

Susan Bassnett, a scholar of comparative literature, argued that anyone that has an interest in

literary works would sooner or later embark on their journey into comparing many different

works that they had enjoyed, creating importance in the theory of comparative literature.

There are many ways to compare two different literary works, from identifying different

cultures, languages, and time periods, or we can also compare the meaning or the moral

aspect behind the story such as how both stories represent and portray the role of a father in

their respective work.

“Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” is an American short story written by

Joyce Carol Oates back in 1966. The story follows the daily lives of Connie, an attractive 15

years old that have a strained relationship with her family, later on in the story, Connie met

Arnold Friend, and from there, the story went darker as she hopes that her father would help

her. “One Lucky Day” is a short story written by Korean writer Hyun Jin-geon back in 1924.

The story revolves around the lives of a rickshaw porter and a father of a newborn baby Mr.

Kim, who hasn’t been able to gain money for the past few days. In One Lucky Day, Mr. Kim

miraculously gets a lot of order and steadily make income, however, when he comes back

home from work, he was struck by the nightmare that is his lucky day.
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Moralism Literary Theory

Ever since 360 B.C. The great Greek philosopher, Plato, argued that art and literature are

media that had the ability to influence others' behavior. Moral criticism is a branch of literary

criticism that focuses on the morality and ethical consideration present in a literary work.

According to Kevin Lee (2012), “In Moral Criticism, any literary work which ethically

sounds and encourages virtue is praised, while literature which corrupts and misguide is

condemned.” There are several things to consider in moral criticism, those are Maturity,

Sincerity, Honesty, Sensitivity, Courage, and more. Studying literature from the moral

perspective can be used to determine whether a literary work conveys a message or a lesson

and whether it can lead to better lives and improve the reader’s understanding of the world.

Hernandez (2012) argued that Moral Criticism is an attempt to extract ethical and moral

context from a literary work. The range of moral criticism is the question of whether a moral

rule is necessary and its justification, to the understanding of the significance of a moral rule,

and finally to its practical implementation.

American Short Story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

Father, as represented in the short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been”

by Joyce Carol Oates is a character that never shows up in the scene, and only gets mentioned

by the family. The four members of Connie's family include Connie, her older sister June,

their mother, and lastly their father. June was portrayed as the perfect daughter by the words

of her mother, this creates an inferiority complex that Connie experienced throughout the

story. Their mother, as Connie explained, was always biased toward her older sister, Connie

also believes that sometimes she can be cruel to her mother, however, Connie herself was

always held back by her mother’s words and she always gets angered near her mother. The

father and also the supposed leader of the family were almost always absent from the story

even the word “father” itself was only written 7 times in the whole 13.756 words of the full
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short story, this can be interpreted as the role of a father itself was not really apparent and

important in the story.

“Their father was away at work most of the time and when he came home he wanted

supper and he read the newspaper at supper and after supper, he went to bed.” (Oates, 1966)

As can be seen from that passage, the character “father” itself was always portrayed as

unimportant and useless in Connie’s daily life as the story revolved around her life. The last

two occasions when the word “father” is used was when Connie panicked when Arnold

Friend tried to kidnap her.

“If my father comes and sees you—" (Oates, 1966)

"But my father's coming back. He's coming to get me. I …” (Oates, 1966)

In these two dialogue passages, we can see that even though the character “father” was

mostly omitted from the story the character still has the role and the expectation that society

has towards the job that is being a father. In morality, the way that their father is treated in

their family and the way their father treated them were both wrong as it creates a detached

relationship in their family. Although detached, we can see that Connie is still conscious of

her father and his role as she remembered her father first when she is in a dangerous situation,

however, at last, she surrendered to Arnold Friend and let herself be the only victim and

never told her family, especially her father as she stopped herself from calling her father in

the story about the perilous situation that she was in. The moral that we can take from this is

to always keep our familial relationship to never be detached as it is both dangerous and

disheartening as the family is the first bond that every human has.

Korean Short Story “One Lucky Day”

The main character in the short story “One Lucky Day” by the Korean author Hyeon Jin-

gun, is a man called Kim, he is a rickshaw porter, a husband, and lastly, a father. With his

newborn baby and sick wife, he struggles through adversity and hardship to overcome their
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situation. Bad luck, some might say, but, for the last 10 days Mr. Kim hasn’t been able to

earn a little bit of money and every money that he had saved up has gone from taking care of

his baby and sick wife. This short story portrays the role of a man, of a father as the backbone

of a family, and how if that pillar fell, the family might be in danger, this is a cautionary tale

of luck and a father role that must not fall whatever adversities that might come. A role of a

father is to protect and provide for his family.

“It’s been over a month since his wife started coughing. They couldn’t even afford to eat

regularly, so it was no wonder he hadn’t tried any sort of medicine.” (Hyeon Jin-gun, 1924)

A father that couldn’t provide for his family was usually considered a bad father, however,

what if fate did so? What if bad luck happens and takes away his ability to provide? This is

when we can see the moral aspect of what the story wants to tell us. Albeit not able to

provide, a father can still provide protection in the form of warmth and love to his family, but

not in this cautionary tale. To give a little bit of context, Korea is known as a country with

one of the highest domestic violence occurrences in the world. “9,858 cases of domestic

abuse were reported to the police in 2020, out of those 9,682 victims are women.”

(seoullawgroup, 2021)

From that data, we can see that more than 90% of cases of domestic abuse in Korea were

caused by the “father” figure of the family, this tragedy of domestic abuse has its root deep in

the patriarchal culture of Korea as it's been their culture for hundreds of years, “The purpose

of marriage, traditionally, was to produce a male heir to carry on the family line and not to

provide mutual companionship and support for husband and wife.” Even to this day and age,

women in Korea are afraid of their men counterparts. However, as a father, we need to fulfill

our designated task as the spoon and shield for our family first.
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“Eh, wretched girl! You have the worst luck in the world! You get sick from starving, you

get sick from eating, what am I supposed to do? Why, you can’t even open your eyes right!”

(Hyeon Jin-gun, 1924)

From that passage, we can see that Mr. Kim is a typical man that many women in Korea

would rather keep their distance. Although he is a husband and a father at that, he still abuses

and abandons his mission to protect and feed his family. In the end,

“When he noticed her lifted eyes, the whites of her eyes covered … Then, tears like hen’s

droppings fell from his eyes and wetted the stiff face of the dead.” (Hyeon Jin-gun, 1924)

This cautionary tale tells us that the role of a father is important role, although a woman is

more than capable of filling the gaps of a man in raising a child, still, the mission to protect

and provide is the role of a father, isn’t that why God creates the system where a man and a

woman must get married before having a kid? To give the child safety both in their physics

and mentality, as well as grows up in a warm home.

How Both Stories Intertwined

How does global society see the role of a father? Vrouvas (2017) believed that modern

21st-century fathers are breaking out of the traditional expectation and roles that were

assigned to them: many of them are divorced, some of them are raising a child with their gay

partners, and others are never married. The role of a father is not only to protect and feed his

family but also to teach and bring coordination to them. According to research from National

Fatherhood Initiative, children without their father figure might: live in poverty, develop

behavioral problems, face neglect and abuse, and use drugs, that’s to name a few.

What about 20th-century Father? The year when the two short stories “Where Are You

Going, Where Have You Been" and “One Lucky Day” were released was back in the 20th

century? According to research by Atkinson and Blackwelder, research results indicate that

the definition of being a father has changed over the century between two things: a father as a
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provider, and a father as a caretaker, also, the interest in being a father throughout the 20th

century hasn’t increased, rather, they fluctuated.

In the story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" the role of a father can

rarely be seen as the father rarely shows up in the story. This indicates that the role of a father

is not really apparent in the short story, however, even though the character “father” rarely

shows up, the main character Connie, still remembered and hopes that her father is there with

her when she was put in a dangerous and perilous situation. This can be seen as the indicator

that even though a father is rarely seen or heard from, his influence and role can still be felt

throughout a family. In short, the role of a father as portrayed in the short story “Where Are

You Going, Where Have You Been" is to protect his family from danger. While in the short

story “One Lucky Day” the main character, Mr. Kim, can be seen as an abusive man that

abuses his wife, he violates the role of father from the American short story that a father must

protect his family. Another role that can be seen in the short story is that a father must feed

and provide for his family, which Mr. Kim did, however, this role exceeded his capability,

creating overwhelming stress that results in his abusive behavior.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this comparative study examined the portrayal of the role of a father in

American and Korean short stories, focusing on Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going,

Where Have You Been" and Hyeon Jin-geon's "One Lucky Day." Through the lens of

moralism, the study analyzed how these stories conveyed ethical considerations and lessons

related to fatherhood. In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been," the father figure

was largely absent, resulting in a strained relationship within the family. However, the

protagonist still acknowledged her father's role when faced with danger. On the other hand,

"One Lucky Day" depicted a father who failed to provide for his family and became abusive,

highlighting the importance of fathers in protecting and providing for their families. These
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narratives reflect the cultural and societal contexts in which they were written and shed light

on the evolving role of fathers in the 21st century.

By comparing these two stories, this study provides insights into the significance of the

father's role in literature and society. It underscores the importance of maintaining strong

familial relationships and fulfilling the responsibilities of fatherhood. Moreover, it highlights

the social implications and moral considerations associated with fatherhood, emphasizing the

need for fathers to protect, provide, and guide their families. As society evolves, the role of

fathers continues to change, and it is essential to explore and understand these changes

through literary analysis and comparative studies.

Bibliography

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1966.

Jin-gun, Hyeon. “One Lucky Day.” Gaebyeok. 1924

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Craddock, Bradley. Moral Criticism. 29 Sept. 2010,

aplitsota.blogspot.com/2010/11/moral-criticism.html.

Le, Kevin. “Moral Criticism.” prezi.com, prezi.com/2iou0njas86h/moral-criticism.

Bassnett, Susan. Comparative Literature: A Critical Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell,

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