All sources found and I've reread the story. It is better on second reading and I think this guy is gonna become the subject of my thesis. The story is fricking subtle and the title makes you go in (well, in a multicultural lit class) with false expectations.
Anyway... we're at the point right after this line (which is dead on where I should be):
In Kim Yong Ik’s, "They Won't Crack It Open," readers find a brilliant but rather surprising and subtle examination of the destructive effects of racial essentialism. Kim takes a multicultural lens and by inverting it tells a deeply personal, but at the same time generally applicable tale of how racial essentialism can destroy individuals. Part of the literary beauty of this piece is that it takes a path usually not taken and, when arriving at the common destination, more clearly limns the difficulties of arriving there.
Part of the subtlety is that Kim is writing about racial (social really) essentialism in the United States that has nothing to do with racism or foreigners and little to do with immigrants.
Kim cleverly contrasts and compares the experience of Dick’s mothers to Korea. By doing this, Kim orientalizes (in the sense Edward Said would use the word) the lifestyle of poor white United States Citizens.
Kim typically wrote stories, although in English and for and English audience, of Korea. "They Won't Crack It Open” is a fairly substantial departure from this ouvre.
The intro is brilliant once you finish the story and as you read it you wonder how much is intentional and how much is (THAT WORD FOR EXTRA LUCKY). As you go on and experience the clever imagery and subtle wordplay that Kim uses throughout, you realize it is primarily intentional
Compare to frozen hands story for the pain coming from “within” the culture. Dick is essentially killed by the expectation of his own culture. Kim brilliantly models this as his cab driver takes the narrator from the airport through the steps of decline. (INSERT THE DRIVE)
WORKS CITED
Book Title: The Shapes and Styles of Asian American Prose Fiction. Contributors: Esther Mikyung Ghymn - author. Publisher: Peter Lang Publishing. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1992. Page Number: 29.
Book Title: Nationalism and the Construction of Korean Identity. Contributors: Hyung Il Pai - editor, Timothy R. Tangherlini - editor. Publisher: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California. Place of Publication: Berkeley, CA. Publication Year: 1998.
Book Title: Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science. Contributors: David Williams - author. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 1996. Page Number: 142.
The Melancholy of Race. Contributors: Anne Anlin Cheng - author. Publisher: Oxford University Press. Place of Publication: New York. Publication Year: 2000. Page Number: 26.
Article Title: Cross-Cultural Reading versus Textual Accessibility in Multicultural Literature. Contributors: Seiwoong Oh - author. Journal Title: MELUS. Volume: 18. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 1993. Page Number: 3+. COPYRIGHT 1993 The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnics Literature of the United States; COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
Affliction and Opportunity: Korean Literature in Diaspora, a Brief Overview. Contributors: Kichung Kim - author. Journal Title: Korean Studies. Volume: 25. Issue: 2. Publication Year: 2001. Page Number: 261+. COPYRIGHT 2001 University of Hawaii Press; COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
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