Project Mulberry

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Perceptions of Ethnic/Racial Identity

Content Warning: This section references racial prejudice and racist slurs.

Perception of ethnic/racial identity—particularly incorrect perception—is a major theme. Julia has often experienced negative perceptions, so she is both sensitive to them and painfully aware of how hurtful they can be. She distances herself from her heritage due to her friends’ disgusted reactions to kimchi, and she has traumatic memories of being called slurs associated with Chinese people (since her family is Korean American, the words doubly negate her background). Julia also observes her mother’s prejudice against Black people, possibly due to inherited trauma from the Korean War, which Julia must actively reject.

Park demonstrates that regardless of ethnicity or allyship, no one is immune to these (mis)perceptions. Most prejudice in the novel is subtle, stemming not from negative feelings so much as lack of reflection—i.e., a failure to question the ideas one has absorbed or to consider how other people’s perspectives might differ from one’s own. Mr. Dixon, a Black man, assumes the Songs are white and then Chinese, lumping together very different Asian cultures and ethnicities. Patrick, though appreciative of Korean culture (and kimchi) to the point that he considers his own heritage boring, can’t fully grasp Julia’s sensitivity about her heritage because it’s something he has never had to deal with. Mr. Maxwell fails to notice Julia’s empathy for the silkworms—a symbol of the immigrant experience—assuming she intends to harvest the silk. Kenny, a second-generation Korean American, is the only one to recognize how his sister feels and console her. The state fair judges consider Project Mulberry unique and new, though sericulture has been part of Korean culture for centuries; it is invisible to white America, which the judges take as their baseline. In a tongue-in-cheek moment, Park even includes herself in her critique of these passive misperceptions. When Julia says that she assumed Mr. Dixon was white, Park admits that she did, too, implying that she also defaults to whiteness as the “norm.”

Julia therefore learns that a lot of misunderstandings arise from people failing to ask themselves what they don’t know. For example, she is so focused on the idea that sericulture is “too Korean” that she only learns about Susan B. Anthony’s silk dress when Patrick sends her the article. However, once she learns this lesson, she takes it to heart, actively continuing her friendship with Mr. Dixon and bringing Kenny with her to combat inherited prejudices. By the end of the book, Julia also more openly embraces her Korean heritage, looking for ways to incorporate it into her future projects.

Types of Productivity/Skill Sets

Another major theme of Project Mulberry is the diversity of productivity types and skill sets. The clearest example is Patrick and Julia’s form of teamwork: Patrick is a bookworm who loves research, while Julia prefers hands-on activities. These roles are not mutually exclusive, but they do affect the characters’ experiences. Because of his research, Patrick knows what to expect throughout the silkworm life cycle, though he distances himself from the worms via camerawork due to his phobia. On the other hand, Julia doesn’t like reading, so she is taken by surprise at each stage of the silkworm life cycle and doesn’t realize the pupae must be killed to harvest the silk. Her hands-on approach gives her greater appreciation for the complexity of embroidery, but it also creates an emotional connection to the worms themselves, whom she views almost as pets or children rather than the mindless “lower form[s] of life” that Patrick does (180).

These are not the only skills present in the novel. Patrick also demonstrates an affinity for children, interacting with Kenny much more positively than Julia can until the end of the novel. Kenny is a logical thinker with a keen eye and an ability to point out the obvious, such as the molting silkworms, the idea to use a jar for filming the cocoons, and the fact that they do not need to kill all the silkworms. Mr. Dixon is handy in a garden and in the kitchen, as he shows through his homemade brownies and homegrown sweet pea flowers and peppers. Mr. Maxwell’s skill with farming inspired him to lead the Plainfield chapter of the Wiggle Club to pass down his skills and knowledge—including his sustainability initiatives—to younger generations. Wiggle projects in general are meant to showcase the sheer variety of skills in existence, such as the boy who raised a goose and the girl who quilted her family’s history all the way back to ships of enslaved Africans.

The dialogues with which Park ends each chapter extend the consideration of diverse skill sets to the novel itself, giving an in-depth look at Park’s writing process and allowing Julia to bring her own perspective to bear on it. The book itself thus becomes a collaborative effort. In this way, Park points out that no matter one’s affinity, there is always a way to contribute positively to society.

Sustainability of Nature and Knowledge

Project Mulberry (the Wiggle project) would not have succeeded without assistance from various members of Patrick and Julia’s community. Mrs. Song suggested it and also taught Julia how to embroider. They needed Mr. Dixon’s mulberry tree and the gas station attendant’s assistance in advertising their fliers. Mr. Maxwell encouraged the project and inspired Patrick’s addition of a sustainability aspect. He also found the university lab that takes the leftover eggs at the project’s conclusion. On a much broader scale, silk harvesting and embroidery connect back to the Songs’ ancestors, who had their own communities in Korea. In meeting and interacting with so many people, Julia, Patrick, and (later) Kenny not only broaden their own community but also bring the people they meet together, bridging gaps in understanding through their relationships.

Throughout this process, Julia constantly ponders the concept of cycles: the idea that what goes around comes around, every step paving the way for the next transformation in a system that can—if done right—continue indefinitely. This is most obvious during the field trip to Mr. Maxwell’s farm, where he describes his rotation system of cows, chickens, and sheep to keep his fields fallow and his animals healthy and happy. This in turn inspires a sustainability element in Project Mulberry, as Patrick and Julia use silkworm droppings to fertilize Mr. Dixon’s tree. These human efforts towards sustainability mirror the self-renewing rhythms of the natural world—most notably, the silkworm life cycle, wherein eggs hatch into worms that become pupae that become moths that lay more eggs, etc.

The novel also uses this idea of sustainability figuratively, with Julia realizing that knowledge itself is a cycle. She learns about sericulture and embroidery from her mother, who learned it from hers, who presumably learned it from her ancestors, and so on. This cycle is potentially endless as long as Julia in turn passes on her knowledge, as she does at the state fair. This explains why certain issues, such as the question of Mrs. Song’s prejudice, remain unresolved at the end of the novel. Park hopes the reader will take the book’s lessons and themes and continue the cycle of thinking, learning, and educating in order to create desired social change.