56 pages • 1 hour read
Adam JohnsonThe Orphan Master's Son
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 31-32Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: The Confessions of Commander Ga
Chapter 31 Summary
The American plane arrives early, so Ga, Sun Moon and the children rise quickly and head for the airport. Sun Moon makes Ga promise that he will come with her. At the airport, the citizens of Pyongyang have been taken from the streets to participate in a welcome ceremony. The Dear Leader’s conversation with Ga contains veiled threats, such as “I have a feeling that after this, everything will be different, for all of us” (418).
The American plane circles the runway, lands, and turns to park for a quick escape. They are far from the fake Texas ranch that has been assembled in their honor. The scene includes a dressing room for Sun Moon, who is expected to make two costume changes. Comrade Buc, driving a forklift, moves her dressing room closer to the plane. The Dear Leader tells Ga and Sun Moon that there is an operation that can make Korean eyes look Western and hints that he has given the American girl an operation that will make her eyes look Korean.
The Senator, Wanda and Tommy come off the plane. They present the Dear Leader with a “pen of peace” and he gives them rhinoceros-horn bookends. The Dear Leader wants to show them children dancing, but the Americans want assurance that the rower is there. The Dear Leader takes the camera from Ga, goes into his Mercedes, and a moment later, Wanda’s phone receives a picture of the girl. The Americans return this show of good faith by unloading the radiation detector from their plane, although the Senator tells him that it will not work the way the Dear Leader thinks it will.
Then Sun Moon is asked to play the guitar. She plays a traditional song, but without any merriment. Commander Park demands that she play it properly. When she finishes, Ga accompanies her and the children to her dressing room. They find a pallet containing four white barrels, and Ga helps the children and Sun Moon into them. Meanwhile, the Dear Leader’s gifts of food and books are being loaded onto the back of the plane, but the Senator, who remains skeptical, asks that they be inspected first. Commander Park stops the load Comrade Buc’s forklift is carrying, which contains the four white barrels, through which can be seen the outline of Sun Moon and the children. To distract Commander Park, Ga gives Brando the order to hunt, and Brando attacks Park’s arm. Park retaliates by slashing at the dog with his box cutter, and Buc is able to load the barrels into the plane. By this time, the Dear Leader notices the absence of Sun Moon and her children, but it is too late. The Americans, including the rower, have boarded the plane and it begins its ascent.
The Dear Leader holds Ga responsible, but Buc is also implicated—despite his protestations of innocence. The Dear Leader tells Ga, “You could have gotten away for good. But you came here. What kind of person would do that? Who would make their way to me, who would throw away his own life, just to spoil mine?” (438).
Ga’s final thought, before being led away, is that this is what freedom is—a way he would have felt his whole life if the Dear Leader had not existed.
Chapter 32 Summary
In the final installment of the year’s Best North Korean story, the broadcast tells of the departure of the poor American Rower, “returning to America and a life of illiteracy, canines, and multicolored condoms” (439). The Americans only pretend to be pleasant during their visit, but then set vicious dogs on the North Koreans and drag Sun Moon onto their plane. As she is taken away, Sun Moon calls, “Shoot me now, comrades, for I do not wish to live without the benevolent guidance of the greatest of all leaders, Kim Jong Il” (441). The Dear Leader rushes after the plane but is too late. Commander Ga, “viewing firsthand an act of supreme bravery” chases the plane himself and gets hold of one of its wings. As the plane takes off, he writes a message to Sun Moon on one of the windows in his own blood, and in turn she sings him the words to the song “Our Father is the Marshal” from inside the window. When the plane heads out over open water, Commander Ga spots an American aircraft vessel below and stands on the wing, giving Sun Moon a salute before jumping to his death below.
The broadcaster instructs the citizens not to weep, for a bronze bust of Commander Ga is already being installed in the Revolutionary Martyrs’ Cemetery. “This is how an average man becomes a hero, a martyr, an inspiration to all,” the announcer says, ending with the words, “Generations of orphans to come will now be blessed with the name of both a hero and a martyr. Forever, Commander Ga Chol Chun. In this way, you’ll live forever” (443).
Chapter 31-32 Analysis
The North Koreans are determined to show their American visitors their culture and generosity. It is all fake, of course; the crowd at the airport is composed of citizens who have been swept up on their way to work, and the North Korean generosity consists of food they cannot afford to give away, as many of the country’s own citizens are starving.
Danger seems to lurk around every corner as Ga and Buc try to arrange for the escape of Sun Moon and her children right in front of the Dear Leader. The Dear Leader is suspicious of Ga, as he clearly shows when he uses Ga’s phone to take a picture of the American rower—a picture that appears on Wanda’s cell phone a moment later.
Ga has to think quickly, sacrificing the life of the dog, Brando, in order to create the distraction necessary for Sun Moon’s escape. He sacrifices himself in the process, and is sorry to see that Buc is also blamed.
The Dear Leader’s question, “Who would throw away his own life, just to spoil mine?” (438) is interesting, as is Ga’s reflection that making this sacrifice has offered him the chance at something he has never fully experienced before—freedom. He had tried to explain his idea of freedom to Wanda when he was in Texas, but it is clearer to him now. In America, where there is so much individual freedom, the citizens cannot fully appreciate it. In North Korea, where the government controls every action and thought—it controls, as the broadcast reminds its citizens—their tomorrows, freedom is more of a mental exercise, a personal and moral victory.
The book ends on an ironic note, with the official version portraying Ga as a traitor who, in the end had a change of heart and acted heroically for his country. In the ultimate twist of storytelling, the imposter Ga is now an official martyr, and future generations of orphans will bear his name.
