earticle

영어

During Korea’s industrialization period and China’s Reform and Opening-up, both countries’ economy developed rapidly. However, under the shadow of the economic development, Korea produced a large number of wandering laborers who were deprived of their hometowns, while China witnessed the emergence of migrant workers without a sense of identity and the expansion of materialism. This paper focuses on Hwang Seok-young and Chen Yingsong's Leave home novel which embody the theme of industrialization and Reform and Opening-up, and analyzes the characters and the hometown image in their works. The main works studied in this paper are “The Road to Sampo”, “A Strange Land”, “The Dream of Strong man” and “A lucky dream” by Hwang Seok-young and “Taiping Dog”, “Masiling Murder” and “Live Like the White Cloud” by Chen Yingsong. The common features of their works are, first of all, the wandering laborers and migrant workers who have lost both their identity and their hometown. During Korea’s industrialization period and China’s Reform and Opening-up both groups lived a tragic life in the city and lost their sense of identity and hometown. Second, with a view to the perplexity of the characters and materialism caused by the loss of hometown. However, this paper mainly examines the differences of the loss of hometown in these two writers’ novels. The hometown in Hwang’s works is a hometown lost because of the development, which is a romantic ideal place the characters want to return and a way out of the industrialization. The hometown in Chen’s works is a hometown to escape in order to survive, to get rid of poverty and to seek a better future, which the migrant workers have left to pursue the sense of stability and security in the Reform and Opening-up. Although their hometown is preserved, it becomes even more barren and impoverished because of the loss of labor force and the deprivation of the Reform and Opening-up. In their works, the characters’ response to the loss of the hometown differs as well. The wandering laborers in Hwang’s works overcome the grief of losing their hometown with a sense of solidarity and love among people. In contrast, The migrant workers in Chen’s works show a sense of hostility to the society and the loss of love. In this way, The novels of these two novelists, who represent the theme of industrialization, Reform and Opening-up, and leaving hometown for the city, expressed their realistic world view and their critical awareness of the absurd society. However, Hwang’s works expounds that the future of society lies in the preservation of love among people, the dream of returning home, and the sense of solidarity. On the contrary, Chen merely objectively depicts the image of the degraded characters in reality and doesn’t clarify the future of society. the migrant workers live in the city and lost their sense of identity.