43 pages • 1 hour read
Nancy Jooyoun KimThe Last Story of Mina Lee
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
Essay Topics
Tools
BetaSymbols & Motifs
Food
One of Margot’s earliest memories is of customers at the swap meet. They would often hold their noses as they walked by the booth because they smelled the Korean food that Mina brought from home. For Margot, their insults “would haunt her for her life” (42), even though they didn’t bother her mother. For Margot, Korean food represents her mother’s poverty and her unwillingness to participate in American culture.
When Mina and Mrs. Baek eat together, they bond over Korean food and the comfort of its nostalgia. The descriptions of the food they eat are as lively and exuberant as anything else in Mina’s life. Korean food is one of the few objects in the novel that Mina views with complete positivity. In contrast, Mina thinks American food is “barbaric.” When she has a hamburger on the pier with Mr. Kim, she can barely figure out how to eat it because it is so messy.
Margot understands the bonding power of food. At a restaurant with Miguel, she thinks, “Nothing could bond quite connect people like food” (99). Earlier, she reveals that she equates the comfort of food with her country: “everything tasted too good, perfect, American” (16). To Margot, her mother’s food symbolizes everything that is wrong with Koreans in America. American food is satisfying, adventurous, and perfect.
Art
As a child, Margot feels the need to create art. However, she comes to see it as something of an indulgence when her mother’s example shows that she should always be sacrificing and working. Margot sees being an artist as “dangerous. How could she afford the time and money to have more art in her life?” (37).
Nevertheless, as an adult, Margot still believes that “everyone needed art” (206). She refers to her own sketching, but also to the meticulous way that Mina peels apples, or the way that Mrs. Baek applies her makeup. When Mina asks Mrs. Baek about relationships and men, Mrs. Baek says that she is never bored, and never needy, because she has her books and music. Mrs. Baek majored in English literature, showing a formal commitment to art appreciation.
Art can be the attempt to express something inexpressible. Many of the characters in the book turn to art because they lack the ability to communicate their needs, suffering, and regrets through words.
The Virgin Mary Statue
Mina’s ceramic sculpture of the Virgin Mary is present for several of the book’s pivotal moments. When Margot finds her mother’s body, the broken sculpture is there. When she visits her mother’s shop to begin her investigation, there is another identical sculpture by the cash register. While Margot is sick, she contemplates the broken statue and then sketches it, remembering the complicated relationship her mother had with Margot’s art. When Mr. Kim leaves the note for Mina, saying that he wants to help her, Mina slaps the statue and cracks it. When Mina tells Mrs. Baek about Mr. Kim leaving, the statue watches. Finally, when Mina shows Mrs. Baek the gun, Mrs. Baek’s startled flinch knocks the statue to the ground.
In Christianity, Mary is the ultimate symbol of motherhood. She imbues all motherhood with a divine aspect. The sculpture reminds Margot of her priorities and reminds Mina of everything her mother sacrificed for her.
Mr. Kim’s Obituary
When Margot finds Mr. Kim’s obituary, she realizes that there was more to her mother’s past than she could ever know. She recognizes the similarities between Mr. Kim’s features and her own and knows he could be her father. The picture symbolizes her link to a past that can never be recaptured. By the time she finds his obituary, both of her parents are already dead. The obituary spurs her to further investigation, representing the importance of finding the truth, even when it may be unpleasant. It also reveals the depths of her mother’s pain to her, as she wonders why Mina didn’t tell her about “her father’s obituary in the drawer. Could the past have hurt that much?” (278). The past hurt Mina so much that she tried to protect Margot from it.
