Love can bring people together forever however love can also drive people apart because of societal standards. Two people can love each other but due to the options of society, they can never be together, which creates a sense of forbidden love. In Korea during the 1930s it was unusual to see a widowed woman remarry. Remarriage was seen as inappropriate and taboo by Korean society. This forbidden remarriage in Korea is what Chu Yo-sǒp focuses on in his story. He describes the love between a mother and a boarder through the eyes of a six year old child, after the mother’s husband dies. In “Mama and the Boarder,” Chu Yo-sŏp uses the naive narrator 's misinterpretation of love,which creates dramatic irony, to display the effects that the plot causes between Mama and the boarder thus creating the theme of forbidden love. In “Mama and the Boarder” the narrator tells the reader her age, which is too young to understand the emotions her mother expresses throughout the story. The narrator introduces herself. The …show more content…
Society passes judgements upon people for doing things that are unusual. At the age of six, a person’s mind has not matured enough to understand the emotions of adults. Ok-hŭi is not able to understand why Mama and the boarder gives each other these looks. This is because she is not of the age where she can understand that Korean society has deemed it unacceptable for a woman to remarry once she has become a widow. Ok-hŭi at her young age does not understand this tension that is created between the Korean societal rules and the love between Mama and the boarder. Although remarriage is seen as positive in societies around the world the Korean society takes remarriage and deems it as inappropriate thus using forbidden love to drive people