Department of English

The first year in the United States would render a significant meaning to most immigrants. It is a time where strong adaptability is demanded, language barrier is palpable, and constant comparison with their homeland is inevitable. This autofictional novella describes a Korean family’s first full year in America. The year is 2002, the post-911 era, where the notion of immigration and the American dream felt different from before. This was also the time when CDs were gradually replaced by MP3 devices and “Rock is dead” sounded fitting due to the diminishing rock and roll band music. Gunn, a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore, is hopeful for a new beginning but quickly meets a severe challenge of speaking English as a second language. He searches for help but instead faces the bullying inflicted on Korean-speaking newcomers who are disparagingly called “fobs.” At home, he helplessly watches his mother struggling financially while working for a difficult owner couple in Koreatown, his ten-year-old sister who says she wants to go back to Korea, and his father who comes and goes between Seoul and Los Angeles while fighting cancer. Falling in love with rock CDs especially of The Cure, Gunn finds emotional comfort in America that seems to give only hardship and suffering. Through his first-person point of view, this novella aims to express the voice of poor immigrant families, struggling English learners, victims of bullying, brokenhearted youth, and the fatherless.