Mother - Tongue

Mother - Tongue


When one is subjected to rape of both the body and mind, developing an identity is difficult. Nora Cobb Keller’s short story entitled “Mother-Tongue” is about a Korean woman’s struggle for her identity lost when she experiences rape. The story is softly spoken through a Korean woman named Akiko. Akiko’s essence is stripped from her while enduring multiple rapes of both body and mind. Her loss of identity starts when her sister sells her to the Japanese for cattle at age twelve. The Japanese place Akiko in a recreation camp named Jungun Lanfu where she is forced to prostitute for Japanese soldiers. There they rape her not only of her body, but of her mind and soul as well. They violate her spirit by displaying murdered women and rape her of her language by restricting speaking. Akiko continues through life existing but never truly living. However, the miraculous birth of her child renews her spirit. Akiko’s brevity of life compels the reader to feel courage and compassion for her.

The mental rape inflicted by the Japanese stripped her of her verbal language. In Jungun Lanfu she is forbidden from ever speaking through her lingual language, she is only to respond to the sexual wants of the soldiers. To keep her sanity, she and the other woman of the camp develop a silent language. They send messages to each other “through eye movements, body posture, tilts of the head or - rhythmic rustlings” (319). After the missionaries save Akiko, she is unable to tell them her name. “I had no voice and could only stand dumbly in front of their moving mouths” (319). The missionaries refer to her as Akiko because the word was stitched on her dress. However, the word Akiko in the Japanese camps was the label for a pleasure woman.

Akiko’s body moves along the planet without a spirit to drive it. She thinks by killing herself she can recover her lost inner spirit. Because she saw what the Japanese soldiers did to the body of Induk, another Korean Akiko, she does not. The soldiers murdered Induk because she was rebellious. Afterwards, they displayed her skewered body in the camp for the other women to see what would happen to them if they were as difficult as she had been. Akiko believed that Induk knew of the consequences for disobeying and that this was her way to salvation. She knew Induk did not go crazy but that Induk needed the raping of her body and mind to end, even if it meant her own death. “...she was going sane. She was planning to escape” is what Akiko thought (322).

With Akiko’s survival of two violently torturous abortions at Jungun Lanfu, the conception of her child is miraculous. Her ignition for life comes through that of her surprise daughter named Tweggi. Akiko teaches her daughter the language of tenderness, love and caring through the warmth of touching and acting quickly upon her child’s needs. “I touch each part of her body, waiting until I see recognition in her eyes” (323). These caresses are genuine displays of affection that cannot be spoken through words. Akiko knows the only fulfillment of love is through this unheard dialect. This “Mother-Tongue” will reinforce her daughter’s identity, existence and spirit. Akiko knows that this, “is what quiets her, tells her she is precious “ (320). It is the ultimate language of love delivered straight to one’s soul.


The writer of a short story needs to bring the reader to life by stirring up powerfully deep emotions. For short stories to be successful, the reader must participate in the existence of a character. To do this, the writer must accomplish the two things that Frederick Busch outlines in his essay titled “Bad.” First, the writer must truly love his character. If the writer does not love his character, than neither will the reader. Secondly, the writer must imitate real life through logical language to achieve an effectively moving story. Nora Cobb Keller accomplishes both of Busch’s criteria within the story “Mother-Tongue.” Keller created a tangible and persuasive character that comes alive in the heart of the reader. The character’s terror of madness and death causes the reader to feel for the character. Akiko gracefully steps inside the reader’s mind and establishes a strong and convincing presence. The story’s energy stimulates emotions of fear, loneliness and understanding within the reader. By the standards established by Frederick Busch in “Bad,” “Mother-Tongue” has the elements of what it takes to be a good short story.