1. Short Story Fiction By Hwang Sunwon
Cranes
Short Story Fiction By
Hwang Sunwon

2. Cranes
Text Summary
Vocabulary
Text Analysis

3. Text Summary Tokchae is removed from his home and is now a prisoner.
Songsam, an officer who is Tokchae’s childhood friend, volunteers to be his escort.
Songsam gets angry with Tokchae and questions him about war and Tokchae stays silent.
Tokchae finally speaks and says its not easy to just run away.
Songsam and Tokchae go to a field and tie up a crane.
They feared they’d get caught and be punished so they untied him.
Songsam then unties Tokchae and Tokchae fears Songsam will shoot him.
Tokchae then realizes Songsam was giving him an opportunity to run to freedom.

4. Vocabulary Averted- to turn away or aside
Root- avert
Derivative- aversion
Burrs- a rough or irregular protuberance on any object
Root- burr
Thrushes- various similar birds
Root- thrush
Accord- to make agree or correspond
Root- accord
Derivative- according
Vastness- of very great area or extent
Root- vast
Derivative- vastly

5. Vocab Continued
I averted my gaze as the young girl with the bruised face walked in, careful not to draw attention to her.
I looked up into the sky startled by the thrushes of large birds directly above my head.
She slipped out of the tree landing on a bunch of burrs before I could catch her.
After the drought destroyed our crops, the empty vastness of the valley filled me with sorrow.
The discharge of a debt may take place either by payment of the amount due, by accord and satisfaction.

6. Text Analysis Symbolic, Loyalty, Privilege, Empathy
We felt that the word symbolic is a good word to explain this story because when they tie up the crane and let it go it symbolizes Songsam tying up Tokchae and letting him go to have freedom. Loyalty was another good descriptive word for this story because Tokchae didn’t run away instead of going to war because he didn’t want to leave his pregnant wife or his land. Another word we felt was appropriate was privilege, because Tokchae had the privilege to have his childhood friend as his escort. Our last word we felt described this story was empathy because after Tokchae tells Songsam why he didn’t run Songsam relates to how he felt when he had to leave his family behind.

7. Author Hwang Sunwon Writes poetry, short stories, and novels
Born in 1913 in Pyongyang
Educated at Waseta University in Tokyo
Published his first poetry in his early 20’s
In 1940 he wrote his first story
Published his first novels in 1950’s

8. Fiction
Plot- Exposition: Tokchae is taken from home and is now a prisoner. Rising action: Tokchae’s childhood friend volunteers to be his escort. Climax: Songsam gets angry at him and questions him about war and why he didn’t run. Falling action: Songsam unties Tokchae and gives him the opportunity to run. Resolution: Tokchae realizes Songsam gave him a chance at freedom.
Characters- Tokchae, and Songsam
Setting- During the Korean war in a small village
Theme- Friendship may overcome subjective differences
Point of View- First person