I’m being pessimistic, I suppose, as I was unaware of the events of The Island of the Sea Women and of others until I read them.Įvery book that isn’t about the future is, by the time we’ve read it, set in the past, but in my experiences as an American high school student, it often seemed like we learned about a very specific past. Books are clear proof that there’s some truth in this saying, or that perhaps that there isn’t, that we see the mistakes of our past and yet can’t do anything about them in the present. A lot of the time, the historical event addressed isn’t something I knew much about in the past, but that I can clearly see reflected in the present. We’ve all heard many times that knowing the past is important so that we don’t repeat our mistakes, and often literary fiction (or really any type of fiction) serve as a reminder of this. It’s a bit frightening to think that all over the world, people’s attempts at having a voice are denied and suppressed, and it makes me worry for the future here.

From the violence committed against protestors and innocents, to the erasure of history, the two events don’t necessarily match completely, but they’re similar enough that it served as a reminder that this is hardly the only place or time that this has happened. There’s quite a lot in here that makes me think of the Black Lives Matter protests and the seemingly continuous unveiling of crimes committed by police officers.

The violence and attempts at censorship feel relevant even years later and across the world. Anyone protesting the government is arrested and tortured or killed. The end of World War II brings American occupation and even worse atrocities. An adult Young-sook attends one and watches a child trampled under a police horse and the angry crowd shot at. One of Young-sook’s early memories is attending a protest with her mother, and protests continue throughout the book, growing more dangerous.

The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See