South Korea

Title: The Disobedient Frog
Genre: Folktale
Analysis:
In any country, there are clues in literature that can link to almost anything about a country. This does not exclude my EXPO country, South Korea. When I looked at literature originating in South Korea, I came across a folktale called “The Disobedient Frog.” It is an ancient story passed down through generations, which means that it has no particular time period that it pertains to, and that it has no specific author to speak of. The first thing the tale mentions is that a young frog lived with his widowed mother. Seeing that it mentions no other family members, one can imply that this is a family of two. From this, you can guess that family sizes can be quite small in South Korea, even though this is a family of frogs. The mother in the story complains that she is embarrassed by her disobedient child, which can entail high standards for children in the country. Parents expect their children to be well-rounded and obedient; nothing less. It also shows that in small families, children tend to be spoiled with praise, which often leads to a lack of discipline which is not enforced as strongly as it would be in a larger family. It also hints about the social situation, because it talks of her being embarrassed by him. In fact, not having enough children is becoming a grave problem in South Korea right now. The fertility rates have dropped dangerously below the replacement rate, and this isn’t good. The story does not hint at that issue in particular, though. The only reference to language in the story is when the mother is teaching her son to speak like a frog, and she cries “Kaegul! Kaegul!” He is a disobedient child and instead cries “Kulgae! Kulgae!” in return, but you can guess by the ending of the story that this is the onomatopoeia for the sound a frog makes, because it explains why frogs call “Kaegul! Kaegul!” when it rains. The rain can also be interpreted as a clue to the geography of South Korea, because it is saying at the very least that there is some rainfall there, and it is not a desert. It also mentions a river and a hillside, which are accurate, because South Korea is very mountainous. 80% of the land is covered in mountains, in fact. As you can see, there is a lot to be learned from literature. You may be surprised what you can find in your own stories.