How Does Songnan Use Flashbacks In Waxen Wings

Ha Sŏngnan is a meticulous Korean author, in “Waxen Wings, ” she uses the depth of that detail to explain her character’s life. The story revolves around a girl who wants to fly in life, in school, and in reality. Sŏngnan uses flashbacks, cause and effect, and symbolism to explain the story. The story seems to radiate the importance that flying (in this case life) is not easy.
In “Waxen Wings” Songnan uses the character’s appearance to portray symbolism. Due to the girl wanting to fly she is similar to that of a bird, causing the outcome of her nickname “Birdie”. In Birdie’s view, " when you're standing next to them your small size becomes more noticeable” (163). “Small” in this case has a double meaning: she may feel small as person or in height like a bird. Her struggle to succeed followed her later on in life, making it hard for her to get things accomplished.

An example would be when she is in the hospital she is in a coma for quite some time and the last time she can remember, she is 10 years of old. Her watch is broken from the start of the story, Birdie may always lose herself in the moment because she doesn't know what time it truly is. She is always late to class because she is very involved in her gymnastics causing her smallness and her track of time overlap. Songnan herself writes “you miss a day of school, but nobody notices, since it's more common for you to be absent”(174). She is careless at times, letting her ambitions get in her way which makes her life harder, because she doesn't know when to stop herself from going too