Lost Names Literary Analysis

For thousands of years in many, if not all cultures, men have been dominant over women. For example, women need to cover their bodies and if they are even allowed to get a job, they are limited to certain fields of work. This is especially true in the book, Lost Names. Throughout the book, Lost Names, there are people and events included to show the reader what the book has to say about the relationship between men and women. That is men are more important than women in society, a man has the right to dictate a women’s future, and men are more suitable for war and violence than women.
Throughout Lost Names, the idea that men are more important than women is expressed over and over again. The narrator and his sister are having a one on one talk and they share how they feel about the new baby. The following quote exhibits their feelings about their new sister, “and to my surprise, she has been friendlier to me since the arrival of the baby, who turned out to be a girl, to my disappointment” (Kim 89-90). The narrator is saying that he did not want a girl sibling; he wanted his mother to have a baby boy. This is because he wants his family to keep the importance his father has

worked so hard to acquire. The more females in a family, the less powerful and important the family becomes because females have very little importance and influence in a male dominated culture. Another example of how men are more important than women is throughout the whole book everyone bows to the narrator’s father. No one ever bows to a woman. People bow to a man because he is a hero, but people cannot bow to a woman because they never got the chance to become a hero because they are so controlled by men in their culture.
Another idea Lost Names exhibits that shows what the book has to say about the relationship between men and women is that a man should have the right to control a women’s future. This is shown best in Lost Names after the narrator asks the farmer if he has found a girl to marry yet. The farmer responds with, “I’ve found two girls, and I’ll let you know which one I will marry when I decide which one I like better” (Kim 82). Not only does the farmer get to decide his girlfriends’ fate, but he does not even respect either woman because he is cheating on each of them with the other. It is not fair that he has the power to make or break them if he does not even have any respect for the women. But because the farmer is a man, it is acceptable behavior to date two people at a time, but the same would not be true if one of the farmer’s girlfriends dates another man while dating him.
Lastly, the book, Lost Names, has the opinion that men are more suitable for war and violence than women. The idea that men are more suitable than women for war is shown best on page 178 of Lost Names. The narrator’s father and other adult men of the town are planning their takeover of the town from Japanese rule when the father says, “Any bright ideas?”, after the narrator feels the need to chime in on the conversation at the adult table when he whispers to his dad, “You are not really covering the whole battlefield, sir” (Kim 178). Why cannot the grandmother or even the little sister be out near the adult planning table and voice their opinions? The grandmother and little sister could not be outside because they were busy cooking inside. For some reason, that is all women are good for in this book. Also, the narrator’s father and others are devising a dangerous plan that could result in the death of all of them and the father does not even think to consult his wife or the grandmother on the situation. Instead, he asks his son, who has the maturity level of a thirteen year old, to formulate a plan that could seal theirs and each one of the townspeople’s fate. This shows that Lost Names believes men are better than women for war by saying that an immature boy is better suited for war than woman with more life experience.
In conclusion, throughout the book, Lost Names, there are people and events included to show the reader what the book has to say about the relationship between men and women.

That is, men are more important than women in society, a man has the right to dictate a women’s future, and men are more suitable for war and violence than women. As mentioned in the beginning of the essay, womens’ rights have been suppressed for thousands of years all over the globe. Today, in some countries women are not allowed to vote or even walk the streets alone. But that is changing; women are tired of being second class citizens and are taking a stand for what is rightfully theirs and if men do not change, men like the ones in Lost Names, women are going to leave them

behind.