Year Of Impossible Goodbyes Essay

People grow in all sorts of ways such as, bravery, responsibility and confidence. I myself have not yet grown like Sookan has in Sook Nyul Choi's novel Year of Impossible Goodbyes. Sookan grows in many ways throughout the novel Year of Impossible Goodbyes. One of the various ways that Sookan grows is in her bravery. The first sign of bravery for Sookan was when her Grandfather had died. The sign that she was becoming even more brave was when her and Inchun lost their mother at the train station and had to survive on their own. Sookan was the bravest she had ever been when her and Inchun had to cross over the river to get to the border fence.

The first sign of Sookans bravery was when Grandfather died. "Grandfather died soon after we left him. He died three days after Haiwon's birthday; three days after his beloved pine tree was chopped down" (Choi 44). When Sookans grandfather died, Sookan was still sad but she did not show it, she tried to help cheer up the rest of her family and she went to Japanese school. These actions showed that after

"If we made one false move, we would fall into the rapidly flowing river, and would surely die" (Choi 162). By having to make a life or death decision and making sure that both her and Inchun would get across the river safely, Sookan had to be the bravest she would ever been in the book. So when Sookan made the decision to cross the river, she also had to be very brave.

Personally, I think that at the very end Sookans bravery was what got her and Inchun across the river and under the fence to get to the South. Because of these situations Sookan has gained a lot of bravery and she is more likely to cope with situations like these much easier and better. This matters in the world, because people need to be brave, even if they feel like they cannot they have to be brave that way they