RESPONSE TO THE STATEMENT:
The lives of unusual characters give us meaningful perspectives on our own reality
Isn’t it the goal of all literature to aim to teach something to their readers? In Joanna Cho’s poem *The Magic Sock*, the use of unexpected narrative structures, neologism, and extended metaphor seeks to convey a greater truth to the readers: the idea of her mothers ignorance of herself.
The structure of Joanna Cho’s poem - each paragraph denoting a new reminiscence of Joanna’s childhood - emphasised through each stories’ narrative disconnect from each other - “we decided it was magic..//while the others were off doing their own thing…//omma went to the kitchen to prepare a afternoon snack” - works with the past-tense writing structure - “went…could…whispered” to convey the smaller motif of Joanna’s blurred memories, the idea that these are memories of the far past - her memories ‘blurring together’ shown through the tangential paragraphs. Furthering this, the narrative writing style of childhood whimsy, imagination and child-like exaggeration - shown through Joanna’s specific choice of playful diction “slurping…wiggled…colour of ripe tomatoes…shimmery skin…afternoon light” - further conveys this motif of colourful memories stuck in the veil of childhood nostalgia. This motif of childhood nostalgia is also actualised in her description of holding an item - “it fit in the palm of my seven-year-old hand” - the past-tense description of “fit” alluding to the idea of this poem being merely a recital of memories past.
**However, it isn’t until this nostalgia is used in conjunction with the poems’ extended metaphor - and its phantasmal, fictitious imagery mixed with an underlying theme of dissatisfaction - and neologism that the greater truth of the poem is revealed: Joanna’s dissonance with her mother**. Joanna continually refers to her mother through the poems own neologism - in Korean text, reading [omma]. **The specific choice to denote her mothers name not simply using the English description - “mum” - showcases a specific choice of diction by Joanna herself - the connotations of the English word ‘mum’ don’t encapsulate Joanna’s emotions of her mother**. That is to say, Joanna’s specific choice to create the neologism of [omma] serve to emphasise the idea she does not believe her mother was a ‘mum’ to her; She is merely an object to be used in the poem, an [omma]. However, the resultant meaning of this neologism is only showed through the poems’ extended metaphor in the form of the ‘magic sock’ - and it’s imagery of Joanna and her mother. The magic sock is introduced as a purely real item “we found it in a box of toys” - but it is from the socks ability to ‘fit on everyones foot’ that it becomes, both as a labelled by the kids, and as the poem recognises it, “magic”. **Joanna’s whispering to the magic sock as a wish - “I want to be loved by everyone” - not only contrasts the poems’ built-up vague writing style, but also introduced the idea of a desire of Joanna’s: to be loved, or more simply to ‘belong’.** The granting of this wish, shown through the final paragraphs imagery of Joanna being sliced by her [omma] - “she popped me down on the chopping board, brought out a knife and began chopping me” - alludes to Joanna’s ‘sacrifice’ of herself, or atleast her childhood self, to appease her [omma]. **This idea of Joanna’s sacrifice for the sake of her [omma] elucidates the purpose of her mothers’ placeholder name - the removal of all motherly connotations to strip her mother down to a mere object has been used to emphasise how Joanna believes her mother had failed her; linking with the narrative structure to introduce Joanna’s belief of her broken childhood.**
Joanna Cho’s *The Magic Sock*, through its myriad of techniques, attempts to, rather than ‘teach’, act as an exploration of Joanna’s own childhood; a reflection of what has happened in her life up until this point. The poem stands as an introductory piece, part of the wider poetry collection of Cho’s, *People Pleaser.* The Magic Sock ultimately showcases that literature doesn’t always serve to teach its readers; but it may serve for the writers to better understand themselves.
