This paper will focus on discussing one of the plays written by Tae Sok. Tae Sok is a popular playwright in Korea, mostly because of his orthodox and non-linear style of presenting a story, which is basically contrarian to the strategy that is often being implemented by Western playwrights. The focus of this paper will be on his play entitled Bicycle which he released and was published in 1983 . The story in Bicycle allegedly centered on one of the experiences Tae Sok had during the Korean War, particularly in his home village in Sochon. To be more specific, the plot and perhaps even the theme of the story focused on a single traumatic event that happened during the Korean War—when the old town center building was used as a temporary holding place for the prisoners of war who were captured by the North Korean People’s Liberation Army (there were some 127 POWs all of whom were suspected to be anti-communists); they were locked inside the old town center building when one of the persons in charge of the place instructed the soldiers to set the building on fire, effectively killing all the prisoners of war held inside. Instead of dramatizing the incident, the author, Tae Sok, translated it into a ghost story that moved back and forth between the past and present when two of the main characters (Yun and Ku) were riding their bicycles. Because of the unique and non-linear style that O Tae Sok used when he wrote the play, the story should not be read and interpreted literally. Moreover, most of the supporting characters in the play can be identified as ghosts because as Yun, the protagonist in the story, claims, he got hit by a cow when he was travelling home moments after he met two ghosts of a young woman.
What makes this play significant to the history of Asia is the fact that the main theme and the plot of the play revolved around one of the most significant conflicts in Asian history—the war between the North and the South Koreans. Currently, there are two Koreas. What separates these two Koreas (the North and South Korea) is a demilitarized zone which was established after the Korean War that erupted in 1950 ended in a truce (not in a peace negotiation which means that the two Koreas are still technically at war with each other). A lot of things happened during the Korean War and it is one of the most significant events in the history of Asia and there can be numerous reasons why this must be so. Firstly, according to historical recounts, the United States and the Allies—most if not all of which were pushing for a democratic form and model of government instead of a socialist or a communist-based one, backed the government of countries that were facing dethronement by communist revolutionaries. They supported the anti-communist revolution efforts by sponsoring and backing proxy wars against their former World War II ally, the Soviet Union. The U.S. president at that time said that they could not afford to give up on South Korea (South Korea was the one being invaded by the Communist North Korea when the Korean War of 1950 to 1953 erupted) because if the communists succeed in taking it, then the barriers against communist in the Asia and the Pacific would be obliterated, which would pave the way for more countries to be conquered by communists and later on be ruled by communist forms of government. In the play, however, it is worth noting that it focused more on the micro or specific events that happened as a result of the conflict between countries that were fighting for communism and democracy—specifically; the burning of the old town center building that killed 127 anti-communist prisoners of war. This can also be considered as the main theme of the play. In the play’s introduction, the author suggested that the play was based on one of the experiences of Tae Sok in 1980 when they celebrated the burning of the old town center building. It may be worth noting that the new town center building is situated on the same spot where the old burned down town center building stood before.
The story revolved around the two main characters Yun and Ku, both of whom worked as clerks in the town center building, and Yun’s story how he got sick and forced to file for a leave, of course with the help of Ku who appears to be the person in charge of filing such absence-related documents. In an effort to add flavor and non-linearity to the story, the playwright, Tae Sok, may have used the reason that Yun was filing for a formal documentation for his absence with the aid of his co-worker Ku. O Tae Sok also used a unique reason for Yun’s 42 day absence from work—that he was bothered by the ghosts of two young women on two occasions that all happened in one night, and that he got knocked off by a cow while he was trying to figure out the things that were happening. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning that the story still revolved around the main theme and plot—the burning of the old town center building killing 127 suspected anti-communist prisoners of war.
It can be remembered that for several times in the story, the author mentioned how numerous characters lighted candles. In one scene, for example, Yun, the main character, recounted his story to Ku how he lighted matches to give a light to an old man whom he could not recognize. This old man who Yun told Ku had a familiar voice turned out to be one of the visitors of Yun’s uncle. In another scene, Yun told the young woman who rode at the back rack of his bike to light a candle as she announces to the entire town—even in the middle of the night that she is on her way back home—a syllogism of one of the earlier character’s method of announcing to the entire town that he managed to come back home from the war alive after all, only that this man was riding a bicycle and waving a flag instead of waving a candle—which is what Yun instructed the young girl to do as he escorted her to back to their house via his bicycle.
Another example or evidence that the author managed to stay on topic and to keep the focus on the theme throughout the entire length of the play is the fact that the main character’s uncle is one of the two anti-communist prisoners of war who managed to survive and get out of the burned down old town center building alive. According to Yun’s recount, despite having survived the tragic and brutal incident, his uncle got filled with guilt for coming out alive instead of being burned and dead just like the others and to honor those who died on that event, he (Yun’s uncle), would break down a piece of glass and wound himself in the forehead letting out a significant amount of blood to exit his body, every anniversary of that incident. These three evidences can be classified as symbols which all point out that the main theme and the plot of the story indeed revolves around the burning of the old town center building during the Korean War that killed 127 anti-communist prisoners of war. There were of course a lot of other more specific examples and evidences that can point towards the same thing about the play’s main theme but these three turn out to be the most prominent.
In conclusion, O Tae Sok’s play, Bicycle, is one that portrays one of the most important events that happened in the 20th century history of Asia, particularly the history of the North and South Korea and the events that happened as a result of the Korean War. The main theme and the plot of the story, in fact, revolved around the burning of the old city center building in Yun’s hometown. Three evidences that support this thesis statement or idea were discussed in the paper and after careful consideration, it can be safely concluded that all three examples point to the fact that this particular event was indeed the center of the story; and that the author may have just used the use of ghostly characters and the multiple and rapid transition of the story’s setting from the present to the past and then vice versa, were just used to add flavor and non-linear qualities to the play—which are some of the qualities that O Tae Sok has been known for as a playwright.
References
Sok, O. T. (1983). Bicycle. 270-276.
