Poem 2: Poetry Response

I really enjoyed this poem, it was warm yet sad. It was ironic that the title is The Youngest Daughter when it's about how the daughter is getting older with her mother. Since I'm into asian culture and Song said what the mother and daughter were eating I knew the story takes place in North Korea. What gave away that is was North and not South was when it said "She knows I am not to be trust, even now planning my escape." The beginning of the poem really intrigued me. "The sky has been dark for many years. My skin has become as damp and pale as rice paper and feels the way mother’s used to before the drying sun parched it out there in the fields. Lately, when I touch my eyelids, my hands react as if I had just touched something hot enough to burn. My skin, aspirin colored, tingles with migraine." This showed that the daughter has been kept inside where there is no sunlight while her mother goes and works out in the fields. In Korea the paler your skin the more attractive you are, since that means you have money and don't do labor out in the fields, as tanned skinned makes you unattractive since that shows you are a peasant. Knowing this made me wonder between the difference of the two women. Is the mother sacrificing and working long in the fields so her daughter did not or is her daughter forced to be cooped up like that and that's why she is planning on fleeing.