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People called my father a dwarf. They were right. My father was a dwarf. Unfortunately, people were right only about that. 

 

Our lives were like war. We always lost in that war. My mother nevertheless coped with everything well. But she must have found it difficult to cope with what happened that morning. 

사람들은 아버지를 난장이라고 불렀다.

사람들은 옳게 보았다.

아버지는 난장이였다.

불행하게도 사람들은 아버지를 보는 것 하나만 옳았다.

우리의 생활은 전쟁과 같았다.

우리는 그 전쟁에서 날마다 지기만 했다.

그런데도 어머니는 모든 것을 잘 참았다.

그러나 그 날 아침 일만은 참기 어려웠던 것 같다. 

That’s how Cho Se-hui’s “The Dwarf” begins. What made his mother fall apart that morning was a notice about a forced eviction addressed to “Mr. Kim Bul-yi, Haengbok-dong 46-1839, Nagwon-gu, Seoul.” 

Interview by literary critic Jeon So-yeong

In the 1970s, Korea started to show several social problems brought on by rapid industrialization and political dictatorship. In particular, poverty and social inequity forced many laborers to live hard lives. Cho’s novel exposed the era’s darkness not in a blatantly raw manner, but by using beautiful yet sad illusions, his unique perspective and writing style. This is why this novel is considered an iconic fiction. “The Dwarf” is also applauded for pioneering a new literary genre of labor fiction in Korean literature in the 1980s.

“You never had a job in your entire life?” 

“What do you mean? My family all worked very hard.” 

“Then, have you ever done anything wrong? Haven’t you broken the law?”

“No.”

“Then, how can you explain this? Something must have gone wrong, right? Don’t you think it’s unfair? You have to leave this dead land.”

“Leave? To where?”

“To the moon!” 

“아저씨는 평생 동안 아무 일도 안 하셨습니까?” 

“일을 안하다니? 우리 식구 모두가 열심히 일했네” 

“그럼 무슨 나쁜 짓을 하신 적은 없으십니까? 법을 어긴 적 없으세요?“ 

“없어” 

“그런데 이게 뭡니까? 뭐가 잘못된 게 분명하죠?

 불공평하지 않으세요? 이제 이 죽은 땅을 떠나야 됩니다“ 

“떠나다니? 어디로?”

“달나라로!”

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Cho Se-hui (Born on Aug. 20, 1942, in Seoul)

: Debuted by winning the Kyunghyang Shinmun writing contest with “A Sailless Long Boat” in 1965

Won the 13th DongIn Literary Award in 1979

Published “The Dwarf” in 1976