A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

hiding one’s true self, the ambiguity of the visible is foregrounded, as in the Korean
legend of a “fox who wraps herself in the skin of a dead girl.” 310 Whether the female fox
spirit is evil or good “depends on who tells the story,” for it revolves around the uneven
relationship between women and men.
Hyun Jin is viewed as ugly because of a large birthmark, hence she learned about
hiding and covering early on:
She dusted powder across our faces, and when the cloud evaporated, settling on
the oils of our skin, I began to understand how makeup could be worn as a
disguise. It felt like one, a shield over tender skin. And the face I saw across from
mine was Sookie’s but not Sookie’s. It was instead an ageless mask, cool and
deadly, capable of swallowing the jewel of a man’s soul (27).
The steps they take down into the bar scene continue to be lined by references to
transformation, as when the two girls have first realized that Americans could mean
opportunity: “The only light, reflecting off the silver wall, flickered weak and uncertain
around the kitchen, turning a room where I had spent so much time into a place suddenly
and completely unfamiliar” (67). On a train ride, Hyun Jin’s perception is shifting:
The sky outside deepened into the blue-gray of twilight, the time of magic and
transformation. The windows turned into trick mirrors: I could see the countryside
passing through my face. […] I remembered how in my father’s stories, reflection
always reveals true nature. A fox demon disguised as a beautiful girl could be
recognized by forcing it to look into a mirror, which would bare its real face (87).
The girls don masks to go about their business, thinking they can be in control that way,
but the story poses the question whether such masks will not inevitably affect and change
their bearers. Up to their final argument, the half-sisters are bound by blood, their old
friendship, and a built-up hate:
‘The problem with you, Hyun Jin,’ she said, ‘is that you cannot see people as they
really are. You’ve always thought I was like you’. […] She turned a crank and her
window rolled up, closing her in, and for a brief moment, I saw our faces pressed
together, merged in a trick of light and reflection (279).
310 Nora Okja Keller, Fox Girl, New York 2002: 25.
105