Master-Servant Relationship

[tafta]

Servants are there to serve and not to voice opinion. Embon's behavior of kicking the servant reflects more on his indiscipline than it does on treatment of servants. It may appear inhumane but having servants voicing opinion is not ideal especially in a home environment. The silence of the servant is befitting. I have noticed Asians are very strict at that.

[Upeksha]

Of course the book has put light upon the fact of how a master-servant relationship should be. I also think that his effort would be more successful if the servants' perspectives were included.

[Michael Jerry_]

I think the author did a fantastic job portraying the relationship between master and slave very well but if he went on to somehow include the perspective of the servant then it would have added a level of depth in the character development of the servants as we would get to know who they are but I wouldn’t have enjoyed that as I feel like it would have been very overwhelming and might make keeping up with all the characters more difficult and this can detract from my experience however some people may like it.

[Kennedy NC]

I think the author did a good job portraying the master servant relationship especially as it is in contemporary times.

[Megamind136]

The author tried to clear the misconception, that masters are always cruel to their slave. He demonstrates that their are good masters out there and not every slave is nice.

[Brainiac140]

This books tells that not every master is a tyrant to his slave. She was really humble and treated her slave with compassion

[EternalD]

The author did a good job of showing social injustice between slaves and their owners. The royal family treated their slaves with respect and paid them a wage. Embon's bad behavior was explained by the lack of discipline he received as a child.

Definetely. The description was amazing, it blew my mind. I was expecting something much different than what I got when I read the book.

[Jessica045]

The author did great in showing the relationship between the master, and the slave. The dominance that constituted those times and the division of people into classes was portrayed. Including the servant, is irrelevant as there will be little or no change in people's opinions about them.

[Shirley-Tome]

A one-sided story of the master does not depict the full spectrum of a master-servant relationship since the servant may be having a completely different recount of similar events.

[Cwilde13]

I think including the thoughts of the servants would have clashed with the reality of their situation. The story focuses on the lives of their masters, in which the servants play a silent part. They understand the expectations of being seen and not heard. The interaction of being asked their opinion only serves to show the kindness of the master.

[talli_5]

I think hearing the servant's POV would have been interesting. We can make guesses on what she was feeling or thinking based on our opinions of servitude and our society's negative connotation of it. But what does someone who has always been in that life, and never thought they wouldn't be a servant think of the richer aristocracy. of course, I think many of our thoughts would be the same, but I wonder if there would be a slight difference if the Servant just accepted that life wasn't meant to be fair, rather than our interpretation as life should be fair and if it isn't something needs to change.

[Chiagbanwe Almond]

The author did a good job of showing the social inequality between masters and their servants. Usually, servants cannot say anything from their own perspective. They usually cannot say anything in reply to their masters, especially if it will anger their masters.

[jaym_tan]

I find the royal family's treatment of the slaves to be fair since they pay them wages and give actual respects to them. I believe the author definitely brought to light this important part of the story.

[Buk Nerd]

I think having the servants thoughts and opinions would have definitely enhanced the story. It would have added more dimensions and possibly some humor, especially in the case with Embon kicking the servant! Although, seeing Embon's perspective in this case too, instead of Mr. Seoh's would have been enlightening too.

Getting the servant's perspective would certainly have kicked engagement up a notch. I agree with you about the possible humor element. I am dying to know what was going through the servant's head when Embon kicked him. There's a good chance the servant was telling him off in very colorful language.

[Wesley Friday]

The master-servant relationship or at least the social system of a deep respect for hierarchy is something this book and others have taught me about Korean tradition. Exploring this paradigm from other perspectives such as from that of the servants will definitely increase the multitude and the quality of the voices in the story. But in a situation where those in the position of servants have resigned themselves to be what they are, the addition of a fresh perspective will still lead to the same old conclusion pertaining to the servants' incapacity to change their situation.