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Cranes

by Hwang Sun-Won

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Cranes Questions and Answers

Cranes

The main conflict in "Cranes" is the ideological and personal divide between two childhood friends during the Korean War. The primary theme is the power of friendship and reconciliation amidst...

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Cranes

In "Cranes," one quote supporting the theme of war creating ideological conflicts is: "They made me vice-chairman of the league because I was one of the poorest and I was a hardworking farmer. If...

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Cranes

In "Cranes," the cranes symbolize freedom, friendship, and the triumph of love over ideological differences. The story revolves around two childhood friends, Song-sam and Tok-chae, who are now on...

1 educator answer

Cranes

The first sentence of the story gives readers important setting details: The northern village at the border of the Thirty-eighth Parallel was snugly settled under the high, bright autumn sky. The...

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Cranes

In the short story "Cranes," Söngsam and Tokchae are two childhood friends who lost contact throughout the years and find themselves on the opposite sides of a conflict. The latter is a member of a...

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Cranes

The cigarettes represent friendship and the chestnuts represent the past. The cigarettes are symbolic of a friendship that has been broken, but it also represents a friendship that can be rekindled....

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Cranes

Songsam and Tokchae are much more alike than they are different.  They were childhood friends before the civil war began ripping apart families and communities.  The initial separation of...

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Cranes

Two flashbacks from the boys' childhood in "Cranes" include the time they stole chestnuts together and the time they held a crane in captivity and then released it to freedom.

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Cranes

Let us remember that this story concerns the ways in which civil war can divide families and friends. This is precisely the situation that Songsam and Tokchae find themselves in, as suddenly,...

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Cranes

When Tokchae and Songsam were children, they were childhood friends with each other.  The story gives some small details from the characters' pasts that indicate that the two men were fairly...

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Cranes

In "Cranes," Songsam returns to his old village out of duty as a peace officer for South Korea during the Korean War. His conversation with childhood friend Tokchae, a North Korean communist farmer,...

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Cranes

The power of friendship influenced Songsam to release his prisoner in "Cranes," as his prisoner is a former friend of his.

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Cranes

The village elders are somewhat uneasy about the arrival of Song-sam. This is the aftermath of a brutal war, and so they're naturally apprehensive about what will happen next. As a figure of civil...

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Cranes

You need to analyse the role of the flashback which we are told about just before the end of the story. In this flashback, we are persented with the two men as children, and how they together...

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Cranes

That quote comes at about the story's halfway mark, when Songsam has started escorting his prisoner, Tokchae. Songsam and Tokchae were childhood friends before the Korean conflict forced them on...

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Cranes

This story takes place in Korea and is set during the Korean War. The war began in 1950 and ended in 1953. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the Soviet Union took control of Korea north of the...

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Cranes

Songsam's decision is related to his memory of the time Tokchae gave him chestnuts by demonstrating the power of true friendship. As a child, Tokchae proved that he was willing to sacrifice his own...

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Cranes

Tokchae and Songsam walk together through most of the story "Cranes." The two men are on different sides of a conflict, and Tokchae is Songsam's prisoner. Songsam agrees to escort Tokchae to...

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Cranes

Unfortunately, the story does not provide an answer to this question. Tokchae has been captured, and he is being escorted by Songsam to a new location. The two men are on opposite sides of the...

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Cranes

The story "Cranes" is about two boyhood friends that have been placed on opposite sides of a violent conflict. Tok-chae has been captured and Song-sam is escorting him to a new location. As the men...

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Cranes

It's been a long time since Song-sam was last in the village where he grew up. As he reenters the place he once called home all those years ago, he sees that the village isn't the same as it was...

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Cranes

The answer to this question is subjective, and you are welcome to go either way and defend your stance. Personally, I would to say that characters' behavior is consistent with the plot. More often...

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