콩쥐팥쥐 ° Kongjwi and Patjwi

Pages: 101 . Enjoyment Factor: 7/10 . Ease of Understanding: 8/10

As my fourth book for the challenge I read “Kongjwi and Patjwi”, a Korean fairytale that bears a similarity to Cinderella. The book was published by 예림당 and is geared towards primary school children, evident by the comprehension and writing exercises in the back.

It was quite interesting to read this book and compare it with the versions of Cinderella I know. Kongjwi is basically the Cinderella-character, who is a long-expected only child. Her mother dies at her birth and she grows up with a very loving, concerned father. Of course she’s a model daughter and learns to care for her father early. But she is concerned that he may be lonely once she gets married, so she supports his second marriage with the widowed Bae Ssi, who brings her own daughter Patjwi with her. Patjwi is not as pretty as Kongjwi, so she gets jealous. Bae Ssi is also jealous on her daughter’s behalf. They conspire to make her do all the hard work and put additional obstacles in her way. Kongjwi’s father is of no help, because he is so enamoured with Bae Ssi that he doesn’t believe his neighbours when they tell him of his daughter’s maltreatment. So Kongjwi, because of her virtuous character and unjust treatment, is helped by several mythological characters and animals. One of the helpers is Jik Nyeo, who sews a pretty dress for Konjwi so she can attend a party at her uncle’s house. On the way there a newly-transferred high official’s carriage passes her and in her hurry to make space she loses a shoe, which the official finds. The shoe seems magical and so he goes on a search for its owner. When he sees Kongjwi’s beauty and gets to know her good character he marries her.

Thus far the story is similar to Cinderella, but now it becomes both more cruel and more supernatural. Patjwi pretends to be sorry and visits Kongjwi to give her an apology. Kongjwi, being the good-natured dummy she is, doesn’t see through the ruse and Patjwi ends up drowning her. Patjwi then takes her half-sister’s clothes and pretends to be her. The husband is astounded that she suddenly looks so ugly and that her character has changed for the worse, but doesn’t get too suspicious. In the end, Kongjwi first becomes a ghost, confronts her former husband, and is later resurrected. Patjwi is killed and eaten by her unsuspecting mother. I also think it was interesting that this particular retelling of the story explained why the step-mother was so evil – she had been made responsible for her former husband’s death and suffered for it. I once read a book that in Eastern thinking it is more common to see and explain people’s behaviour in context and this may be one of those occasions. As far as I remember the evil stepmother in Cinderalla was purely evil without reason. I also only know the timeless fairytale version of “a long, long time ago”, while “Kongjwi and Patjwi” is dated to have taken place in the middle of the Joseon dynasty.

“Kongjwi and Patjwi” had quite a few words I wasn’t yet familiar with, but it was still not too difficult to read without a dictionary. The words repeated often and became somewhat clear through context. I liked the exercises at the back of the book, especially one for revising several onomatopoeic words. All in all, I don’t think I made much progress by reading Kongjwi and Patjwi”, though.