The Eyes Are the Best Part

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and death.

The Eyes Are the Best Part focuses on a Korean American family and examines the cultural traditions of Korean immigrants in the context of a patriarchal and white-dominated American society. Umma and Appa, the parents of Ji-won and Ji-hyun, are immigrants from South Korea, having both grown up in difficult, traumatizing circumstances in their home country. Likewise, both Umma and Appa struggle to integrate into American society. Umma is portrayed as having a very shaky grasp of English; for instance, she must use her daughters to translate the conversations between her and her new fiancé, George. Appa is shown to be unsure as to his place and status in America, marrying Umma out of necessity and leaving her and his daughters the first chance he gets.

As of 2019, approximately 1.9 million Korean Americans were living in the US (Budiman, Abby. “Koreans in the U.S. Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center, 29 Apr. 2021). As a percentage of the total US population at the time (roughly 328.3 million), this works out to approximately .6% (United States Census Bureau.