Seesaw Girl

Seesaw Girl is a 1999 Historical Fiction children's novel by Linda Sue Park.

In seventeenth century Joseon-era Korea, twelve-year-old Jade Blossom Han leads a sheltered life as a noble's daughter and has never ventured beyond her home. She spends her days playing practical jokes alongside her best friend, her aunt Graceful Willow. Over two months after Graceful Willow gets married and leaves the household, Jade sets out on a trip to visit her and ends up discovering a far greater world outside than she could have imagined.

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Seesaw Girl provides examples of:

• Against the Grain: As a girl of aristocratic birth, Jade Blossom is expected to spend her days embroidering and staying home to prepare for her future marriage to a nobleman. She chafes against these rigid expectations by playing pranks in the household and showing curiosity about the world outside, and ultimately devises a successful plan to sneak out of the house for the first time just to visit her aunt.
• Ambiguous Gender: While at the market during her excursion, Jade encounters a cabbage seller's child named Chang who gives her directions to Willow's new household. Due to the child being much younger and in rags, she can't tell whether Chang is a boy or a girl.
• Arranged Marriage: As per the custom in Joseon society, it's mentioned that a matchmaker visited Jade Blossom's family and set up a betrothal for Graceful Willow to a nobleman from the Lee family. Due to Jade's paternal grandparents being deceased, Jade's father was the one to approve the marriage for his younger sister.
• Artistic License – History: As discussed in the author's note at the end, the Dutch sailors historically lived under house arrest for nearly two years after their arrival in Seoul and were only spared from execution by official verdict in 1656. Here, it's shortly after Jade's father convinces the king to show them mercy that the king decrees the sailors may live and remain prisoners as long as they swear allegiance to him.
• Big Brother Mentor: Tiger Heart, Jade's older brother, is being prepared by their father to eventually follow in his footsteps as a court official. Because of this, he's able to answer Jade's questions and help her understand outside situations, such as the king's dilemma over whether or not to execute the foreign Dutch sailors who washed up on Jeju Island, were taken to Seoul, and are currently prisoners. He also teaches Jade how to paint while his tutor's out sick, leading to Jade deciding to try and paint the mountains she saw when outside the house.
• Big Fancy House: Jade and her family live in a large house in the middle of Seoul, complete with an inner court (where the women and men live in separate areas), an outer court where the servants live, and two halls (one for ceremonies and gatherings, the other for the boys to learn from their tutor). The women don't go beyond the inner court except for special occasions, such as weddings, and Jade was forbidden from playing in the outer court from the age of eight and onwards.
• Bittersweet Ending: A very light version. Jade never does get to see Willow again, and she doesn't get to go on another trip outside. But thanks to her improvised seesaw, she gets a clear, perfect glimpse of the mountains that she memorizes to paint them like she wanted to earlier, and she becomes much more confident and inspired to see them in person for herself someday.
• Chekhov's Gun: The little carved ivory ball that Jade Blossom carries around and treats as a lucky charm (due to her father giving it to her in a rare display of affection) is what she uses as a bribe for her younger cousin, Bear Courage, to convince him to help her by jumping on the other end of her seesaw so she can, in turn, jump high enough to see the mountains in the distance.
• Cool Big Sis: Willow is this for Jade. Although their familial relation is aunt and niece rather than sisters, they're close in age and Willow is the practical, mature voice of reason who both helps Jade in her pranks and occasionally dissuades her from them when the time isn't right. When she leaves the family after getting married, Jade feels her loss keenly.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Confucian values of seventeenth century Korea are on full display here; Jade Blossom has no idea how to read or write because gender norms dictated that she didn't get the same education that her older brother got, and she's only ever taught embroidery. She also rarely sees her father and barely knows him because of rigidly held noble family customs (the father attends to work and household finances, the mother attends to the household and children), and must always be nothing but formal and deferential with him. And there's the fact that her aunt, Graceful Willow, is married off when she is only fifteen.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The book's illustrations are all black-and-white pencil art.
• Establishing Character Moment: Jade Blossom and Graceful Willow both get their own:
  • Jade and Willow are introduced carrying out a practical joke by sneaking together into the Hall of Learning, establishing their love of having fun together and their close friendship. Jade is the one to take the writing brushes and cover them completely in soot and ashes to make it impossible for the boys to write without making a mess of their hands and scrolls, establishing her as the mischievous mastermind behind the prank and showing her propensity for going against social expectations for girls her age.
  • Willow's is subtler, and comes a little later. While Jade is pounding the dried laundry with sticks to remove the wrinkles and Willow is re-sewing the clothes back together (the clothing is torn apart at the stitches to be washed and sewn back together when it's dried and smoothed), Jade suggests that Willow sew a seam across the bottom of the pant legs so Tiger Heart's feet will get stuck when he puts them on. Willow finds it funny, but points out the trousers would get torn and they'd really get in trouble, and suggests they go together to the garden instead after they're done. This shows that Willow is conscientious and responsible, despite her past aid of Jade's pranks, and foreshadows Willow's refusal to see Jade when she comes to visit later on, as she is aware of the new social expectations she now has as a wife and can't ignore them.
• Foul Waterfowl: Downplayed, but the idea of geese being troublemakers is brought up. Jade recalls that at her third uncle's wedding, her uncle brought a live goose to put on the table because of the wedding tradition for the groom to bring a goose as a symbol of marital fidelity (as per the cultural belief that geese mate for life). The goose, being a wild animal, naturally didn't stay still on the table and instead ran around the room, loudly squawking and making a mess (as a result, it had to be released outside earlier than usual). For Willow's wedding, the groom strokes the goose and gives it some grains to peck at quietly during the ceremony. Tiger later explains to Jade that Willow's husband caught the goose a few days prior and trained it to keep calm with handfuls of grain precisely to prevent any disruptions.
• Genki Girl: Jade Blossom is a bright and high-spirited girl, and takes out that energy by devising pranks to break up the tedium of her usual routine.
• The Ghost: The king is mentioned a few times because Jade's father works for him, but never appears. The time period pinpoints the king's identity as Hyojong.
• Good Parents: Jade Blossom's parents are generally kind and patient with her, if also quite serious and stern. Jade's mother is understanding of her motive for leaving the house and is reasonable with punishing her for sneaking out (making her beat the family's laundry by herself for five days), and Jade's father hears her out when she pleads for him to rehire Servant Cho after he was dismissed for his inadvertent role in her excursion.
• Historical Domain Character: He's never mentioned by name because Jade never finds out who he is, but one of the Dutch sailors Jade sees being marched by guards through Seoul and to the palace is Hendrick Hamel, who became renowned for writing the first Western account of Korea. This marks the exact time in which the story takes place as the year 1654, which was when Hamel and the other sailors were taken to Seoul.
• It's All My Fault: Jade blames herself when she hears that Cho, the servant who took the family's baskets to market to buy fresh vegetables and unknowingly took her along when she hid in one of the baskets in the cart to sneak out, has been dismissed for his role in her escape. She implores her father to rehire him by pointing out that Cho had no idea she was in his cart and acted responsibly when he took her home by covering her with cloth so strange men wouldn't look at her on the way back. While Cho doesn't get his position back, he does get a new job at another household on her father's recommendation, which eases her guilt.
• Jerkass: The gatekeeper at the Lee household is nothing but rude and hostile to Jade when she requests to see Willow, immediately assumes she's lying about being Willow's niece, and insults her when turning her away.
• Karma Houdini: A more benign example than most because all they do is cause some mischief, but Jade and Willow rarely receive punishment for their pranks on Tiger and the other boys because Jade's mother forbids any of the boys from retaliating (at worst, she just scolds the girls now and then). Tiger once got back at them by dropping some caterpillars down their collars, but that's it.
• Living Prop: Jade has two brothers, an older one named Tiger Heart and a younger one named Mountain Wind, but Mountain Wind is only mentioned a few times and has no lines or presence in the plot.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Kind of. Jade only has two siblings (both brothers), but lives with twelve cousins in total because her three paternal uncles and their wives also share the house.
• Never Learned to Read: Due to not being taught how (as noble girls were only educated in embroidery and household management), Jade can't read or write. She does have some poems memorized by heart, however, indicating her intelligence.
• Never Say "Die": Jade's grandparents are mentioned to have "gone to the Heavenly Kingdom", which is why Jade's father (Willow's eldest brother) is the one to approve the matchmaker's choice for Willow's husband. Gravesites are mentioned because Tiger goes with his and Jade's father to the mountains to pay their respects to their ancestors at the family shrine and leave offerings on important holidays, but that's about it.
• Nice Girl: Although she has a mischievous streak, Jade Blossom is kind-hearted and tries to do the right thing when it matters. When a servant loses his job because of her reckless expedition to see Graceful Willow, she takes full responsibility for her behavior and musters up the courage to petition her father to rehire him.
• No Name Given: Jade's uncles and aunts aren't named, with one of them only being referred to as "Eldest Aunt", and the same goes for her brother and male cousins' tutor, who is only referred to as Schoolmaster. Out of all the other servants mentioned to work for Jade's family (the cook, gatekeeper, stableboys, maids, and the gardener), only one manservant (called Servant Cho) has a given name in the narrative.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Off-page, Jade's father speaks up against the rest of the court to persuade the king to spare the Dutch sailors from execution because of the worldly knowledge they can bring to Korea, and his words move the king to let the foreign men live. Tiger Heart tells Jade all of this after the fact, as he was there to witness it when he accompanied their father to court.
• Practically Different Generations: Graceful Willow is Jade Blossom's paternal aunt, but is only three years older than her (fifteen to her twelve) and is thus much younger than Jade's father.
• The Prankster: During their time together, Jade is always coming up with pranks and Willow is her accomplice. In the beginning, Willow acts as a lookout while Jade covers a bunch of writing brushes with soot to make it impossible for the boys in the household to write without getting their hands dirty and ruining their work.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Jade's father is an advisor to the king, and is much more rational and open-minded than some of his contemporaries in court. He listens to Jade when she petitions him to rehire Servant Cho, who was dismissed from his job for being unknowingly complicit in her escape from the house, and believes that the imprisoned Dutch sailors should be spared from execution because they can bring new knowledge to improve Korea, which he believes has been isolated for too long. He successfully pleads his case to the king to spare the sailors by pointing out they pose no threat to the country because of their small numbers, and arguing they should be allowed to live because they can provide more knowledge of the world beyond.
• Sheltered Aristocrat: Jade Blossom is this, being an aristocratic girl who's never been allowed to leave her house. She chafes against these restrictions and dreams of seeing more of the outside world, particularly the mountains, after sneaking out on a trip to visit Graceful Willow.
• Spoiled Sweet: As a court official's daughter, Jade Blossom wants for practically nothing and has been raised in a rich household with servants her whole life. She isn't spoiled because of this, though, and is kind to the lower class, as shown when she meets a peasant child named Chang on her expedition outside. She promises the kid sweets in exchange for giving her directions to Graceful Willow's house, and keeps her promise by asking her older brother to give Chang the usual handful of sweets he buys for her the next time he goes to the market.
• Spoiler Title: The titular seesaw that Jade Blossom uses doesn't come into play until the very end of the story.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Because of the Joseon era's Confucian values, Jade Blossom is forbidden from reading, writing, painting, or going outside her home, and can only learn embroidery as part of her training to be a nobleman's wife someday. When she sneaks out on her expedition to see Graceful Willow again, she's utterly shocked to see girls and women moving about freely in the market. She asks her older brother Tiger Heart about it, and when he tells her that they're from poor families and have to work like the men do, it makes her aware of the disparities in the class system for the first time.
• Sweet Tooth: Jade Blossom enjoys sweets, and her older brother Tiger Heart always brings home handfuls of them for her and their younger brother from the market. The peasant child Chang also loves them and sees them as a huge luxury, having gotten three when servants threw them from the parade to the groom's house during Graceful Willow's wedding, and Jade promises to get him/her more as a reward for giving her directions to Willow's new household.
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Due to tradition, Jade Blossom is learning how to embroider from her female relatives, who all spend their days sewing and stitching needlework. Her mother is mentioned to be a highly skilled embroiderer, and on Willow's wedding day, Jade gives her a silk drawstring pouch she made herself as a gift. Later, Jade's mother allows her to start work on an embroidery screen for her future wedding dowry.
• Unnamed Parent: Jade's parents are never named, and are only referred to as "Jade's mother" and "Jade's father".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Because the story is realistic and limited to Jade's perspective, Willow never appears again after her wedding because she has to live in her husband's household from then on. The most mentioned is that she declined to see Jade when she showed up at the house's gate and ordered the gatekeeper to send her away without punishing her; Jade's mother explains to her later that the reason Willow refused to see her was because Willow knew how it would look to her new family if she accepted visits from an outsider, even if the outsider was her own relative.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: Jade Blossom's mother is a Korean version. As the family matriarch, she runs the household smoothly, demonstrates great skill at embroidery, and handles discipline of her children gently, yet firmly. She tells Jade that she understands Jade's restlessness, but someday, the girl will learn to take happiness from the satisfaction of being responsible for a rich and peaceful household just like she has. It's very lightly implied that it's not what she's always wanted (when Jade asks her if it's enough for her happiness, she thinks her mother looks sad for a second), but she tells Jade she has learned to make it enough for herself.