A STEP FROM HEAVEN by An Na

Bibliography                                                                                                         
Na, An. 2001. A Step from Heaven. Asheville, NC: Front Street. ISBN 1886910588

Plot summary
This is a story of survival. Young Ju is a Korean immigrant whose family left Han Gook to come to America (specifically California) for a better life. Young Ju is suspended between adopting American ways and keeping her Korean heritage alive. Young Ju's family is not what it appears on the outside. Her father is abusive and an alcoholic. Her mother is obedient but strong. Young Ju is trying to cover up her reality and her brother is rebelling against everything. What becomes of this family makes a compelling story of how much a family can endure and overcome.

Critical Analysis

Each chapter from the book could be a story in itself.  The title is also the title of one of the chapters in the book where Ju's father explains how coming to America is like taking a "step from heaven".
This young adult novel is not just a story about a Korean family coming to America, it is story of how hidden lives of families who experience abuse and entrapment. It's about covering up so that no one really knows the truth about what goes on behind closed doors. It describes how Ju's family can just go on acting as though nothing is really happening when their world if falling apart. On top of Ju's family coming to a new country where no one in her family actually knows the language or the customs of their new home and trying to cope with abuse.
The problems that Ju faces are issues that many families face regardless of their race, country or culture. Children hide where they live because they are ashamed; mothers hide bruises left abusive husbands; no one knows really what goes on behind closed doors

The problems that Ju faces are issues that many families face regardless of their race, country or culture.  Children hide where they live because they are ashamed; mother hide bruises left by abusive husbands; no one knows really what goes on behind closed doors.

The first signs of abuse shows up relatively early in the text when Ju talks about her father slapping her mother. She describes how fast his hand was hitting her, and how the sound was so defining, sounding loud as breaking glass. She talks about how her father is frustrated with his life in America, and how he takes his anger out on her and her mother. Finally Ju is unable to take any more abuse from her father or watch him abuse her mother.  This becomes the turning point for the text. She calls for help, "...please ...send help...my father is killing my mother!"  How often does this actually happen and no one really knows the torture that children live in, or what pushed them to make that final call for help!

On a lighter note, the time when Ju went to school for the first time and she heard English, it was probably like so many of our own students that we have in our own rooms who speak a language other than English or like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher "WAA, WAA,WAA".  The words made absolutely no sense at all to her. The text tells how she began to develop her own words to help her cope with her new language, new environment, and trying to fit in. But in the end things finally begin to change and there is a ray of hope for Young Ju's family.


This is a very compelling book, bring a box of tissues if you decide to read it. But, take a moment to reflect on how our students feel when they come from another country where English is not spoken by everyone. Think about the issues that could be going on in their homes, the language barrier adding to the problems that already exists.
I think that teenage girls may find this book encouraging knowing that in the end things usually work out.


Review excerpts

BOOKLIST : "This isn't a quick read, especially at the beginning when the child is trying to decipher American words and customs, but the coming-of-age drama will grab teens and make them think of their own conflicts between home and outside. As in the best writing, the particulars make the story universal."

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: " Each of the chapters in this emotionally succinct novel might be read as a short story, although the plot-the acclimation of one young girl to a new
culture and to her own family- is steady and at times suspenseful."

hroughout the text the author inserts words from her native language helping to bring the story more to life. In the beginning you find Ju using more words from her native language, Korean, but as she begins to learn and become more confident she begins to speak more English and leaves her Korean words behind.  This irratates her parents, because they continue to speak Korean in the home and outside the home.  The language is more difficult for her parents to learn being older.  Ju and her brother begin to refuse to speak Korean which angers her father.

Connections

*Read Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club ISBN 0399134204.

*Have a class discussion about local services available to teens to help them if they are in similar situations. Where can they go that is safe? Who can they call (anonymously?) for help? What should they do if they suspect a friend is being abused? How can they stop the cycle?


*Create a "Getting to Know Our School" brochure that gives pictures of important places, with the accompanying English words or cognate that would help ELL students understand easier.  This might help new ELL students become more familiar with the school and community, as well as helping them learn new vocabulary in English.