57 pages • 1 hour read
Frances ChaIf I Had Your Face
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Ara”
Content Warning: If I Had Your Face discusses body dysmorphia, suicide, child abuse, sexual assault, violence, and miscarriage.
The novel opens with Ara, her best friend Sujin, and Kyuri drinking together in Ara and Sujin’s apartment. Sujin discusses how she wants to become a room salon girl like Kyuri. They discuss Sujin’s facial features and how her previous cosmetic surgery procedure on her eyelids didn’t turn out the way she’d wanted. Ara, as a result from a traumatic experience in her teens, does not speak, and communicates by writing on a notepad. The friends discuss Ara’s favorite K-Pop idol, Chung Taein, and Kyuri comments that the manager of his band often visits her room salon, Ajax.
Ara contemplates why Sujin is so obsessed with her appearance, deciding that it must be because she was raised in the Loring Center, an orphanage and home for people with disabilities. The friends continue to discuss cosmetic surgery and the famous Cinderella Clinic where Kyuri has all her surgeries performed. Sujin asks Kyuri if she can refer her to her surgeon because she wants to get jaw surgery. Kyuri is hesitant to agree, stating that while the surgery did change her life for the better, she still wouldn’t recommend it because of how painful it was. Kyuri explains how expensive the surgery is, but Sujin refuses to be dissuaded.
On Monday, Kyuri comes into the hair salon where Ara works to have her hair styled before she goes to work at her room salon, Ajax. Kyuri talks about Ajax briefly, explaining that only a few girls can have the same hairstyle to appease different men’s preferences. Kyuri comments on the madam of her room salon, wondering why less commercially attractive people don’t try to get surgery to make themselves more physically appealing.
When Ara gets home that evening, Sujin tells her that Kyuri has agreed to help her find someone to lend her the money for the surgery. On the day of Sujin’s surgery, Ara thanks Kyuri for being willing to help Sujin. The surgery ends up being more than one procedure; the surgeon convinces Sujin to have double jaw surgery, square jaw surgery, a cheekbone reduction, and chin liposuction. She is told it will likely take her more than six months to feel somewhat normal. At the hospital, Ara holds Sujin’s hand as she sobs beneath her bandages, in pain. When Ara gets home, she finds Sujin’s will on the table, and she thinks about the many stories of women dying after jawbone surgery.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Kyuri”
One night at the room salon, an expensively dressed woman enters Kyuri’s room. All the room salon girls freeze, watching as the woman seemingly scrutinizes everything in the room. The man that Kyuri has been partnered with, Bruce, calls the woman over, inviting her to sit next to him and Kyuri. The woman converses with Bruce, asking if he and someone named Miae had gotten into another fight. Kyuri listens in, confused, only to find out that Bruce is engaged to be married in September. Bruce ignores Kyuri and the comments she makes about him coming to visit her more often after he gets married; this frustrates her, and she comments that he’s acting as though he hasn’t had sex with her only two days prior.
Kyuri thinks about her older sister Haena who married into wealth. The couple has since divorced, but this fact is kept a secret from both of their families to avoid public shame. Haena’s husband, Jaesang, had been sleeping with a girl from a room salon, and Kyuri pretended to be surprised when she found out. By then, Kyuri had moved into a “10 percent” room salon that employs only the women considered the prettiest and places less pressure on them to have sex with the clients than lower-tier room salons. Kyuri thinks about her mother and the way that she’d kept her own secrets too, hiding the fact that she had breast cancer for two years. Now, Kyuri thinks about her mother and how she has always cared for her; Kyuri sends what money she can to her mother, wanting to return the favor.
At the Cinderella Clinic, Kyuri runs into the girl that she’d modeled her cosmetic surgeries after: Candy from the K-Pop group Charming. Candy’s face is red, as though she’s been crying, and Kyuri finds herself becoming extremely jealous. She thinks about how much better her life would be if only she had Candy’s face.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Wonna”
Wonna thinks about her abusive grandmother, whom she’d lived with growing up, who died last year. She’d been in shock when she found out at work and returned home to lay in bed. Her husband came home early that day, after receiving a call from her father, to comfort her. Wonna thinks about how her husband does not understand her feelings toward her grandmother. She comments to herself that she finds him embarrassing and feels ashamed being with him; she says she only married him because she was tired.
Wonna reflects on the time she lived with her grandmother until she was eight years old in a small house in northeast Seoul. Her grandmother is very religious but will often physically abuse Wonna if she does anything to inconvenience her grandmother. Every year, Wonna’s aunt and uncle who live in America send them brand new winter coats. Rather than using them, Wonna’s grandmother shows them to guests, hoping to sell them. One year, in the spring, Wonna’s grandmother receives a letter from Wonna’s uncle, stating that he and his family will visit that summer. Wonna fantasizes about meeting her cousins who live extravagant lives in America.
Wonna thinks of her father, who was the second of three sons. He worked for a sanitation company and had married a woman with a very low dowry. He’d left Wonna with her grandmother to go work in South America.
Wonna remembers the summer of her cousins’ visit arriving. Wonna decides to take her cousins to her vegetable garden at the church. Her cousins complain the entire way, stating that the garden is not impressive at all and that they have one that is much bigger back home. Unfortunately, Wonna’s youngest cousin, Somin, tries to grab a cucumber plant, and he grips onto its spikes. Wonna tries to grab him, but he screams, startling her into letting him go. Somin falls face first into the plant and some wiring meant to help hold it up; he is permanently blinded from the accident.
While in college, Wonna’s father pays for a therapist for Wonna, believing that one visit will be able to fix her mental health and her refusal to attend her classes. The session does not work, and the pair walk out silently and do not return. Wonna thinks about why she married her husband, and she decides that it is because his mother died. She thinks about how mothers-in-law treat their daughters-in-law with such hatred, and she decides to marry her husband so that she will never have to worry about having a mother-in-law.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Miho”
Miho is Kyuri’s roommate, and she moved back to Seoul from New York after Sujin wrote to her encouraging her to do so. Miho thinks about how she is different from the other women in the building, claiming that she is the only one who does not wear full make-up or do anything to her hair. On this day, Miho is supposed to meet her boyfriend Hanbin’s mother for lunch. Hanbin’s family is extremely wealthy, and she can’t help but feel intimidated by the prospect of going to his home and meeting his famous mother.
Miho runs into Kyuri in the living room, and she can’t help but think about an argument that they’d had a few nights prior. Kyuri, while drunk, had accused Miho of thinking she’s better than Kyuri because Miho is beautiful without having had any cosmetic surgery. While Miho denies she feels any superiority over Kyuri, she can’t help but feel some pride when she is able to also deny that she’s ever had cosmetic surgery. Presently, Miho tells Kyuri that she is supposed to meet Hanbin’s mother today, and she doesn’t know what to wear. Kyuri offers to let Miho borrow one of her expensive dresses, stating that when she marries Hanbin, Miho will have to introduce her to some famous people in exchange. Miho reluctantly puts on the dress and shows Kyuri, who has begun her rigorous skin care routine.
Hanbin’s mother is a beloved Korean actress from the 1970s. After having an affair with a co-star, she quietly married the son of a second tier conglomerate. Later, she opened an art gallery and became a very successful art dealer. Miho reveals that she actually has met Hanbin’s mother before, but only briefly. On her way to meet Habin, Miho stops at an expensive department store and buys over-priced flowers because of the logo printed on the pot. As they arrive at Habin’s house, Miho realizes that she feels resentment toward Hanbin and his mother for their lavish lifestyle.
Hanbin goes to get his mother, but returns alone, stating that his mother isn’t feeling well, and she won’t be joining them for lunch. Miho can tell that he’s lying and feels frustrated by the situation. They go outside and look at the garden. Habin points out several houses in the distance, telling Miho that one of them belongs to their friend Ruby’s father. After lunch, Miho returns to her art studio, telling Hanbin he can’t come in to see what she’s working on.
Miho describes her Ruby series, a collection of artwork she’s made inspired by her friend Ruby. When Miho thinks of Ruby, she remembers the way that she was always surrounded by beautiful things. Miho met Ruby and Hanbin in New York during her time at SVA, an art school. She’d received a scholarship, and she later learned that the person who’d funded the scholarship was Ruby’s father, one of the wealthiest men in South Korea. Miho met Ruby herself by responding to a bulletin board ad looking for an art assistant at a new gallery while in New York. Miho was hired by Ruby, who was starting her own art gallery, and the pair became friends.
Hanbin and Ruby had been dating, but never seemed to show affection toward each other in public. The couple attended Miho’s first exhibit showing, and Hanbin showed great interest in Miho’s work, asking her questions about her process. Later in the year, Ruby, her brother Mu-cheon, Hanbin, and Miho attended a party thrown by a rich Korean student at a hotel in Boston. They drank heavily and enjoyed the night. When Miho went to lie down in the suite Ruby had rented for them, Hanbin kissed Miho. The pair never spoke about it afterward, but Miho remembers everything that happened.
Two months after the party, Ruby died by suicide. After, Miho stopped attending classes, grieving the loss of her friend deeply. Miho wishes she knew more about the pressures Ruby’s family had placed upon her, and she regrets saying that Ruby’s life had been amazing compared to hers. She feels guilty for loving Hanbin, believing that she is betraying Ruby, but she can’t help the way that she feels toward him. She states that she can’t give anything to Ruby other than evidence that she still haunts her every day, alluding to her art series.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The novel begins with three of the protagonists, Kyuri, Sujin, and Ara, eating together and discussing Sujin’s desire to become a room salon girl. Ara, as the narrator for the chapter, contemplates Kyuri and Sujin’s physical appearances.
Sujin is described as having a “face too square for her to ever be considered pretty in the true Korean sense” (4), while Kyuri is described as “one of those electrically beautiful girls. The stitches on her double eyelids look naturally faint” and “her entire jaw realigned and shaved into a slim v-line. Long feathery lashes have been planted along her tattooed eyeline, and she does routine light therapy on her skin, which glistens cloudy white, like skim milk” (4). The description of what makes Kyuri so beautiful is significant because it perfectly displays the hypocrisy and impossibility of the Beauty Standards placed upon women in South Korean society. Kyuri is beautiful because of her cosmetic surgeries, but it’s not the surgeries themselves that make her appealing, it is the way they look natural. The sharp juxtaposition between the efforts required to be considered beautiful and the preference and emphasis on natural beauty highlight the impossibility of meeting the expectations of beauty set by a male dominated society.
Having lost her voice during a traumatic incident, Ara must communicate via writing. She does not believe she will ever get her voice back, but Sujin, her best friend, still holds out hope. Ara comments on this, saying:
Sujin’s pet name for me is ineogongju, or little mermaid. She says it’s because the little mermaid lost her voice but got it back later and lived happily ever after. I don’t tell her that that’s the American cartoon version. In the original story, she kills herself.” This brings the reader’s attention to the large difference between Sujin’s overly optimistic perspective and Ara’s assessment of the reality of the situation (7).
Perspective Versus Reality is one of the main themes within the novel. In this scene, Ara explains that Sujin’s perspective of the situation, her belief that Ara will one day be able to speak again, isn’t real; the situation is much less optimistic than Sujin believes, but Ara decides not to tell her as a way of sparing her feelings.
Later that week, Kyuri comes into Ara’s hair salon to get her hair styled before her shift at the room salon. Kyuri talks to Ara about the madam of Ajax, stating:
It’s really tragic, getting old. I look at our madam and she is just the ugliest creature I have ever seen. I think I would kill myself if I looked that ugly […] Why doesn’t she just get surgery? Why? I really don’t understand ugly people […] Are they stupid? Are they perverted?” in a very harsh tone (13).
This moment helps the reader to understand two things. First, the reader is given insight into the kind of person that Kyuri is and some of her beliefs. Kyuri, who has become obsessed with maintaining her appearance, is highly judgmental of those who do not. Her own self-image has become so intertwined with maintaining her physical one that she projects her own insecurities onto other people. She could not imagine her life without having her cosmetic surgeries, and she condemns those who do not opt to alter themselves cosmetically to attain traditional standards of beauty. Kyuri doesn’t see the value in a person other than beauty. This moment also shows the reader how damaging and polarizing the Beauty Standards within society are. Kyuri accuses people who choose to not alter their appearance as “stupid” and “perverted,” both of which carry extremely negative connotations. The readers are forced to grapple with how deeply ingrained these beauty standards are within society and how they divide the women within it.
Later in the chapter, Sujin receives her double jaw surgery, and she leaves the hospital in an extreme amount of pain. Ara remembers the story of the little mermaid, referencing back to Sujin’s nickname for her. Instead of discussing how the image relates to her, she places it against Sujin, using it to metaphorically depict the reason and outcome of Sujin’s surgeries:
In the original story, the little mermaid endures unspeakable pain to gain her human legs […] she danced divinely with her human legs, even through the pain of a thousand knives […] In the end, she said goodbye to her prince and flung herself into the sea […] Isn’t that a beautiful story? (17).
Metaphorically, the story of the little mermaid dancing beautifully through her pain represents the agony that women go through so that they can be considered beautiful within the society depicted in the novel. The question at the end of Ara’s musing is meant to be startling to the reader as the parallel between Sujin and the little mermaid become apparent. By asking the reader if they believe the story is “beautiful,” they force the reader to contemplate the darkness within the novel as well as the metaphor itself. Beauty is synonymous with pain.
Chapter 2 is told from Kyuri’s point of view and follows her through a shift at Ajax, the room salon where she works. When an unexpected woman shows up in Kyuri’s room, she contemplates the ways in which other women typically react to her profession. She claims:
[W]omen usually gape like fish, judging us. You can tell they are thinking, ‘I would never compromise my morals for money. You probably only do this to buy handbags.’ I’m not sure who’s worse, them or the men. Just kidding, the men are always worse,” in a voice that is both bitter and resigned (19).
Women within this society view each other as competition due to the complicated nature of the Social Hierarchies, a motif within the novel, and gender inequality. Social mobility within this society for women is dependent on being better than other women, be that through beauty, wealth, or profession. Despite the judgment she faces from other women, Kyuri does not blame them for their resentment of her. Instead, she blames the men, who are higher up on the social hierarchy, for instigating and creating this kind of competitive and judgmental climate.
After her shift at the room salon, Kyuri finds herself back at the Cinderella Clinic. The name the “Cinderella Clinic” is an allusion to the fairy tale about Cinderella in which her fairy godmothers transform her from a servant to a princess; the real life “fairy godmothers,” or the doctors at the clinic, can alter the physical appearance of others. By invoking the fairy tale, the Cinderella Clinic tells their customers that through the magic of modern medicine they will have the same “happily ever after” as Cinderella by altering their appearance.
Within the clinic, Kyuri sees a woman named Candy, the K-Pop idol that Kyuri had based her cosmetic surgeries on. She sees her seemingly upset and trying to hide her face. Kyuri becomes enraged and jealous, saying, “I wanted to reach over and shake her by the shoulders. Stop running around like a fool, I wanted to say. You have so much and you can do anything you want. I would live your life so much better than you, if I had your face (31),” helping the readers understand the depth of Kyuri’s emotional dependency on her appearance. This moment is significant because it uses the title of the novel to raise the stakes of the interaction, showing the reader that those operating within the rigid hierarchy of beauty assume that if their face is perfect, so will be their lives. This is, of course, a false pretense, as Candy is apparently far from happy.
In Chapter 3, Wonna discusses her feelings toward her husband and their marriage. Wonna marries her husband out of convenience and feels only resentment and annoyance toward him. The Dangers of Relationships of Convenience is a theme within the novel that highlights the various negative impacts that entertaining these kinds of relationships can have. Wonna thinks about her reasoning for marrying her husband, stating that she did so to avoid having a mother-in-law:
[Because] the hate that mothers-in-law harbor towards their daughters-in-law is built into the genes of all women in this country. The bile festers below the surface, dormant but still lurking, until the son becomes of marriageable age; the resentment at being pushed aside, the anger of becoming second in their sons’ affection (48).
Again, the reader is made to consider the complex relationships between women that this society fosters. Competition between women not only occurs in the realms of beauty and profession, but also within families. In the novel, men represent status and have connections that none of the female protagonists have access to. In turn, mothers feel competition toward their daughters-in-law as they try and maintain their son’s favor and access to his connections.
In Chapter 4, Miho sees Wonna sitting on the stairs as she arrives home late at night from her studio. Miho tells the readers that “She never raises her head as I walk past. It’s all very rude but I am used to her,” assuming that she perceives Wonna as being unkind in her actions (51). However, the readers are aware that Wonna chooses to go sit on the stairs at night when she feels very ill from her pregnancy, and she sits there waiting for Miho and the other girls to make it home safely (34). This moment of dramatic irony, in which readers know the truth about a situation and the characters do not, hints at Miho’s naivety and lack of foresight that causes her conflict throughout the novel.
Social hierarchies is a motif that allows for the readers to explore the rigid and complicated implications of a top-down social system. Miho tackles this topic directly, creating a metaphor for the reader to understand how this system works within South Korean society. She says:
For all its millions of people. Korea is the size of a fishbowl and someone is always looking down on someone else. That’s just the way it is in this country, and the reason people ask a series of rapid-fire questions the minute they meet you. Which neighborhood do you live in? Where did you go to school? […] They pinpoint where you are on the national scale of status, then spit you out in a heartbeat (68).
The concept of the fishbowl, in which one fish swims above the other to save room and quicken intake, illustrates the way that the social hierarchy of wealth functions within this society. The immediacy of the questioning acts as a way to place people within the social hierarchy, determining which groups of people are able to mingle and which to avoid.
