“At his father’s insistence, Hoonie learned to read and write Korean and Japanese from the village schoolmaster well enough to keep a boardinghouse ledger and do sums in his head so he couldn’t be cheated at the market.” 

Hoonie’s parents emphasize practicality and survival, and they see a basic education as crucial to make sure Hoonie does not get taken advantage of. This practical desire to protect one’s self against others is seen in all five generations of the family. Hoonie teaches Sunja never to be in debt because the mathematics of debt can quickly overwhelm a person’s whole financial livelihood. Sunja teaches her sons these same lessons. While Noa pays back Hansu for his entire education, refusing to be in debt to a gangster, Mozasu and then Solomon enter the lucrative pachinko business.

“People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.” 

Hansu refuses to fall into the binary thinking of some Koreans, especially since the Japanese annexation of Korea, claiming that all Japanese are bad and all Koreans are good. He believes that good people can be corrupted once they have access to money and power, believing that money corrupts. Of course, Hansu is richer than most in the community, so he is both indicting himself as bad since his fortunes have far exceeded his poor beginnings. But it also can be seen as a rationalizing of his actions since he suggests that the way he acts is no worse than anyone else would be.