Crying in H Mart Chapters 7–9 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapters 7–9

Chapter 7: Medicine

Back in Oregon, Michelle and her family prepare for the side effects of her mother’s treatment to kick in. Michelle tries to remedy her mother’s lack of appetite by buying food at Sunset Market, a grocery store run by a Korean couple where she used to shop with her mother. Going to the store by herself reminds her of Hangul Hakkyo, the Korean language school where she learned to read and write (but not speak) Korean. She regrets never committing to learning the language fully.

On the fourth day, her mother begins vomiting. Days pass in which she can’t keep any food down, and eventually Michelle and her father have to take her to the hospital, where she stays for two weeks with Michelle spending the nights on the bench next to her bed. At home, Michelle’s father demands that Michelle be there to support him, and she resents his reliance on her. When her mother returns from the hospital, Michelle helps her to bathe. Upon getting out of the bath, Michelle and her mother notice that her mother’s hair is beginning to fall out, causing her mother to weep. Michelle resolves to remain strong for her.

Chapter 8: Unni

Michelle’s mother regains some of her strength before her second round of chemotherapy just as her friend Kye arrives. Kye is put-together, smart, and determined to help; her commitment to Michelle’s mother gives Michelle hope. Relieved of some of her caretaking tasks, Michelle starts going to the gym every day, a practice that prompts a memory from middle school, when in a gym locker room a classmate interrogated her about her race. Michelle names this interaction as the first of many that made her ashamed of her heritage around her peers.

Kye begins to take control of Michelle’s mother’s care. She cooks all her food and keeps Michelle and her father at a distance. Michelle gives up asking Kye to teach her how to make Korean dishes, and instead begins recording everything about her mother’s recovery. Feeling pushed aside by Kye, Michelle demands to take her mother to an appointment and the two reconnect in the car, singing along to a favorite duet. When they return, Kye has shaved her head in solidarity with Michelle’s mother, and the two women retreat further from Michelle and her father, communicating mostly in Korean. The more Kye pushes her away, the more Michelle feels the way she did in middle school: shunned for being neither wholly Korean nor wholly American.

Chapter 9: Where Are We Going?

Michelle recalls a memory with her aunt Eunmi. They are in Seoul, playing a game that is supposed to determine what Michelle values most in her life. Her answer to Eunmi’s questions reveals that she will prioritize her future child, and Eunmi says that her mother’s answer was the same. Eunmi dies of colon cancer when she is forty-eight. At her funeral, Michelle realizes that her mother is awkward and uncomfortable, and in witnessing her mother’s discomposure she feels closer to her. After the deaths of Halmoni and Eunmi, Michelle feels as though she is losing her connection to Korea. She notices that her mother changes after Eunmi’s death—she gives up collecting and enrolls in an art class.

After seeing Eunmi suffer through many rounds of chemotherapy, Michelle’s mother refuses to do more than two. Michelle goes on tour with her band, and when she returns to Philadelphia her parents call to say that the chemo didn’t work. Michelle’s mother says she wants to go to Korea one last time, and comforts Michelle as she cries.

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