The Pocket Knife in The Eyes Are the Best Part: From Inherited Protection to Instrument of Violence

The Knife as Inheritance: Protection and Abandonment in One Object

The pocket knife enters the novel as a practical object with an emotional charge. In chapter 27, Ji-won recalls that her father gave it to her a few weeks before he left, after learning she would commute by bus. He tucked the cold metal into her palm with the words “I won’t be with you all the time” and “I won’t be okay until I know that you’re safe.” The gift is framed as protection, but Ji-won immediately reads it as a confession: “He must have known then that he was going to leave.”

This is the knife’s first meaning: inherited protection that is also inherited abandonment. Appa’s fear for his daughter’s safety is genuine, but the gift is also his way of managing his own absence. He cannot be there, so he gives her a blade. The knife is a stand-in for the father—a promise of safety that is also an admission that he won’t be around to provide it. This connects to the novel’s theme of abandonment: the father’s departure is announced through the very object meant to compensate for it.

Self-Defense and the Limits of Protection

The knife’s second appearance is in the same chapter, when Ji-won believes she is being followed home from the bus. She assesses her options—fighting, running, screaming—and dismisses each. The knife is her last resort. She retrieves it from her bag, whirls around with the blade extended, and finds nobody there.

This moment reveals the knife’s limits. The father’s gift does not actually protect her; the threat (real or imagined) vanishes before the blade can be used. The knife gives her a sense of agency, but it also isolates her. She sprints home, clutching the blade, and wonders whether George was the one following her. The knife, meant to protect her from strangers, now points toward a familiar threat.

In chapter 28, the knife nearly harms the person it was meant to protect. Riding the elevator, Ji-won clutches the blade and almost stabs her sister Ji-hyun, who has come looking for their mother. The knife’s protective purpose has already begun to blur into something more dangerous.

The Knife as Instrument of Violence

The knife’s transformation from defense to offense is complete by chapter 37. Ji-won finds a dead man—the same man she gave coins to earlier—and without conscious decision, the knife is in her hand: “The knife is in my hand before I know what I’m doing.” She cuts into his eyelid and extracts his eye. The language of the scene emphasizes the knife’s ease: the flesh yields like “softened butter and cheese.”

In chapter 45, the knife is used again, this time on a living man. Ji-won encounters an injured man in an alley, sees his blue eyes, and grabs “the knife from my bag.” She cuts into his eye socket, and when he fights back, she kicks him into the wall, killing him. She then uses the knife to extract both eyes.

The knife has become the instrument of the novel’s central act: the taking of eyes. This connects directly to the theme of the politics of looking. The eyes are “the best part”—the mother’s refrain from chapter 1—and the knife is what allows Ji-won to claim them. The gaze that has been directed at her, that has made her feel fragile and vulnerable, is literally cut out and consumed. The knife is the tool of this reversal.

The Knife as Evidence and Escape

The knife’s final arc is its use as a framing device. In chapter 58, Ji-won realizes her backpack—and the knife inside it—is missing. She panics, searching everywhere. The knife, which was her protection and her weapon, is now a liability. It contains her DNA and fingerprints, linking her to three murders.

In chapter 72, the knife’s fate is revealed. Geoffrey has been arrested for George’s murder. The knife used on George is covered in Geoffrey’s fingerprints. And at Geoffrey’s home, police will find Ji-won’s pocket knife—“a forensic match to my prior three victims.” Geoffrey, who has been stalking Ji-won, has unknowingly taken possession of the murder weapon. The knife that was meant to protect Ji-won now protects her again, by implicating someone else.

This is a dark irony. The father’s gift, which was supposed to keep her safe, has become the instrument of her crimes. But it also becomes the instrument of her escape. The knife’s meaning has come full circle: it protects her, but only by destroying another man.

The Knife and the Novel’s Themes

The pocket knife connects to several of the novel’s central themes:

Consumption as coping. The knife enables the eye-eating that is Ji-won’s response to trauma. The eyes are “the best part,” and the knife is how she takes them. The act of consumption—eating the eyes—is a way of processing inherited pain, and the knife is the tool that makes it possible. This connects to the theme of consumption as a coping mechanism.

The politics of looking. The knife is used to extract eyes, literally reversing the gaze. Ji-won, who has been looked at, objectified, and made to feel fragile, uses the knife to take the eyes of the men who threaten her. The knife is the instrument of the reversal.

The burden of filial duty. The knife is a gift from the father, and Ji-won carries it out of a sense of duty—“a silent prayer of thanks to my father.” But the gift becomes a burden. The knife that was meant to protect her becomes the tool of her violence, and ultimately the evidence that could destroy her. This connects to the theme of filial duty.

Domestic ritual. The knife moves from the domestic sphere—the kitchen paring knife in Ji-won’s dreams in chapter 31—to the street. The novel’s domestic rituals, like the mother’s fish-eye superstitions, are sites of control and resistance. The knife extends this control beyond the home, connecting to the theme of domestic ritual as a site of control.

Study Questions

1. How does the pocket knife’s meaning change from chapter 27 to chapter 72?

The knife begins as a gift of protection from the father, who gives it to Ji-won before leaving. In chapter 27, it is a self-defense tool, used when she believes she is being followed. By chapters 37 and 45, it has become an instrument of violence, used to kill and extract eyes. In chapter 72, it becomes evidence—a forensic match that implicates Geoffrey in Ji-won’s crimes. The knife’s arc mirrors Ji-won’s own transformation from a vulnerable young woman to a killer who uses the system to escape consequences.

2. What does the father’s gift reveal about his character and his relationship with Ji-won?

The father gives Ji-won the knife because he fears for her safety, but the gift also reveals his guilt. He knows he is leaving, and the knife is his way of protecting her in his absence. The gift is both an act of care and an admission of abandonment. Ji-won reads it this way: “He must have known then that he was going to leave.” The knife is the father’s legacy—a promise of safety that is also a confession of failure.

3. How does the knife connect to the novel’s treatment of eyes and looking?

The knife is the instrument of the novel’s central act: the extraction of eyes. The eyes are “the best part” (chapter 1), and the knife is how Ji-won claims them. The act of cutting out eyes is a reversal of the gaze—Ji-won, who has been objectified and made to feel fragile, takes the eyes of the men who threaten her. The knife is the tool of this reversal, connecting the novel’s violence to its meditation on looking and being looked at.

4. Why is the knife’s loss in chapter 58 significant?

The loss of the knife marks a turning point. Ji-won has relied on the knife for protection and for violence, but its disappearance makes her vulnerable. The knife contains her DNA and fingerprints, linking her to three murders. Its loss forces her to confront the possibility of discovery. The knife, which was her protection, has become her greatest liability. Its recovery—and its placement at Geoffrey’s home—is what ultimately saves her.