43 pages • 1-hour read
Project Mulberry
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Julia Song, her little brother Kenny, and her parents are Korean American. They moved to mostly white Plainfield, Illinois, two years previously; she quickly became friends with Patrick, a white boy her age who lives down the street with his large family. Julia is sensitive about her Korean heritage, as past (white) friends expressed disgust for kimchi. Kimchi is a Korean staple dish made of pickled cabbage that has a very strong smell. Julia herself dislikes kimchi because of its spicy taste, but Patrick loves it, which cemented their friendship.
Julia and Patrick are searching for a suitable project for their farming-related Work-Grow-Give-Live! (WGGL/Wiggle) Club. They want to enter the competition at the state fair in the animal husbandry category but can’t come up with a workable idea.
At the end of the chapter, Julia asks Ms. Park, an authorial self-insert character, about Park’s inspiration for the novel’s plotline and the characterizations of Patrick and Julia herself. Park reveals that Julia’s negative experiences with kimchi are based on Park’s own past.
Chapter 2 Summary
On Patrick’s way home, Julia checks his pocket for quarters; they’re collecting state quarters and are missing a single Connecticut. The quarter they find is not Connecticut. Patrick goes home for dinner after getting his customary bite of kimchi and rice from Mrs. Song.
During Julia’s family dinner, she explains the Wiggle project and its obstacles. Later, Mrs. Song suggests a project idea: raising silkworms and harvesting the thread. Patrick, excited, chimes in with an additional sewing idea, which would allow them to submit their project into two competition categories. Patrick wants to start research immediately, but Julia is reluctant.
At the end of the chapter, Ms. Park reveals her own childhood dislike of kimchi, and Julia wants to swap Kenny for a younger sister. Park refuses.
Chapter 3 Summary
Julia and Patrick prepare to research silkworms. Patrick notices Julia’s reluctance and asks her about it, but Julia brushes him off. Privately, she worries that silkworms are “too Korean” and that Wiggle projects should be more “American” (i.e., white). Other Plainfield children have called Julia racial slurs, so she is sensitive about her Korean identity. Uncertain how to explain her hesitation to Patrick, Julia decides to adopt a “wait and see” approach, hoping some obstacle will make the project impossible.
In her conversation with Ms. Park, Julia expresses her dissatisfaction with the current plotline and demands a new one. Park refuses on the grounds that protagonists need challenges; she says that the challenges Julia wants would not tell the story Park wants to write. The dialogue ends on a reluctant compromise.
Chapter 4 Summary
Patrick researches silkworms while Julia ponders alternative projects, deciding that she can at least work on sewing just in case. She realizes that she prefers hand-sewing (such as needlework) to machine-sewing. Inspired, she asks her mother to teach her how to embroider. Mrs. Song explains a unique trait of traditional Korean embroidery: It’s symmetrical on both sides due to the type and size of stitches used. Julia begins practicing. Then Patrick announces an obstacle: Silkworms need mulberry trees, and as far as they know, there are no mulberry trees in Plainfield. While Patrick ponders ways to find mulberry trees, he has an idea.
In the behind-the-scenes dialogue, Julia is only partially satisfied with the results of their compromise and wants Park to write in lots of embroidery time for her. Park declares that embroidery practice is Julia’s responsibility and that sometimes the story acts beyond her control.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The first four chapters of Project Mulberry introduce the theme of Perceptions of Ethnic/Racial Identity and explore the complexity of growing up as a second-generation child of (nonwhite) immigrants, especially in a small and mostly white Midwestern town. While Julia doesn’t reject her Korean heritage, she is hesitant to embrace it, as her dislike of kimchi demonstrates. This is a trait the rest of her family does not share, and Kenny loves to bait her using her dislike of kimchi.
Kimchi, like Julia’s obvious Asian heritage, has been a point of contention whenever she tries to befriend white children. Unused to kimchi’s strong, permeating smell, most of her non-Korean friends are disgusted by the scent. Combined with the Chinese slurs used against her, this teaches Julia to desire assimilation into white culture. She is therefore hesitant to embrace the silkworm project her mother suggests, thinking that if it’s too Korean, surely it’s no good. Julia can, however, accept Korean embroidery. There’s a clear American precedent for needlework—it’s a category for Wiggle projects—and Julia is interested in handicrafts. The fact that she is drawn to the unique techniques used in traditional Korean embroidery suggests that she will become more at ease with her Korean American identity as the novel progresses.
Julia’s friendship with Patrick is special. Though he is white, he appreciates Julia’s Korean heritage and loves kimchi. Kimchi therefore symbolizes harmony between Julia and Patrick, as he only refuses to stop by the kitchen for his ritualistic bite of kimchi and rice when their relationship is having problems.
Julia’s dialogues with Ms. Park serve not just to illustrate the behind-the-scenes process of writing a book, but also to reflect Julia’s own mental state and character development. In these chapters, Julia is childish, wanting adults to solve all her problems for her. Park refuses, telling Julia that she must take responsibility for her actions and that adults don’t have all the answers. The dialogues comment on the “purpose” of many middle grade narratives, which is to guide their protagonists through the early steps in the coming-of-age process.
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