"A Dream of Good Fortune" (Korean: 돼지 꿈, romanized: Dwaeji Kkum, lit.
The story is set in the outskirts of Seoul, South Korea, during a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization, and explores a day in the lives of the poor, working-class people that live as urban squatters outside nearby factories (Pihl, B. Fulton, and J. Fulton xi; Ch'o, Pang, and Chang 68).
When the short story was first published in 1973, South Korea was rapidly industrializing under the authoritarian leadership of President Park Chung-hee (Ch'o, Pang, and Chang 11-12; Robinson 129-131).
When Park seized power in 1961, he began implementing an export-oriented economic strategy that was extraordinarily successful (Robinson 129; Eckert et al. 388; Ch'o, Pang, and Chang 14-15).
[1] Increased trade with Japan along with hundreds of millions of dollars of desperately needed capital in the form of grants, public loans, and commercial credits from the Japanese government helped Korea swiftly industrialize out of the cataclysmic destruction of the Korean War (Ch'o, Pang, and Chang 14-15; Eckert et al. 388, 392).
During this time there were sharp increases in per capita income that accompanied the breakneck economic growth, but a disproportionate amount of the new wealth went to entrepreneurs, not workers (Robinson 129; Eckert et al. 388, 413-414).
Misun worked at the local wig factory before she took out a large daily-interest loan and ran away from home.
After talking to his male neighbors, Kang decides to share the dog with them in exchange for their help cooking and their providing makkŏlli, Korean rice wine.
When Kŭnho makes it home, Kang's wife finds out that her son lost three fingers in an accident at work, but instead of being distraught, she is glad, because now she can use his compensation money for Misun's marriage.