The metaphor Sand castle first came out when they first came to the beach in Busan. Eunsung was the one who discovered the shovels left by the kids and started digging, and Jiwoo was apprehensive at first, saying it was dirty, but it was Jiwoo who got more into the idea of making the sand castle, making it pretty. and wishing it lasted forever.
It was at this moment I even remembered the title of what I was reading and went OH. I saw this as a metaphor to their relationship at this point. Eunsung was the initiator who forged his way in through whatever means and tools (the shovels) but only because it was interesting. He didn't even make a sandcastle. Meanwhile, Jiwoo was the one who actually wanted it more, building it with his own hands and decorating it with the shovel that Eunsung picked. Later we see Jiwoo had learned to want to find someone who could fulfill the role of a "special other" and someone who could spend the rest of forever with him, based on what he saw from his parents. Eunsung is that special other, the final touch to his sandcastle.
But seeing the last panel, how they are pictured near the waves on the beach in place of sandcastles tells me love isn't in the sandcastle that we try to build with our ideals. Rather, it's in the surrender. It's not wise to want something so fragile to last, to try to keep molding the other person so that they match our idea of them in our head – this causes frustration and obsession. Love is accepting that we'll be weathered by the wind and that we are not safe from collapsing thanks to the waves, yet choosing to our person anyway, accepting that the rest is out of our hands and maybe, even finding shelter in that surrender. Whatever comes comes.
The metaphor Sand castle first came out when they first came to the beach in Busan. Eunsung was the one who discovered the shovels left by the kids and started digging, and Jiwoo was apprehensive at first, saying it was dirty, but it was Jiwoo who got more into the idea of making the sand castle, making it pretty. and wishing it lasted forever.
It was at this moment I even remembered the title of what I was reading and went OH. I saw this as a metaphor to their relationship at this point. Eunsung was the initiator who forged his way in through whatever means and tools (the shovels) but only because it was interesting. He didn't even make a sandcastle. Meanwhile, Jiwoo was the one who actually wanted it more, building it with his own hands and decorating it with the shovel that Eunsung picked. Later we see Jiwoo had learned to want to find someone who could fulfill the role of a "special other" and someone who could spend the rest of forever with him, based on what he saw from his parents. Eunsung is that special other, the final touch to his sandcastle.
But seeing the last panel, how they are pictured near the waves on the beach in place of sandcastles tells me love isn't in the sandcastle that we try to build with our ideals. Rather, it's in the surrender. It's not wise to want something so fragile to last, to try to keep molding the other person so that they match our idea of them in our head – this causes frustration and obsession. Love is accepting that we'll be weathered by the wind and that we are not safe from collapsing thanks to the waves, yet choosing to our person anyway, accepting that the rest is out of our hands and maybe, even finding shelter in that surrender. Whatever comes comes.