What are the motifs in Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin?

Identity is a recurring idea in the book. The experiences, and resultant transformational journeys, of two of the central characters can be seen as evoking the book's third thematic focus, the shifting nature of identity, with the two characters in question, Mom and Chi-hon, going on opposite journeys that offer its mirror images. On the one hand, the narrative portrays Mom as experiencing an increasing and deepening loss of identity, a loss of self, an eating away of individuality by the greedy, essentially ungrateful demands of her children and husband.