Author: jamesed96795

Based on the first two chapters of Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, I’ve noticed how oppressed the North Korean citizens were.

In the first chapter, it talks about how the byzantine system of social controls, or its ranking system, affected its citizens. For someone high ranking to affiliate themselves with someone who was bottom of the totem pole would be judged as unsightly. The quote below demonstrates how people of different rank would be affected if they were to simply date.

“To be seen in public together would damage the boy’s career prospects as well as her reputation as a virtuous young woman.”

(p. 5)

In the second chapter, it goes in depth how the propaganda blinded each and every one of North Korean Citizens by speaking of how great their dear leader was. Not only that but the “Official History” that the North Korean government provided and how it was taboo to speak of what really happened. Below is an example of how students may be educated.

“The children had been thoroughly inculcated in the North Korean version of history. The Americans were the incarnation of evil and the South Koreans their pathetic lackeys. They’d studied photographs of their country after it had been pulverized by U.S. bombs. They’d read about how sneering American and South Korean soldiers drove their bayonets into the bodies of innocent civilians. Their textbooks at school were full of stories of people burned, crushed, stabbed, shot, and poisoned by the enemy.”

(p. 31)

In chapter three of Nothing to Envy, despite having four children, it talks about a committed communist named Mrs. Song who continued to work a full eight hour shift and still attended classes afterward about her great leader.

As a result from a long and exhausting day, she didn’t have time for any leisure, no time for sleep, and was still expected to participate in “self-criticisms” in which you admit all of your wrong-doings.

“All those years of sleep deprivation, all those lectures and self-criticisms — the very same tools used in brainwashing or interrogations — has wiped out any possibility of resistance.”

(p. 43)

Based on the first two chapters of Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, I’ve noticed how oppressed the North Korean citizens were.

In the first chapter, it talks about how the byzantine system of social controls, or its ranking system, affected its citizens. For someone high ranking to affiliate themselves with someone who was bottom of the totem pole would be judged as unsightly. The quote below demonstrates how people of different rank would be affected if they were to simply date.

“To be seen in public together would damage the boy’s career prospects as well as her reputation as a virtuous young woman.”

(p. 5)

In the second chapter, it goes in depth how the propaganda blinded each and every one of North Korean Citizens by speaking of how great their dear leader was. Not only that but the “Official History” that the North Korean government provided and how it was taboo to speak of what really happened. Below is an example of how students may be educated.

“The children had been thoroughly inculcated in the North Korean version of history. The Americans were the incarnation of evil and the South Koreans their pathetic lackeys. They’d studied photographs of their country after it had been pulverized by U.S. bombs. They’d read about how sneering American and South Korean soldiers drove their bayonets into the bodies of innocent civilians. Their textbooks at school were full of stories of people burned, crushed, stabbed, shot, and poisoned by the enemy.

(p. 31)