37 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara DemickNothing to Envy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Fade to Black”
This chapter details the end of North Korea’s economic stability in the 1990s. As the economy fails and electricity stops, Mrs. Song has to fetch water from a well before beginning an hour-long walk to work. The factory she works in relies on electricity, so its employees soon begin scavenging for food rather than sewing garments—if they show up at all. Eventually, her employer suggests she stop coming and begin to work on the black market. The government’s collective farms have ceased to operate without electricity, leading to a food shortage and the end of most rations—a food shortage that the government will scarcely acknowledge. Hence, black markets swell. As periodic imininbanjang, head of her neighborhood surveillance group, Mrs. Song is tasked with reporting neighbors who complain about food shortages, a task she is hesitant to perform as she tries to find a way for her own family to eat. To survive, Dr. Kim Ji-eun, a young medical resident, travels long distances to orchards to search for fruit. Both women have worked hard all their lives, and must work harder still to feed themselves and their families.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Victorian Romance”
Mi-ran weathers the famine due to her mother’s inventiveness, while Jun-sang’s family wealth insulates him from its worst effects. Even after beginning university in Pyongyang, he continues to dream of Mi-ran, and with the help of her sister, Mi-sook, he begins to court her in earnest. They begin to correspond through letters. Demick states that the culture’s prudishness rivals that of conservative Muslim nations, that no dating culture exists, and that the government recommends women do not marry until 28—a standard that keeps the birth rate down. Accordingly, the two spend their time together on long walks when Jun-sang is back in Chongjin, without so much as holding hands for three years. Their conversations make Mi-ran hopeless about her future prospects, but Jun-sang encourages her to believe in herself and work hard to change her life. Following his advice, she is accepted to a teacher’s college where she endures extreme cold and hunger before moving in with a relative to ensure she has enough food to eat while attending classes. The two are able to meet up during Jun-sang’s breaks from school, avoiding detection by their parents and inhabiting “a shared psychic space in a society where privacy didn’t exist” (89).
Chapter 6 Summary: “Twilight of the God”
When Kim Il-sung dies in 1994, the nation falls into collective mourning, egged on by relentless media focus on mourning. Demick writes that “all North Koreans can recall with extraordinary clarity where they were and what they were doing when they learned of Kim Il-sung’s death” (91). Mrs. Song “went blank,” and then begins to scream. Oak-hee, who had begun to work as a vocal artist for propaganda tracks, watches with her angry husband, and thinks to herself, “‘now we’re really fucked’” (96). Kim Hyuck, a boy at the time, is delighted there is no school, and goes to the local statue of Kim Il-sung repeatedly to get free rice cakes. Jun-sang realizes that he needed to fake tears amongst a crowd of mourning university students, and began to wonder “what was wrong with him…[d]idn’t he love Kim Il-sung?” (98) Mi-ran dreads bringing her kindergarten class to mourn at the statue, due to the difficulty of keeping them safe. There is an outbreak of suicides, including Dr. Kim Ji-eun’s father.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
This group of chapters moves into the 1990s, and the beginning of North Korea’s economic downturn. It moves from a portrait of day-to-day life during a period of relative economic prosperity to the harsh reality of famine. Demick explains the economic and political reasons for the famine, beginning with the fall of global Communism and North Korea’s inability to leverage diplomatic ties in a new world order. Without foreign aid, the country soon finds itself poor and unable to feed its populace. However, its stronghold over its citizens makes it possible to deny that reality—to an extent. As many jobs disappear due to a lack of electricity, citizens must find ways to make money in a supposedly money-free society, and to feed themselves. Black markets spring up, and almost all of the ways in which people must feed themselves are technically illegal.
The famine also changes the social order, forcing believers to act against their morals, and creating increased class mobility as well. Mrs. Song is a devout believer in communism, and is ill inclined to sell or purchase goods at a black market, although she realizes it may indeed come to that. Jun-sang’s Japanese relatives, as well as his parents’ private garden, make it possible for the family to stay comfortable in Chongjin, and he is insulated from the worst of it in Pyongyang. Mi-ran, by contrast, is from a humbler background. She is able to attend teacher’s college despite her poor song-bun because food is so scarce for university students; her willingness to endure, along with her industrious family, make it possible for her to eat and complete her schooling.
The social upheaval during the famine comes to a boiling point when Kim Il-sung dies. The North Korean people’s faith in their nation is synonymous with their faith in its founder. As long as he is alive, they hold out hope that the man who provided their families with rice and rations will right the tide and make sure the nation is fed again. When his death is announced quite unexpectedly, without any period of sickness or struggle, it comes as a shock. The strong reactions—screams, tears, collective hysteria—manifest intense emotion at his death, but also perhaps despair for the nation’s future in the face of what is clearly a famine. There is some respite from hunger as rice cakes are handed out, but the nation’s future is less sure, especially for those who already harbored skepticism, including Jun-sang and Oak-hee.
