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.
Themes
The Effects of Propaganda
This text stresses the omnipresence of propaganda in North Korea, from the posters that give the bleak streets of Chongjin their only color, to the lessons children learn in school, to the movies at the cinema. Propaganda is incorporated into arithmetic lessons that also teach antipathy for Americans, missionaries, and the Japanese.
In his effort to be more like Santa Claus than Stalin, Kim Il-sung used propaganda to promote an image of benevolence, immortality, and god-like strength and intelligence. His time in the Soviet Union was unknown to citizens of North Korea, who saw him as a quasi-religious figure. Statues in his honor made up the hearts of cities and villages. This effort inspired real fervor in his followers—North Koreans like Mrs. Song report their absolute devastation at his death.
However, propaganda also creates an expectation that is very difficult to live up to. For some, Kim Il-sung’s death in fact revealed the emptiness of the rhetoric that proclaimed him immortal. After a period of famine, his death leads Oak-hee to feel that Il-sung had misled the country—and that his son would do no better. Coming at a time of extreme social upheaval, his death underscored the failures of North Korea’s government in reality, outside of the propaganda that claimed there was “nothing to envy.”
The propaganda song “nothing to envy” has special significance in the book. A sing-song tune that school teachers play on the accordion, it teaches that North Koreans have nothing to envy in the world, so prosperous is their nation. That propaganda takes on a tone of cruel irony for Mi-ran as she leads starving kindergarteners in its recitation. Jun-sang also remembers his school days as he sees individuals starve to death in train stations. Propaganda is powerful—but only so long as citizens can be kept in a state of relative contentment. When society plunges into chaos, propaganda begins to look not just cartoonish but also offensive.
Privacy in North Korea
Due to the efforts of the iminban, the neighborhood organizations that report any aberrant behavior, privacy is all but impossible to come by in North Korea. This haunts the lives of most of the characters in this text. Mi-ran and Jun-sang both develop skepticism of communism as they witness starvation and public executions; however, they are hesitant to share this skepticism even with each other for fear that it will be reported. Jun-sang becomes convinced that the other students at the university must feel the same way he does, but he doesn’t know how to begin conversations with them about being skeptical.
The lack of privacy especially affects Mrs. Song. Tae-woo is taken in for three days of questioning after making an offhand comment about the availability of boots. Mrs. Song, occasional head of her own neighborhood’s iminban, is surprised to learn that the lack of privacy may punish even citizens who are true believers. Furthermore, Oak-hee and Tae-woo begin discussing the failures of the regime, and in fact hide it from Mrs. Song for fear that she will report them.
The lack of privacy places barriers to intimacy between family members and lovers, and even prevents Jun-sang from writing in a diary. The literal darkness of North Korea, as described in the first chapter, is one of the few escapes from it.
Bloodlines, Heredity, and Discrimination
The song-bun rating system imposed upon citizens creates rigid barriers between individuals based on their heredity. Jun-sang’s parents’ time in Japan, Mi-ran’s father’s upbringing in South Korea, and Dr. Kim’s father’s upbringing in China mark their children for life. Mi-ran’s three talented, beautiful sisters are denied entry to college, disillusioning her family. The stridency of these lines is what prevents Mi-ran and Jun-sang from publically pursuing their relationship, and from marriage.
Even those who are economically advantaged by their heritage—i.e. Jun-sang—face barriers to party membership in North Korea. Dr. Kim is less economically advantaged, but is a true believer in the regime. When she discovers that even she is under suspicion because of her father’s background, she begins to seriously contemplate defection.
These clear delineations and the impossibility of upward mobility highlight the hypocrisy of a nation that supposedly moves forward because of collective efforts. As long as class striates the collective, it seems to reproduce the feudal caste system. Poor treatment because of their song-bunmakes both Dr. Kim and Mi-ran skeptical of the communist regime, ultimately leading to their defection.
Hunger as a Motivating Force
The risk of punishment in North Korea is high, and punishment itself might take the form of torture, forced labor, imprisonment, or death. The omnipresence of surveillance makes the risk all the worse. Therefore, little can motivate citizens to step out of line, even when it comes to making a minor remark. That all changes with the onset of the famine, however.
Mrs. Song and Dr. Kim are both characterized as true believers in the regime who are motivated to break the law only by hunger. Mrs. Song at first abhors the idea of participating in the black market, but as conditions worsen, she attempts to create several small businesses. After her husband and son die, she begins a business selling cookies. Dr. Kim is hesitant to take bribes from patients, but eventually finds herself writing doctor’s notes to keep patients out of work in exchange for food.
The book chronicles the sheer inventiveness of North Koreans during the famine, arguing that individuals in socialist countries are by no means ill equipped to feed themselves. Characters eat grass, corncobs, and other difficult-to-digest foods; they create nets to capture birds and frogs. They find ways to eat pine bark and acorns. They create gardens on roofs or wherever else is possible.
Middle-aged women in particular create a new economy as they begin small businesses, causing markets to grow. This activity is illegal, and requires complex negotiations with others to achieve the necessary materials to procure ingredients, open restaurants, and more.
Hunger motivates not just inventiveness, but also, ultimately, defection. All are motivated to leave because of hunger. Even the most reluctant character, Mrs. Song, is persuaded to move to South Korea after she enjoys the benefits of a rice cooker in China.
