Analysis Of Without You, There Is No Us By Suki Kim

The article It’s Not About You by David Brooks, presented the struggle in today’s society for graduating students, due to the trouble of finding passions or use of strengths. “Instead, they will confront amazingly diverse job markets, social landscapes, and lifestyle niches. Most will spend a decade wandering from job to job and clique to clique, searching for a role.” (Brooks 4). Newly graduated students have had difficulty discovering their strength and weaknesses. Instead, students should find themselves before taking on life's journey. “This year’s graduates are members of the most supervised generation in American history. Through their childhoods and teenage years, they have been monitored, tutored, coached and honed to an unprecedented

1984 demonstrates a dystopian society in Oceania by presenting a relentless dictator, Big Brother, who uses his power to control the minds of his people and to ensure that his power never exhausts. Aspects of 1984 are evidently established in components of society in North Korea. With both of these society’s under a dictator’s rule, there are many similarities that are distinguished between the two. Orwell’s 1984 becomes parallel to the world of dystopia in North Korea by illustrating a nation that remains isolated under an almighty ruler.

North Korea’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, made North Korea a harsh and brutal place to live. He has made many rules for North Korea, but if someone doesn’t follow they capture them, the government officials/ agents put a board behind you and make you sit down. If they pushed on you, you would collapse, and you would hear your kneecaps

Cultures around the world are divide by their distinctive characteristic of people, and how people interact within their society. Most cultures are driven by the way their environment has been set for them. Many of cultures have to adapt to the way their environment are due to the conditions that are set for them and the amount of resources that they are provided. The biggest drive for culture are the historical custom. Most countries continue to carry their ancestor custom so that the tradition may stay with them throughout their years, in which making other countries distinctive from one another. One of the particular country that will be discuss in this report is North Korea. In this report, I will be discussing the North Korean culture, with describing their living condition in the country, common issues that they face with on a daily bases, and common threat that they pose on other countries.

Around the time these books were written, North Korea established a classification system which led to this, “All resources are controlled- livelihood, school, lodging, whom can marry are all based on your ranking” as stated by Suzanne Scholte. To put this differently, the government mandated everything it possibly could, right down to

As a result of the regimes isolationist policy the people of North Korea suffered greatly in both mental and physical health. The hold the state had over the beliefs of the citizens presented in “Nothing to Envy”, varied from absolute belief to uncomfortable awareness. The reader is presented often with Mrs. Song’s dedication to the regime, and Kim Il-sung himself. A mother of four she was often gone from home, working and attending ideological training sessions. “Fridays she stayed especially late for self-criticism. In these sessions members of her work unit- the department to which she was assigned- would reveal to the group anything they had done wrong—Mrs. Song would usually say, in all sincerity, that she feared she wasn’t working hard enough” (Pg. 43).When Kim Il-sung died, she

This is used to teach their citizens about why America is bad and that they should be happy living in North Korea. This is used to show other countries as worse than North Korea, making its citizens believe that it is simply how life goes, and there are flaws no matter where you live. While this seems negative, something very similar is happening in America. Many North Koreans are lead to believe that Americans are bad and view them from a negative viewpoint, but the same is done from the other side leaving many Americans thinking the North Koreans are bad, and have negatives views of

Family traditions are passed on from generation to generation, however they are not always static rules. Tradition is like a living organism that adapts to change over time. In order to understand modern North Korea’s family customs, it is important to consider the tradition of the past. Before North Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, North Korean families operated differently than they do today. Their ideology was founded on Confucius’s principles of family, including “only a country where family life was harmonious could be peaceful and prosperous” (Asia Society). The family is an integral part of society the same way a cell is important to a body (Suzy, 264). The government is even considered “one family” that everyone is a part of (Monday). Every individual in a family has a role and every family has a role in society. The ideal family is modeled from Kim Il Sung’s nuclear family (Suzy, 268). It is clear that family is a fundamental priority in North Korean society.

I believe that North Korea is similar to the society in the book Anthem. I believe this for the reason that they are both collectivism societies and their leaders go to extreme ends to protect their collectivism (71). Firstly, they are both collectivism societies which means that the citizens are taught to work for the greater good instead of just themselves. If they aren’t contributing or making the culture better, than the leaders would not approve of their action. For example, in North Korea the citizens have to work for the greater good and are not encouraged to be individualized. Another example, is that in the book Anthem they are not allowed to speak the word “I” because that hints towards individualism which the society is not about

Imagine there is a small village living in fear of constant death from many probable causes disease, hunger, poverty, and corruption while nearby another group lives a life quite opposite of this small village. Where the small village can only dream of surviving to the next day, the others indulge in pleasure only imaginable to this small village. This image can be a visual representation for many things such as various dystopian societies in popular culture, the real-life conditions of the Jew’s in world war II or perhaps a corrupted society found in today’s world. This is how Tim Neville portrays North Korea in his article, “The Great Pleasure Project” where he and his colleague decided to visit the secluded country for its new ski

The country of North Korea compares rather closely to the world in Ayn Rand’s Anthem. Both nations of people are very closed off from the community and the outside world. The citizens only know about what the government officials want them to know about. In North Korea everyone depends upon and worships their leader, Kim Jong Il, almost as though he is their god. They all only depend on what they classify as “we” and they rely only on that because they do not have access to anyone else or even know what it means to be an individual. In both the book and North Korea, the citizens are locked down and watched with a careful eye. Breaking the rules in Anthem would send you to the Uncharted Forest, which is very similar to what happens to those

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Koreans who have experienced a great deal of hardship and turmoil living under one of the most notorious communist regimes. Throughout the years these North Koreans lived through the death of their great Kim Il-Sung, the rise to power of his successor Kim Jong-Il, and the horrific famine that has left many in despair. Although North Korea is constantly in the news globally it is surprising to realize little is known about the country itself. Communist dictatorship has shut out the North part of the Korean peninsula from the outside world and has ruled with an iron fist. In the years following WWII Kim Il-Sung and

The Secret State of North Korea offered a great look into what basic things North Koreans are lacking. Even within the realm of Communism. Lack of freedoms, lack of food, lack of community, lack of trust, lack of a social society, lack of programs for children, lack of equality, and a lack of information. When Kim Il-Sung created North Korea, the government was based on Marxism and Leninism, called “Juche.” Just as the Soviets, the North Koreans followed suite with massive inequality between the government officials and the common people. The documentary showed its viewers what the government is omnipresent in the everyday lives of its people, so much so that recordings of daily life are illegal, and “random” searches take place commonly.

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick provides insight into the lives of North Korean defectors while in North Korea. Their accounts give inside information about the North Korean regime which makes it possible to analyze to what extent society was an egalitarian utopia. The interview reveals that people were discriminated by social class as evident by those who were richer, and thus in a higher social strata, having more opportunities for success. There was also economic inequity which was apparent by people having different degrees of struggle. However, the problems North Koreans faced was similar, which showed there was some equality from their struggles. Overall, the interviewees give accounts which contradict the idea that the North Korean regime was promoting egalitarianism through their accounts which give counterexamples regarding social class and economic status, so their claim of egalitarianism is mostly false.

Given the poor state of the nation's economy, North Korea's government has to rely upon the cult of personality in order to keep the population in check. Most art in the country venerates, either directly or indirectly, the 'great leader' Kim il-Sung or his successor, the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Among the population, there is a strong level of belief in such apparent absurdities as the idea that Kim il-Sung created the entire world, or that Kim Jong-il controls the weather (Martin, 2004).