Analysis of Escape from Camp 14

Also the lack of jobs has led to the majority of the people to be below the poverty line. And the ones with jobs do not get paid much or at all due to government corruption. For example, “Men are forced to work long hours for the government, often without pay, and those that don’t show up for work risk imprisonment”. Which has led to men working worthless jobs and women becoming the breadwinners of the families but still not having the same respect as men. The North Korean government is forcing these men to work for free while their families have no food to eat. Brainwashing and propaganda are also major aspects of the regime to keep the people scared of the world outside North Korea, namely the United States, Japan and South Korea. As shown, “Ak (evil) may be the single most commonly used word to describe Americans. The derogatory term nom, similar to calling someone a bastard, is inevitably attached to the end of any word referring to Americans”. Children from a young age are taught to refer to Americans in such manner to install fear in them to always distrust Americans and their aid. Americans are the worst of the worst type of people, according to the Kim regime, because they prevented the reunification of the two Koreas. Followed closely behind by the Japanese, since there is still resentment from the Japanese colonial rule. South Korea is not as

is exiled from his mind during his deployment in the war, then his family once he gets home, and

Villains do not become malicious from thin air, there is always a reason behind their actions. In the book Day 21 by Kass Morgan, the reader is given more detail on the character Murphy. This character follows no rules and at first has his followers but that quickly changes. Murphy hunts down and in a way forces a 13-year-old girl to commit suicide, and is then banished from the camp. He eventually comes back and tries to kill several people.

betrayal, and violence. His father abandoned him seeking to find a life less confrontational to a

Secondly, his privacy was violated. Being away for a long time, the wooers taught he was dead and not

Shin Dong-hyuk is the only known escapee born in the brutal North Korean political prison camps. But did Shin find freedom, or did he take his prison with him? In the Escape from Camp 14, Blaine Harden retells the excruciating physical and emotional abuse endured by Shin in the camp where he was born. Yet, to Shin, the brutal beatings at the hand’s of his mother, the camp guards and teachers, and even the other children with whom he was raised was nothing extraordinary. Scrounging on the dining room floor or in the refuse piles for an extra shred of cabbage or kernel of corn, or sneaking off to roast rats or grasshoppers to stave off starvation was simply a way of life. Shin had spent “23 years in an open-air cage run by men who hanged his mother, shot his brother, crippled his father, murdered pregnant women, beat children to death, taught him to betray his family, and tortured him over a fire (123).” Shin survived by doing exactly what he was told to do, when he was told to do it. He had no family. He had no friends. Upon successfully Escaping Camp 14, Shin “felt wonderfully free--and, as

-The living condition that Shin has been in is very tough. Everyone in the concentration camps have very limited food and supplies. Shin gets hungry a lot so during lunch time he would eat the lunch that his mother made for him, but also eat her portion. Shin has always hated his mother, that was just the way he grew up and how he was taught. For people like me who’s born in the United States, we were always taught and told that we should love our mother since your mother is the woman that gave birth to you. When Shin moved to the United States, he finally learned that he was supposed to love his mother so he would say that he loved her.

Later though he revised his story into the true one, the one where it actually documented what happened correctly. Anyways, onto what this story portrays. Shin begins in the first chapter stating his first memory was an execution. Showing already the horrors of Camp 14, and what death may come.

He believes leaving the nest will ultimately lead him to his death, just like his older brother was after he left home. His

He went to the school’s night guard and told him for extra food and better treatment. The night guard took credit for finding out his mother’s plan, and Shin was tortured

He developed survival skills, snitching and stealing that were constantly being threatened of beating and starvation. Shin later used his achievement as a resource to help in the outside world. Shin used his resource to use in the outside world to follow up and managed to survive by stealing accessories and food from houses and making money by selling those objects. He meet a man that helped him overcome himself and have a fresh start adjusting to his new environment. He worked very hard but yet his struggles were still unsuccessful. He got really lonely and was depressed and had to go through a series of treatment. The guilt started to come back about the betrayal of his family members.

His heavy eyes closed shut, and his weak bony arms dropped to his sides. After sitting in a sleeplike daze for a few minutes, Shin was awoken by a gust of cold air. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the faint silhouette of what looked like a young boy in the distance. Shin mustered all of his remaining body strength to move slightly closer to the distant figure. Shin worried that it might be an officer, but as he moved closer he realized that the figure was a young boy. The boy was huddled next to a fir tree (Official USA Delegate “The Beauty of the Taedong River), wearing pants that ended about twenty centimeters above his ankles and had large holes in the knee area. Even in the freezing cold, the boy wore a thin shirt with one sleeve significantly shorter than the other. Shin was immediately startled by the presence of the boy, for he was yet to see a child outside of the

He hated the fact that he was weak enough to be forced here. He hated how he was weak to the point that he would have to struggle to survive. He hated himself for being so weak minded and crying for hours.

Since the birth of the North Korean regime, people have been completely deprived of their freedom.

The Opposing Viewpoints review presented a traditional analysis of the novel. Brian Bethune the author of the article describes the book’s plot. Brain retells the chronicle of Shin’s barbaric life, while being raised in a North Korean prison camp. Brain of uses graphic depictions