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South Korea Research Paper

Decent Essays

2 thousand people are crammed in the poor slums of Seoul, South Korea, filled with ramshackle buildings and hoards of bugs resistant to repellent” (John Power). However, this is also a city where at least 7.5 million people have traveled to for plastic surgery” (Chang and Thompson). South Korea is becoming more like the dystopian novel, Starters, by Lissa Price, where cosmetic surgery is open and accepted, while poor children, who have banded together for their lives, are dying on the streets. Pressure in both the Starters, and in South Korea, is thrusted upon individuals to ‘perfect’ themselves. 19 year old Lim, a translator on Korean TV, felt the need to have surgery done on her jaw and nose, “‘I guess everyone wants to look like K-pop models,’ …show more content…

In a South Korean economic crisis, that still continues to this day, many have and are losing jobs and their own homes, “A huge number of people suffered from layoffs, early retirements, and business failure, and many middle class people experienced downward mobility...While the majority of working people suffered tremendously, those who possessed financial resources took advantage of credit-source market and came out of the crisis richer than before” (Hagen Koo). This increasing income inequality demonstrates the corruption in the nation. The rich only used the economic crisis to gain more wealth without a thought for the majority, or the lower class. Money towards plastic surgery expanded, leaving little hope for those who banded together to pay for utilities, such as electricity and water. Correspondingly, in the Starters, the elderly have gathered the wealth for themselves and their few grandchildren, leaving children, whose parents have died, out in the dust to fend for themselves. Callie is debating whether or not to sell her body to Prime Destinations, “I looked at Tyler’s tired face, his sunken cheeks, his baggy eyes. The smoke had made his condition worse. If he went downhill and didn’t make it, I’d never forgive myself” (Starters 27). Callie, the main protagonist’s, brother, has developed an illness only made worse by their living conditions. Running daily, and constantly in fear, kids in the suburbs ran from marshals, or what today are known as police, who tried to hunt out children sleeping in demolished buildings. However, the elders offered no assistance, and continued to live in their paradise homes, eating only the best of foods. When those who have power to help, but refuse or ignore the situation for their own egocentric ideals of beauty, the true colors and light of a superficial

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