The book I am reading is "The Girl with Seven Names" by Hyeonseo Lee.
It is an autobiography of sorts by the author. It starts with her parents meeting, and goes through her leaving North Korea, and ends at her getting her mother's blessing for marriage. (Hyeonseo is still alive today). There are a lot of historical events that take place in the background of the book, such as the North Korean Famine/ the Arduous March, the death of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il being put into power, and, although it isn't super historical, the mass amounts of defectors getting caught at the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I'll mainly focus on the famine and the death of Kim Il-sung. Part 1: First up, the death of Kim Il-Sung. July 8th, 1994. At this point in the book, this is the big historical event going on. For all North Koreans, this was a big deal. The country was in mourning. Kim possessed an almost god-like status among the people, and him being dead, well, their world stopped. "Kim Il-sung, the Great Leader, the father of our nation, was dead. The announcement made on the radio was equally dramatic: 'The great heart has stopped beating'." (Lee, 71) This event in the book was how Hyeonseo heard it in real life, she was going to a friend's house, and Ri Chun-hee was announcing the death on TV. At the time, Hyeonseo was just as sad as the rest of her peers. She mostly believed what the Party was telling her, but she was still like the other North Koreans. (The captions in the below video are in Japanese, but you can just ignore them. Sorry about the video quality, it's from 1994.)
Part 2:
Next up, the famine. Below, you will see two videos. One is Hyeonseo's TED talk and the other is a song she mentions in the video. In the book, the famine begins a few chapters after the death of Kim Il-sung, which is accurate. Kim died in July 8, 1994. The famine lasted from 1994-1998. Hyeonseo mentions it was 1995, and she also starts talking about the famine. Hyeonseo's family was fairly well off due to their songbun (the class system), but people were starving in the streets. The government "let them" eat two meals a day, though, it was mainly because the Russian government had stopped paying North Korea, so the government couldn't give rations to the people. It is quite sad how she describes it in the book. "A few days later, I witnessed famine for the first time. I was at the market outside Wiyeon Station in Hyesan and saw a woman lying on her side on the ground with a baby in her arms. She was young, in her twenties. The baby, a boy, was about two years old, and staring at his mother. They were pale and skeletal, and dressed in rags. The woman's faced was caked with filth and her hair badly matted. She looked sick. To my astonishment people were walking past her and the baby as if they were invisible." (Lee, 80) So, as you can see, Hyeonseo is seeing the famine first hand. At the time, she was only a teenager! She thought that it was so sad, and terrifying. She mentions the "let us eat two meals a day" campaign, but I can't find the quote for it. Poorer North Koreans were experiencing this famine, eating corn cake (a.k.a the poor man's cake), suffering in the streets. But they didn't know why. They still thought they were the best country in the world, and had nothing to envy. "A shadow began to fall across Hyesan. Beggars were appearing everywhere, especially around the markets. This was a sight I'd never seen in our country before. There were vagrant children, too. At first, only in twos and threes, but soon many of them, migrating to Hyesan from the countryside. Their parents had perished of hunger, leaving them to fend for themselves, without relatives. They were nicknamed kotchebi ('flowering swallows') and, like birds, they seemed to gather in flocks. One of their survival tricks was to distract a market vendor while accomplices snatched the food and ran off. In a horrible twist of irony they were regularly seem scavenging in the dirt for grains, peel or gristle - exactly how we'd been told the children in South Korea lived." (Lee, 81) Imagine that. Homeless kids, picking through the dirt, and that's how they thought kids in South Korea lived. Poor Hyeonseo. At this point, she wasn't really buying all the propaganda, but I bet some people were. Also, now, kotchebi has become the name for North Korean homeless kids in general, but they're not allowed to use the word or mention them whatsoever in media. In the eyes of the government, they are still trying to show the perfect country to their people, but I doubt some of them are buying it now. ... I think I answered the questions in the post itself, but in case you couldn't find them, here they are straightforward, and not very beefy answers for some of them, but you can find evidence in the main part of the post. a. What was historically happening in the country where your book takes place? Part 1: The death of Kim Il-sung. Part 2: The North Korean Famine (known in North Korea as the Arduous March or The March of Suffering) b. How do the events in the book compare to the real-life historical events? 1: This was the real-life historical event, told from the perspective of a young girl, from her perspective, the funeral, and the news reports. 2: Again, it was the real-life event, just from Hyeonseo's perspective. Seeing an almost dead mother laying on the ground, seeing kids picking through the dirt. It was all real. c. What perspective or point of view did the people of that country have on the conflict? What perspective do the characters in your book have? 1: In terms of feelings? Well, they had to be sad, for their safety. Had they not cried enough, they would've been ridiculed in front of the class. They couldn't have any other perspective, politically or emotionally. Hyeonseo had to fake some tears, but she was still sad. Kim Il-sung was the only leader these people knew. Some thought he couldn't die. 2: They most likely had to ignore it. Starving was known, but like the experience Hyeonseo had with the mom and baby, people acted as if they were invisible. Hyeonseo, however, wanted to help them instead of ignoring them. d. What other connections are made between your book and the historical events of your conflict? 1&2: Well, I'm not quite sure. Hyeonseo was living through both of these events. Is she a connection? She experienced both of them, and knows what they were like, firsthand. She was there, she lived through it.
Below, you will find some North Korean propaganda posters with the captions Google translated by yours truly. They aren't directly related to Kim Il-sung's death or the famine, but I think you might find them interesting to look at.
I'll add more posters as I can, the translating just takes awhile because I don't know how to copy and paste words from the picture, and I don't have the Korean keyboard memorized yet. Enjoy! **Click on the pictures for where they came from.**
"Misery and rhythm- let's drive the US invaders!"
"Everyone goes through soldier days!"
Yeah... not very accurate. One translation somewhere else said "Let them be soldiers!" or something like that.
"The Great Leader Kim Il Sung is with us forever."
6 Comments
Madeline Townsend
4/19/2018 08:13:16 am
I think you did a very good job using evidence in your blog, describing what happened in real life, and how the author decided to explain it.
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Yasemin Bali
4/19/2018 03:27:32 pm
I think your historical connection is good because you have cited evidence and your videos and pictures that you put make this a very interesting topic.
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ALISON SANDER
4/19/2018 07:06:19 pm
Your book sounds very interesting. Nice use of videos and images. I think you did a very good job. I really liked the TED talk. Its amazing to hear all the things she had to go through. She is incredibly strong.
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Nimo Mohamed
4/20/2018 02:14:42 pm
Good job Lisey! I like you history connection to your book. I watched the TED video and that explained a lot. your book and the story of the girl seems sad and interesting.
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Abby Barton
4/20/2018 02:45:52 pm
This is so interesting! Not saying that it isn't sad, but it's very interesting to learn about the hard times that people went through and are going through and you did a great job explaining this so that i could get a better understanding! I also really liked the videos.
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Gwyneth Wetzell
4/22/2018 05:02:59 pm
You described the topic well. It's interesting to see what people went through in past times, this is a good book you picked.
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