Nothing to envy

In her book, “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea”, Barbara Demick writes about the lives of North Koreans. As we all know, North Korea is an unknown place to the rest of the world. They do not have any clue what is outside their country nor do they have any communication with the outside world. Till this day, very little is known about the country, and because of this Demick decides to interview defectors who escaped and migrated to South Korea. This allows us to get a better understanding from people who lived there before. In particular, Demick focuses on six different lives, and these people have experienced great hardships living under communist regime. By reading the book one can compare and infer many things to what has been taught in Anthropology. Nothing to Envy raises the issues of power, social classes, marriage, and shows us that North Korea is very different from other countries. The reason North Korea is the way it is today is mainly because how the country is run. Because North Korea is run by a single party state, The Koreans Worker’s Party, the have been successful in dominating the country. The people living have been persuaded to accept that there is one legitimate ruling party under the Supreme Leader, Kim II Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il. As the book shows that people are convinced that they are gods and they justify this by providing people with material that has been taught to them early in their lives in school and other institutions, and if anyone thinks differently it is considered a crime that can be punished. The textbook refers to this as hegemony. The people in North Korea are so brainwashed that they even feel that they should report something that is not allowed to superiors. Demick states this as being a national pastime (Chapter 3). North Koreans truly believe that they are gods and because of this all their lives are centered on them, and they thrive to be the perfect citizens according to the teachings of Kim