History Literature / NothingToEnvy

* EatTheDog:
** Kim Hyuck admits to killing and eating dogs during the famine.
** Jun-sang's mother raises dogs and is heartbroken after one puppy is stolen and likely killed for food.

->''Our father, we have nothing to envy in the world''
-->-- North Korean Children's Song and an ironic one at that.

The book covers the lives of the interviewees during their time in North Korea and events that occurred in that time. Those events include the death of Kim Il-sung, the crash of the North Korean economy and the mass famine of the 1990s. The final chapters are about the various ways the refugees defected and fled the country, finally arriving in South Korea, and adjusting to the modern world.

* Jun-sang -- A student born to ethnic Korean returnees from Japan. This greatly lowered the family's social standing and Jun-sang was pressured to work hard so he could move way up and away from it. (As much as that was possible.) He dated Mi-ran in secret.
* Kim Hyuck -- A boy who was originally born to a well-off family but a series of misfortune lead to his father giving him and his brother to an orphanage and later ending up on the streets.
* Dr. Kim -- A female doctor loyal to the regime. She has relatives in China.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: And sometimes Big Brother is employing you and watching you and employing you to watch everyone else.
* BittersweetEnding: All of the interviewees were able to safely reach South Korea, but all have suffered.

--> She still wanted to believe that her country was the best place in the world. The beliefs she had cherished for a lifetime would be vindicated. But now she couldn't deny what was staring her plainly in the face: dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.
* CrapsackWorld: Averted at first. Life in North Korea while repressive and heavily socially stratified, was nevertheless livable and even comfortable. Most people had adequate food, housing, clothing and appliances. The gulags and prisons were a vague fear. (This is consistent with the history of North Korea where, due to both Soviet/Chinese aid and heavy industrialization, the first few decades were successes). The fall of the Soviet Union coinciding with flooding tipped the balance.
* ChastityCouple: Mi-ran and Jun-sang never went beyond holding hands and kissing (occurring only after dating a few years).

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Mi-ran's father. He was a South Korea soldier captured and never allowed to return. His past, as per Korean practice, also affected his daughter's social prospects and made his family a target for surveillance.

* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:Jun-sang]]

* EatTheDog: Kim Hyuck admits to killing and eating dogs during the famine.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The ''songbun'' system which organizes the population into classes based on how "loyal" a family is to the Korean Workers’ Party. Party members, family members of those who fought in the revolution are the core class, the middle class are ordinary North Koreans and the lower classes South Korean, Japanese and Chinese, those with family members outside North Korea etc. ''Songbun'' affects everything from the jobs you can hold, where you can live, the rations you get, the punishments you get for breaking a law and the prospects for you and your children. It is near impossible to move up a caste and in the book only Jun-sang (as the son of returnees from Japan who came close to joining the Party) was able to.

* HappilyMarried: Mrs. Song
* HeroicSafeMode: A common coping mechanism. Mi-ran and Dr. Kim both learned to ignore the suffering of their schoolchildren and patients in order to survive.

* {{Jerkass}}: Oak-hee's husband

* OlderThanTheyLook: Due to starvation, Kim Hyuck and Dr. Kim ended up looking younger. It is even stated that by the time of her defection, Dr. Kim, a woman in her thirties, looked more like a twelve-year old.

** The book describes the kotchebi, homeless orphans whose parents abandoned them or died.

** We get a first hand description of a camp when Kim Hyuck and [[spoiler: Oak-hee gets sent to prison.]]
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: When the famine broke down the social order, anyone with enough money can bribe officials to look the other way. [[spoiler: Mi-ran's family for example, bribes officials to help them cross the border to China]]
* ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse: A running theme in the book is the societal and governmental breakdown during the famine. Previously illegal activities like private markets and prostitution sprung up. Criminals thrown into the prisons (supposedly for life) were often let out after a few months to accommodate a new influx of prisoners. And anyone could bribe an official to look the other way.

* StarCrossedLovers: Jun-sang and Mi-ran
* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: North Koreans are automatically citizens of South Korea, but defectors often suffer culture shock due to South Korea being so radically different. For example, although South Koreans have adopted phrases like "email" into their vernacular, North Koreans still use the same sort of speech patterns they've used since the 1950s. It would the equivalent of someone in the U.S. today saying, "Gee whiz, that sure is swell" without a hint of irony.

* BigBrotherIsWatching: And sometimes Big Brother is employing you and watching you and [[UpToEleven employing you to watch everyone else.]]

* CrapsackWorld: Averted at first. Life in North Korea while repressive and heavily socially stratified, was nevertheless livable and even comfortable. Most people had adequate food, housing, clothing and appliances. The gulags and prisons were a vague fear. (This is consistent with the history of North Korea where due to both Soviet/Chinese aid and heavy industrialization, the first few decades were successes). The fall of the Soviet Union coinciding with flooding tipped the balance.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Mi-ran's father. He was a South Korea solider captured and never allowed to return. His past, as per Korean practice, also affected his daughter's social prospects and made his family a target for surveillance.

* DomesticAbuse: Oak-hee was a victim.

** Mrs. Song loses her job and is forced to worked in illegal markets even if that goes against her beliefs. Then the famine drags on, her family gets poorer and her mother-in-law, son and husband die.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The Kims. [[TheGhost They never personally appear in the story]] (even if their presence is everywhere) and the main characters are more concerned with survival that any attempts at overthrowing them but as the dictators of North Korea, every decision they make has enormous consequences.

* InfantImmortality: Adverted horribly

* OrwellianEditor: Mrs. Song's husband Chang-bo worked as a "reporter". This meant editing all information and news coming into North Korea.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The "Songbun" system which organizes the population into classes based on how "loyal" a family is to the Korean Workers’ Party. Party members, family members of those who fought in the revolution are the core class, the middle class are ordinary North Koreans and the lower classes South Korean, Japanese and Chinese, those with family members outside North Korea etc. Songbun affects everything from the jobs you can hold, where you can live, the rations you get, the punishments you get for breaking a law and the prospects for you and your children. It is near impossible to move up a caste and in the book only Jun-sang (as the son of returnees from Japan who came close to joining the Party) was able to.
** One theme in the book is how the [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse caste structure fractured during the Arduous March]]. Mi-ran was able to attend college and become a school teacher because of the lack of willing educated people with good songbun. On a less happy note, "songbun" did not help Mrs. Song and her family during the famine.

** Kim Hyuk survived a life on the streets as a orphan. He starts making [[HopeSpot money smuggling]] only to get arrested and sent to prison.

* IronicNurseryTune: "We Have Nothing to Envy in the World". At one point, a starving beggar child is singing it for money.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: When he learns that Min-ran is married after his arrival in South Korea, Jun-sang decides not to contact her.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The "Songbun" system which organizes the population into classes based on how "loyal" a family is to the Korean Workers’ Party. Party members, family members of those who fought in the revolution are the core class, the middle class are ethnic North Koreas and the lower classes ethnic South Korean, Japanese and Chinese, those with family members outside North Korea etc. Songbun affects everything from the jobs you can hold, where you can live, the rations you get, the punishments you get for breaking a law and the prospects for you and your children. It is near impossible to move up a caste and in the book only Jun-sang (as the son of returnees from Japan who came close to joining the Party) was able to.

* Jun-sang -- A student with Japanese-Korean ancestry. This greatly lowered the family's social standing and Jun-sang was pressured to work hard so he could move way up and away from it. (As much as that was possible.) He dated Mi-ran in secret.

* FantasticCasteSystem: The "Songbun" system which organizes the population into classes based on how "loyal" a family is to the Korean Workers’ Party. Party members, family members of those who fought in the revolution are the core class, the middle class are ethnic North Koreas and the lower classes ethnic South Korean, Japanese and Chinese, those with family members outside North Korea etc. Songbun affects everything from the jobs you can hold, where you can live, the rations you get, the punishments you get for breaking a law and the prospects for you and your children. It is near impossible to move up a caste and in the book only Jun-sang (as the son of an ethnic Japanese who came close to joining the Party) was able to.

* {{Thoughtcrime}}: Mrs. Song's husband nearly got thrown into prison for making a sarcastic remark about the ''lack to shoes''. Every defector seems to know someone sent to a camp or executed for criticizing the regime.

* BigBrotherIsWatching

* FantasticCasteSystem: The "Songbun" system which organizes the population into classes based on how "loyal" a family is to the Korean Workers’ Party. Party members, family members of those who fought in the revolution are the core class, the middle class are ethnic North Koreas and the lower classes ethnic South Korean, ethnic Japanese and Chinese, those with family members outside North Korea etc. Songbun affects everything from the jobs you can hold, where you can live, the rations you get, the punishments you get for breaking a law and the prospects for you and your children. It is near impossible to move up a caste and in the book only Jun-sang (as the son of an ethnic Japanese who came close to joining the Party) was able to.

** One theme in the book is how the [[ScrewTheRulesItsTheApocalypse caste structure fractured during the Arduous March]]. Mi-ran was able to attend college and become a school teacher because of the lack of willing educated people with good songbun.

c-- North Korean Children's Song and an ironic one at that.

-->-- North Korean Children's Song and an ironic one at that.

** Mrs. Song loses her job and is forced to worked in illegal markets even if that goes against her beliefs. Then the famine drags on, her family gets poorer and her son, mother-in-law and husband die.
* GreaterScopeVillain: The Kims. [[TheGhost They never personally appear in the story]] (even if their presence is everywhere) and the main characters are more concerned with survival that any attempts at overthrowing them but as the dictators of North Korea, every decision they make has dramatic consequences.

* OrwellianEditor: Mrs. Song's husband Chang-bo worked as a "reporter". This generally meant editing all information and news coming into North Korea.

** We get a first hand description of a camp when Kim Hyuck and [[spoiler: Oak-hee gets sent to prison]]

* CrapsackWorld: Averted at first. Life in North Korea while repressive and heavily socially stratified, was nevertheless livable and even comfortable. Most people had adequate food, housing, clothing and appliances. The gulags and prisons were a vague fear. (This is consistent with the history of North Korea where due to both Soviet/Chinese aid and heavy industrialization the first few decades were successes). The fall of the Soviet Union coinciding with flooding tipped the balance.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: Mi-ran's father. He was a South Korea solider captured and never allowed to return South Korea. His past, as per Korean practice, also affected his daughter's social prospects and made his family a target for surveillance.

* CrapsackWorld: Averted at first. Life in North Korea while repressive and heavily socially stratified, was nevertheless livable and even comfortable. Most people had adequate food, housing, clothing and appliances. The gulags and prisons were a vague fear. (This is consistent with the history of North Korea where due to both Soviet/Chinese aid and heavy industrialization the first few decades were successes). The fall of the Soviet Union coinciding with flooding turned North Korea tipped the balance.

* CrapsackWorld

* OrwellianEditor: Mrs. Song's husband who worked as a "reporter". That generally meant editing all information coming into North Korea.

* {{Room101}}: The North Korean prisons, re-education centers and gulags. Every single character lived in fear of getting caught for [[{{Thoughtcrime}} subversive thoughts and actions]]
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Anyone with enough money can bribe officials to look the other way. [[spoiler: Mi-ran's family for example bribes officials to help them cross the border to China]]

* StrangerInAFamiliarLand: North Koreans are automatically citizens of South Korea, but defectors often suffer culture shock due to South Korea being so radically different.

* DifferentAsNightAndDay: Mrs. Song and Oak-hee

* WorthlessForeignDegree: The degrees Jun-sang, Mi-ran and Dr. Kim become useless after defection.

** Mrs. Song and Oak-hee lost their husband/father and son/brother to the famine. Oak-hee left also behind her two children which she deeply regrets.

** Dr Kim's father died of starvation in his grief over Kim Il-sung's death. She also left behind a son.

* ChastityCouple: Mi-ran and Jun-sang never went beyond holding hands and kissing (the latter occurring only after dating a few years).