Theatre of the Oppressed (Theatre as a political voice)

“Theatre of the Oppressed”, is a method developed by Augusto Boal (shown on the left-hand corner), who encouraged his actors to portray a situation when one person is dominated by the monologue of another and has no chance to reply. This is a tool to express themselves and discover a way out of their powerlessness. In Invisible Theatre, the separation between the performer and the observer is removed. Moreover, in this system, the observer may not be aware that what they experience is a theatrical event. The aim of the performers is to disguise the theatrical reality as actual reality in order to provoke responses from those who witness the performance and to bring attention to a social problem for the purpose of stimulating public dialogue. To send a message across explicitly to the targeted audience, my partner and I decided that invisible theatre was appropriate to the theme of a social issue we have chosen that is quite familiar to many of the students in TCIS.

Discrimination against foreigners and Third Culture Kids was a topic that my partner and I have chosen, because we had a strong attachment to it and were confident to perform in public. During APAC Theatre Festival in Seoul, our home stay daughter took my roommate and myself to downtown with her friends. On our way to the bus stop, we came across to a group of men who seemed to have finished their dinner in the restaurant. They looked a bit drunk, but we didn’t care because it was a common scenery to encounter at night. As we passed by conversing to each other in English, a man from the group shouted, “If you are in Korea then speak the language. Hey you, speak Korean!” Our group looked at the man and was perplexed by the gibberish they were hearing, except my roommate and I who perfectly understood his words. Suppressing the words down to my throat, I looked at my roommate who was making the same facial expression I was making also. We were oppressed by the man’s words worrying the consequences that could happen if we were to talk back at him. Especially because we were Third Culture Kids and young students, we could’ve jeopardized ourselves for disrespecting them in public. After we got on the bus, I got so mad at myself for not speaking up for the group I was with. So I wanted to take this opportunity of Theatre of the Oppressed and share my anger at that time with the people, hoping for them to back up the situation and care about the issue that we are surrounded by everyday. So these were the points my partner and I wanted to send across through the performance: how some Koreans are reluctant to understand, how some Koreans mock other Third Culture People calling them a disgrace or a contamination to the country, how discrimination could bring huge effects on an individual, how we need to change our mindsets and defend the stance of Third Culture People and foreigners in this country.

In order to carry out this performance effectively, my partner and I had to come up with a brief script in both English and Korean, because our targeted audience members were Korean students outside of TCIS. Also, an English script was written for my teacher to understand the performance too. Also, some of the points we had to touch upon were written, so the objectives of the performance were to be accomplished, even though everything was going to be improvised. So this was our plot: we needed two or more antagonists to take place as Koreans who are not thoroughly exposed to western cultures. Then my partner and I would create a similar situation that had happened before. We would start an argument in the middle of the street where many people pass by, addressing some of the social issues we have listed above. To be frank, I expected some interventions from the spect-actors because the situation was not unfamiliar at all especially to Koreans. Because Koreans are often exposed to these kinds problems associated with racism and discrimination, I believed that they would at least attempt to stop the argument or fight back against the antagonists, or support the antagonists to see the clear reaction to the situation. Because the purpose of Invisible Theatre was to create a tension to the point where it become undeniable for the onlookers, I believed that I have chosen the right spect-actors who would definitely willing to be part of it. However, my expectations digressed from the start with the antagonists. First my partner and I were planning on asking some of the Han Nam University students to participate as antagonists, so it would be more realistic than using student from our school. However, they later refused to be part of it because they were pressured by the topic we were going to present especially in front of their school. I thought they would definitely accept our proposal because they understand the social issues we are dealing with for this project. So, we reluctantly took another path and asked two male students from out grade who decently looked like Korean college students. Before the performance, our group went over the script and once again went through the plot so there would be no misunderstand among us during the performance.

As our argument took place, the antagonist and I began to raise our voices. The antagonist blamed my foreign friend making racist comments about her, and I defended her by talking back how he shouldn’t discriminate people in front of an international school. I began to see some of the attention we were receiving. I saw a group of people in front of me, staring back and forth between the antagonist and my foreign friend. Although I haven’t seen many reactions because I was too focused on the argument, I did notice that a lot of people were passing by turning their heads fixed to our conflict in the middle of the street. A lady who works in our school suddenly came into the scene and tried to stop the argument; however, we were so perplexed to encounter a case where a school staff tried to be involved. We tried to quietly tell her that this was a theatrical performance while we were yelling at each other, and was later settled as she understood what we said to her. As time went by, I began to give up on expecting spect-actors to be involved, which was personally a great disappointment. According to Mrs. Z, the barista in the café considered our argument insignificant and told her that it would be fine. Although our group was quite serious about the topic, he treated the conflict as a small verbal disagreement that is quite common in that area. Also, a pair of female students just walked through the argument, giving a stare at my foreign friend. Although Mrs. Z told us that many people were interested in seeing our argument behind my back, my expectation to be similar with the situation that had occurred in Boal’s experiences was too high. However, I believe that the performance was a success in a way that we have incorporated many factors that Boal have used in his invisible theatre: taking place at an everyday location where many people are present and attempting use the covert performance of stimulated realities as a strategic response to a problematic situation or condition.

Definitely there were some improvements that could have been made if we were to do this again. I would make sure that all actors are ready before the performance, because it was a chaos when the college students declined our proposal. Also, I would at least had one rehearsal before, because some of the contexts were a bit inclined to one area and weren’t able to touch on some of the objectives we had planned to touch on. Other than these factors, I’m very content with the result. Also I’m glad that the reactions of the people were different from my expectation, because it was more interesting to observe and really acknowledge the gravity of the issue we are facing today.

(My friend and I, Rebecca Cole-Walker and Christina Lee- The producers of this original piece of Theatre as a political voice.)

http://inacabamento.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/boal.jpg

http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/racial-discrimination.jpg

TCIS Musical Production Urinetown: Reflection (Theatre as a political voice)

Urinetown: The Musical was definitely different from other previous musical performances at TCIS because it has touched upon some of the crucial political issues that are extremely controversial till these days. Townspeople creating an uprising to stand by their convictions immediately reminded me of the uprisings in this country. The famous candle demonstration in Korea that was first created by young female high school students to oppose the meat export between the United States and Korea during the mad-cow disease trend in 2008 was particularly compelled into my mind. The reason because it was an event where the government underestimated the power of candles that has later on called the world’s attention to this issue. In this context, the townspeople were under estimated by the water company, seen as small group of powerless people; however the company was clearly wrong that they had total control over them.

Democracy: a system of government in which all the people have the right to take part in making decisions. Learning the values of human rights and understanding the gravity of the importance of resources must have been difficult for the actors to act than actors from previous performances. When I was on stage, my essential goal was solely to understand and form a connection to my own character. However, this time was different; the characters must have been educated in order to be empathetic to the situations of injustice and hopelessness. Because not a lot of the student had a direct experience where they were oppressed by a political authoritarian such as the government or a herculean company just like in the context of the musical, they must have learned the backgrounds of these circumstances in order to convey their characters accurately. And it seems like the character were fully comprehended because their expressions were explicit and exact. They understood the seriousness and were able to help the audience to really focus on the issues with them.

The director’s message was very clear. Through the water shortage of a town, one has successfully conveyed one’s stance to value the things we usually take for granted and to acknowledge the issues that aren’t quite musical-like in the real world. It was a great educational performance for the audience to acquire knowledge on a specific area.
However in my opinion, I personally don’t think the method of Alienation, a theatrical concept that was created by Bertolt Brecht having an ideal space between the actors and the spect-actors, was effectively exhibited in the auditorium. Although some of the actors continuously attempted to break the connection between the audience members, the still considered these narrative acts as parts of the story. To be frank, even though I had previous knowledge on the musical that it is an epic theatre having a different way to reach the audience, as one of the audience members, I often forgot that I was watching a political performance but more drawn to a musical, a story of an angry people. Especially for the audience, are not familiar with the concept, it is a difficult form of theatre for them to acknowledge the meticulous intention that was inserted.

The production itself flourished with various theatrical devices that were presented on the stage. The costumes have definitely accomplished its job to differentiate two different groups accurately depicting a time period about in the 1950s. The simplicity of the Company people and the filthy hair and clothes of the townspeople elaborated the characters that they should’ve exhibited on stage with music that was appropriate with the flow of the play. All of the singers beautifully sang addressing many parts of the words to the audience. Lighting was especially effective when Mr. Cladwell was around because the bright light created a sense of heaviness and grandiose. This definitely facilitated the actions of the play and shined the performance.

Overall, the production was a great success in both aesthetically and educationally accomplishing both areas and presenting true existence of theatre that it’s not only about what it is seen, but what it means and how it is applied in this world. Lastly, simulating on how we should make the changes and take actions.

http://improbablefiction.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/urinetown91.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/joecable1997/sz/urinetown04.jpg

Kim Jung Il, the "Great" leader of North Korea

Kim Jung Il: The Great General

Kim Jung Il: The Great Economist

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQdKnS0x12k&feature=channel_page

Other videos available on Youtube:

Kim Jung Il: The Great Athlete
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDBCGNGAypY&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=5

Kim Jung Il: The Great Traveller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLlrqdVVb5Y&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=6

Kim Jung Il: The Great Dietetician
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjTu_KsS_T8&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=7

Kim Jung Il: The Great Architect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzBfRKqz3a0&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=9

Kim Jung Il: The Great Media Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJ_l2HbaTM&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=13

Kim Jung Il: The Gifted Leader
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLevuGDYJ3I&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=19

Kim Jung Il: The Great Warrior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2STc6mvIzY&feature=PlayList&p=8C924C8CA3FF044F&index=21

Walk in the Light While There is Light by Leo Tolstoy

Walk in the Light While There is Light by Leo Tolstoy is a short story of a man who converted his belief from paganism to Christianity. This short narrative may seem a little common about a man who digresses from righteousness, encounters obstacles, and finally embraces the truth through Jesus Christ, and it is; however, the translation of this story specifically reflects parts of Tolstoy’s life through a character named Julius and spotlights Tolstoy’s fervent and thoughtful faith. Starting with the title, Walk in the Light While There is Light, shows the theme of the whole story. In particular, it means that one should take the opportunity to live under the presence of God, when one is capable of doing so. The term ‘walk’ can be translated as a journey of life, which every human being is currently placed, but what the message is suggesting is that we have to walk in the journey of life with the knowledge of Christ, which is the light. Light is interpreted as God, a chance, and hope. Then what is darkness? On the other hand, darkness exhibits the artificial world that human created. In page 9 Tolstoy says, “…he understood that there was nothing sacred in the Roman religion but it was all the work of human hands…he understood that it would not be advantageous to struggle against the existing order of things, and that for his own tranquility it was better to submit to it.” He shows the powerlessness of the human world and often compares with the world of Christianity in detail as the story goes on. The story is like a mirror of Tolstoy’s life and it’s easy to encounter some of the events in the text. For example, he explains how Juvenal took care of his only son, Julius, after the death of his three children. In Tolstoy’s real life, he actually lost some of his children and loved his children who were still alive with care and education. Again in pg.9, “His father gave his son to this philosopher, together with his comrade Pamphilius, the son of a former slave whom Juvenal had freed.” Tolstoy had an experience of freeing his slaves and they all came back in the end.

As the story goes on, the focus slowly turns to Juvenal’s son, Julius. Julius was a gullible, naïve and uneducated young man in life. These characteristics were shown during the conversation between his friend, Pamphilius, about the lives of Christians. Pamphilius stated in pg. 10, “We do not do anything strange. We live simply, trying to do nothing bad…We manage to live. If we work for our brethren they so the same for us.” Julius questioned how people can live for each other equally when there could be other lethargic people who are reluctant to work and not contribute as much as others. This question is brought up today in the society too, concerning the matter of communism verses Christianity. However, there is a clear difference despite the fact that all people should be equal: Communism is forced. Christianity is voluntary. Christians are willing to share and treat one another equally with love in God’s eyes.

Pamphilius also states how to live a Christian-like life in pg. 11, “In front of us all stands Christ with his life, and we all try to emulate him and see our welfare in that alone.” This is the light that God has given us, a method of how to live a life. Furthermore, he adds on how life is more than self-satisfaction. However, Julius doesn’t understand and continues to complain how it is impossible not to live for oneself. Again, Tolstoy gives another description about the world in pg. 12, “…we are all of us entangled by our relationships with the pagans.” Pamphilius tries his best for Julius to understand the love of Christ and faith in various ways. In pg. 13, “…our brethren are traveling another path and will not weaken but will grow ever stronger, just as a fire will never go out when more wood is laid on it. That is our faith.” In this sentence, Pamphilius used an imagery of a fire to exhibit how Christian’s faith is strong and will not easily disappear but grow even stronger as we work hard to be closer to God with prayers. The ‘wood’ represents the actions we do for the glory of God that makes our fire, faith, more solid and indestructible. This is also a great analogy that compares the endurance of faith as a flaming fire and woods that would help to make it bigger. Lastly, Pamphilius doesn’t forget to bring up how Jesus died for our sins because he loved us so much through a parable, just as Jesus used to deliver his message to his people. He insisted that man shouldn’t live for self satisfaction and have to live a life in conformity with the will of God.

Julius did listen and promised that he would visit the Christians, but never did. This showed that he was irresponsible, selfish, had no integrity, and had no respect towards his friend. Julius lived a life of luxury and squandered his time and money for wine, gambling and loose women. Once more, this emulated some of the pasts of Tolstoy’s life when he was into his own enjoyment. Julius never thought he was the problem and blamed his own father for not giving him more money. Juvenal tried to do the right thing to fix his spoiled son’s attitude, but Julius was getting worse and threatened him that he would kill himself. His mother begged Juvenal to do whatever to boy asked. After the incessant chaos and discrepancies between his father, he finally listened to his conscience and realized “All was darkness and confusion in his soul.”

The leitmotif of the story, again, appears as darkness that covered Julius’ view from the light. The darkness led Julius to see the beauty in the eyes of human; among women, he chooses the prettiest and wealthiest woman as his wife. However, this is only a transitory satisfaction Every time he attempted to approach the Christians, Satan in many disguises would pull him back down to the life of discretion and this was exactly like Tolstoy’s life. It is an obstacle that everyone has to be prudent because it is presented in a way that we are most comfortable and familiar. Both of Julius and Tolstoy fell and stood up continuously, but in the end finally they have reached God. It may seem a little too late to some people, but it’s never late to Him. They have failed, but stood up and found themselves another stop ahead from where they have fell. Finally, he found comfort in God. In page 65, “Come to Him, and be not a laborer but a son, and you will become a partner of the infinite God and of His world,” shows irony of how Julius now resting in the presence of God when he had worked and wondered all his life.

This whole story handled the topic of paradox: Truth and false; light and dark; Christians and the old man (physician); or young and old. And these paradoxes emphasize the difference faces of this world that most people are usually perplexed and troubled to comprehend. It is the reality that the world itself contains all the opposites and paradoxes just like in the story. Everyone pursuit happiness, but many people end up dying. But, none of these matters if one has put his feet on the realm of God, because we are all equal and loved. This story is not a fairy tale, but a true life story of a man. Correction. Life story of all of us, where all of us have the chance to walk in the light, but pulled away by darkness. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD. Lean not on your own understanding. In all of your ways, acknowledge him. He’ll make your path straight.” Our understanding and knowledge is useless compared to God and he has the power to straighten the crooked path, so we could be with him. Again, our path that we are walking on is not easy, but it is God who is willing to save us from it.

Tolstoy, Leo. Walk in the Light While There Is Light and Twenty-Three Tales. 2003. New York: Orbis Book, 1923.
http://oneyearbibleimages.com/jesus_second_coming_.jpg
http://www.personalsummits.com/images/LDev4.jpg

connection between Flannery O'Connor's short stort Good Country People and Guy Delisle's graphic novel Pyongyang

I’ll be presenting an exposé on Good Country People written by Flannery O’Connor and Pyongyang by Guy Delisle. I’ve chosen these specific pieces because I was able to find myriad of connections on how these two authors exhibit their view points and attitudes towards a particular community or a group of people. First, I would like to start out by introducing the authors, explaining on how these authors share a similar view on their environments, where O’Connor delineates the characteristics of humans in general, whereas Delisle focuses the features of North Korean government and people.

Let me introduce the author of Pyongyang, Guy Delisle: Renown for its atrocious totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship, North Korea is recognized as one of the most ostracized and intriguing country in the world today. Continuous sequences of force and protection from the rest of the world have also caused the country to jeopardize itself to be one of the poorest also. When North Korea began to open up a little to foreign investment, cartoonist Guy Delisle was lucky enough to have a chance to visit Pyongyang on a work visa for a French film animation company, becoming one of the few foreigners to experience the current conditions in an artificial showcase city. With an unauthorized radio and a book of 1984 written by George Orwell, Delisle was able explore the country with his translator and a guide monitoring and limiting his activities. Although he started his journey seeing the buildings, people and propaganda of leaders Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il with an apathetic manner, Delisle was able to observe more than was intended of the culture and lives of the few North Koreans he encountered. He took advantage of the frustration and astonishment and used to record everything as the basis of this remarkable graphic novel. Pyongyang is an informative, personal and accessible look at an enigmatic country. Delisle's simple but expressive art worked well with his account, humanizing the few North Koreans he gets to know and facilitating digressions into North Korean history and various bizarre happenings.

Rather than conveying his thoughts into fancier visual devices, Delisle uses a straightforward approach that depicts the mundane absurdities he faced every day. The gray tones and unembellished drawings reflect the grim drabness of a totalitarian society. Although throughout the novel Delisle exhibits underestimation, frustration, and apathy towards everything throughout his trip, he maintained empathy. Viewing an eight-year-old accordion prodigy's robotic concert performance, he thought, "It's all so cold . . and sad. I could cry."

Moving on to O’Connor, the author of Good Country People: In 1951, O’Connor was diagnosed with lupus that had killed her father. She went on, she had written two novels and thirty-two short stories, winning awards and acclaim, speaking on tours whenever her health allowed her to; but she spent most of her time on the family farm, with her mother. She died of lupus on August 3rd, 1964 at the age of thirty-nine. The writing of Flannery O'Connor can seem cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent. She writes in a Southern Gothic style and relying heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. Her short stories routinely end in horrendous, or, at the very least, a character's emotional devastation. In reality, her writing is filled with meaning and symbolism, hidden in plain sight beneath a narrative style. In this way, her writing is esoteric, and didactic at the same time containing knowledge that is hidden to all but those who have been instructed as to how and where to look for it. Flannery O'Connor is a Christian writer and she achieves what few Christian writers have ever achieved: a type of writing that affects both literary and the religious grounds, and succeeds in doing justice to both. These are some of the insights she exhibits in her stories: bitterness, a belief in grace as something devastating to the recipient, a concept of salvation, and violence as a force for good; stories that show the way by elucidating the worst of paths.

Now, I would like to share explaining on how these authors share a similar view on their environments in their texts. Delisle and O’Connor were afraid if people aren’t able to find their writing or message controversial. Flannery says, “I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I'm afraid it will not be controversial,” touching on topics related to race, poverty, hypocrisy, and more to exhibit the failures of the world in the twentieth century. Also, Delisle was as controversial as O’Connor where he took risks to bring unauthorized books, criticize many of the traits of the communist influence on the people, and to attempt to help out the people around him, for example, Guy suggested his translator to read George Orwell’s 1984 when he knows that it would put his translator would be in jeopardy if he were to be caught. Later, the translator returns the book, looking puzzled and scared, saying how he didn’t enjoy the book. In one of the interviews, Delisle clearly stated that he wouldn’t go back to North Korea because he has caused too much trouble already.

Now I’m going to share the authors’ views through the stories. Good Country People is a short story by Flannery O’Connor, illustrating the life of Hulga Hopewell and how her wooden leg is stolen. Throughout the story, Hulga feels sorry for herself because she has lost her leg, wears glasses, and has a heart condition; however, she seems to place herself above the rest of society because of her education. Hulga searches for ways to be misunderstood by her family and claims to believe in nothing. She even thinks she is too ugly to be called the happy name of Joy, so she legally changes it to Hulga. While the surface level of “Good Country People” conveys the story of how Hulga’s wooden leg was stolen by Manley, if we penetrate deeper, we discover that the wooden leg represents Hulga’s faith and pride. North Korea has great connections with Joy-Hulga. Although these authors and stories aren’t necessarily looking at the same point, it is quite interesting how these two looks quite connected when they are juxtaposed.

North Korea too, has many flaws like Joy-Hulga. They have a lunatic as their leader who is leading his own people to devastation, and titled as one of the most dangerous, poorest, and pitiful country in the world. Because of the system the people are living in, they are used to blaming on themselves when things happen out of their control. They think very low of themselves and put their leader in a high position. However, because of the continuous indoctrination, they have a pride where they believe that they are well educated and better off than other country, especially South Korea. They are constantly “educated” in a way that leads them to corruption. Just as Joy Hulga believes in nothing, but her own philosophy, North Koreans also depend on their own philosophy, Juche. Even if both Joy Hulga and North Korea are atheists, they decide to believe in at least certain things based on backgrounds, environments and situations. Because the people are so soaked into the ideology, it would bring a devastated effect on the people if they were to be separated from Juche. Just as Joy-Hulga was deceived by Many Pointer and lost her artificial leg, people in North Korea would be lost and devastated by the truth that would be exposed and inundated by the changes they have to accept.

Hulga also bases her pride in her artificial leg. She wraps her entire self into the leg and allows it to become a private obsession, never allowing anyone to touch it, taking care of it in private. The leg that used to cause Hulga shame ironically becomes a source of self-assurance. While Hulga seems superior and appears to place all self-importance solely on her intelligence, on closer examination, Hulga actually hides her pride in her leg. North Koreans lives in the ideology of Juche and breath through the pride and respect they have for their country. It is their obsession to keep the belief as sacred as possible and spread the “truth” to everyone.

Manly Pointer, who approaches the townspeople with a specific attention considering them as just ordinary “Good Country People, and meets Joy-Hulga as his target to accomplish his satisfaction. At first Manly Pointer demonstrated himself as an innocent Bible seller, who wanted to share the gospel with others and fell in love with a girl who he wanted to share everything with her. After he gained Joy-Hulga’s faith and words that she loves him by force, he was successful in revealing who he really was and stealing Hulga’s leg. With the leg he took, he ran a ways with great joy and leaved Hulga behind without looking back. Now turning our story to Pyongyang, we can easily make a solid connection between Manly Pointer and Kim Jung Ill. Kim Jung Ill first approaches the people with numerous amounts of propaganda and his feign, conditional “affection” towards the country. He attempts to use his people as much as possible in order to gain everything he wanted to fill up his satisfaction. Even if he had received people’s trust and forced affection, he didn’t care and was successful in carrying out his plans for several years. Time to times, he reveals his true self, as another “Manly Pointer” and takes away people’s souls and identity as human beings in this world. Innocent civilians are killed and persecuted mercilessly by an evil maniac who just won’t stop his scheme even till he’s on the edge of his life.

http://www.seruven.org/blog/uploaded_images/50pyongyang-718874.jpg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3gWBtg2B3tpimKxs4EDMyP8XGUpu6_egxA7DjaCi1m6fPJn-HK41OEC4zMIxkwqr-XVUrik7kpshHgFEQj6-BnwR0h6NQ3TtgfLDCMrrBbnW5Kp4eIWFrUx3kccbSlpxzhjzmO9OJrCsG/s400/KimJongIl2.jpg
http://theblackcordelias.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/flannery_oconnor_southern_writer_fiction2.png http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/47093936_7116f6215d.jpg

North Korean Propaganda

The faces of the people are immediately noticeable in many of the propaganda posters because they are abnormally content, when the faces of other North Koreans seem to be stoic throughout the book. They look courageously determined with their mouths wide opened and their arms stretched out sky high. The contrast of colors between the poster and the background also interprets the irony of the poster because the poster looks too auspicious compared to the mood behind the poster. This exhibits the reality of the country forcefully attempting to brighten up the people by encouraging hollow hope that the government has the potential to grow as a great nation.

One can specifically acknowledge that the government desires for an extensive industrial power, by looking at the man holding up a hammer in his hand. This instantly reminded me of the hammer and sickle in the flag of the Soviet Union, which is a part of communist symbolism. It features a hammer superimposed on a sickle, or vice versa. These two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariet and the peasantry; placing them together symbolizes the unity between industrial and agricultural workers. This emblem was made during the Bolshevik Revolution. So this person demonstrates two solid ideas: the representation of the communist government and promotion for further industrial development. This is shown not only on the person, but also in the background of the poster. The missiles are drawn in the back to portray the power of the country with an ability to threaten others with their “advanced” technology. North Korea has been using their “undefeatable” missiles to forewarn others to send aids, but the weapon wasn’t successful at all during their numerous trials to attack Alaska and Japan. Recently, one of their representative missile, Dae-Po-Dong, didn’t quite make all the way through the South and plunged into the East Sea. This intimidated both South Korea and Japan incase of a serious warfare. Also, the tall buildings behind were very ironic because it was rare to see any skyscrapers in the book except building frequently used by foreigners such as UN and NGOs. All of these show the country’s ambition to grow more as a leading industrial nation that can be petrifying to others.

The missiles also represent the military power that the country is continuously patronizing; it is not hard to search pictures of pixels of North Korean soldiers on any sites available. As soon as one sees the pictures, one will easily recognize North Korea to be in the second place of Nazis, organizing brainwashed soldiers for a single individual.

http://www.geocities.com/dprk02/poster.jpg

http://www.newworldorderwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/usr-local-y-samba_data-repository-1052167255491_ghaurikimjongil.jpg

putting myself in the shoes of a North Korean

It was very cold that night. Actually, it was colder than any other winters I’ve gone through my whole entire life. Amidst of all the wailing behind my back, my eyes were focused on the face of my brother’s bloody face. He was down on the ground surrounded by men with rifles in their hands and with stoic looks upon their faces as if they were so used to this kind of act. I saw my brother’s eyes fixed on my parents who were struggling to liberate themselves from the hands of the soldiers roughly pulling them back from approaching my brother.

All of my family members were too fragile to rebel against any of the well-trained combatants and I just sat there on the ground without any thoughts in my head. I tried to lower my body to directly look into my brother’s eyes, wishing to at least remind him that everything would be okay and that the Sky will protect him no matter what happens. At that moment, my brother broke the havoc shouting hysterically, “We are not made to be your puppets. Why do you want us to believe in your truth when the real deal is outside of this country? Can’t you see the children shoving dirt into their mouths? Can’t you see the brain-washed teenagers who are supposed to be having dreams on their own? You idiots! Blind fools! You…!” Before he could even finish his last sentence, the bullet spilt through the air and stroked the center of his heart. It was the fastest way to shut his mouth. The revolution he wanted to bring faded immediately with the sound of his heart beat. As his body was dragged by two soldiers towards the truck, his unclosed eyes were harboring enmity towards the socialist government and were also asking me to continue to follow his footsteps for freedom.

The death of Kim Il Sung in 1994 made the situation even worse. Food production decreased as Russia and China stopped supporting aids and surpluses to our country. All the provisions we did receive landed in the pockets of the generals and government associates. Kim Jung Il, his son, told us that it was a punishment from the heavens for not respecting Kim Il Sung “our One”, well enough from the beginning of his reign. They encouraged us that all of the haardships would be eradicated after three years. But it never happened. The theory of socioeconomic structure and the establishment of a classless society were great, but they were never efficiently demonstrated in reality. Everyone became so egotistic to the point where they only cared about themselves.

Neither the government nor peace was their priority. People’s main goal was solely on food to alleviate the hunger of their children. Three million civilians starved to death in four years after Kim Il Sung’s death and everything rapidly deteriorated. Everyone scattered to look for money making jobs and I wasn’t able to see my parents for four years. It was a pain for me to suppress my nostalgia; wondering how my family would bear the torture of the cold weather and dearth of supplies. One day, I received a mail from a neighbor that my parents had passed away. As I got on the bus, I calmed myself to regain composure, but it was impossible when I saw my parents’ bodies loaded on the truck with other seventeen corpses who had died from extreme hunger. The officer told me to find my parents among the other bodies, but the pungent smell was too strong that it made me vomit continuously. However, it wasn’t the odor that hindered my approach, it was the wide-opened eyes and blue faces of the corpses that made it so hard to manage my emotion of guilt and fear. I reluctantly gave up on finding my parents and had no choice but to back down.

I had to leave this place; it wasn’t a home, it was hell. My head geared towards the South where the government constantly told us that it was even more difficult to live. If the south is far worse than this place, then I would rather die for the sake of myself living in such corrupted world where a human being is more insignificant than a cockroach. There was a rumor that if we broke into the South Korean embassy in Thailand, then a flight to South Korea was guaranteed. However, the trip itself seemed to be impossible because it would be an arduous mission where a group of people have to swim across the Du-Man River, which is packed with armed security. After that you would have to look for a ride to get across and into China. “God, help me get through, in your way. I have lost everything. I have nothing. I am nothing. Show me another way to serve you. I don’t blame you for my family’s death, because I know it has helped me to turn myself to you. Your touch has worked successfully; now, please clear all the hindrances. Let the water of Du-Man cleanse me all of my transgression and the soil of a new land to lead me into the light.” I prayed.

http://www.newworldorderwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/usr-local-y-samba_data-repository-1052167255491_ghaurikimjongil.jpg

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/STUDENTS/Hwang/child2.jpg