Previous
Prologue
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in In Order to Live, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Propaganda, Indoctrination, and Truth
Family and Community
Survival, Desperation, and Adaptation
Identity and Freedom
Gender and Violence
Summary
Analysis
Yeonmi is from the city of Hyesan. It’s the coldest place in North Korea and receives little electricity, but to Yeonmi, it’s home. She was born two months premature, and although her father, Park Jin Sik, had hoped for at least one son, he quickly embraced having two daughters. Both of Yeonmi’s parents were attentive and loving, raising their girls in a small, “drafty” house. Because Yeonmi was smaller than most children her age, her older sister Eunmi became her protector. The family had no television, phones, or modern music, but Yeonmi remembers her early years—poor as they were—fondly, because her family was still together.
Yeonmi’s fond recollection of her early years in poverty underscores how emotional security can sometimes outweigh material lack. For her, family has always been the most important thing. Her father’s acceptance of two daughters, meanwhile, pushes back against the stereotype of North Korea’s rigid patriarchal expectations, differentiating the Park family—but especially Jin Sik—from the larger authoritarian culture in which they live.
Active
Themes
When Yeonmi was still very young, a voltage booster sparked a fire that burned down her home. She doesn’t remember whether Eunmi or a neighbor carried her outside, only that someone saved her life. Jin Sik rebuilt the house himself and planted a garden in the yard, despite Yeonmi’s mother’s complaints that it would take up too much space. Yeonmi notes that her parents grew up in a different North Korea than the one she inherited. After the Cold War ended, the communist nations that had supported the regime pulled back, leaving ordinary people to fend for themselves.
The house fire speaks to the chaos and unpredictability of Yeonmi’s childhood, an early indication that her survival would often depend on chance and the support of her community. Jin Sik rebuilding the home himself signals both his resilience and the necessity of self-reliance in a country that provides its people almost nothing. But his attempt to grow a garden is in some sense a small form of resistance, a refusal to let the state dictate every aspect of their lives. And Yeonmi’s note about her parents growing up in “a different North Korea” sharpens the generational divide: what once resembled a functional socialist system has collapsed. This shift sets the stage for why ordinary people later turn to illegal markets, and why families like Yeonmi’s must constantly adapt to ever-shrinking safety nets.
Active
Themes
From childhood, Yeonmi learned never to voice her own opinions. Her mother, like many devoted North Koreans, believed leader Kim Il Sung was “immortal,” and his death in 1994 shook the entire country. Shortly afterward, a relative of Jin Sik named Yong Soo visited from China and mentioned hearing that Kim Il Sung had died from mental distress—not a heart attack, as was widely reported. Outraged that anyone would accuse the Kims of lying, Yeonmi’s mother repeated the rumor to a friend. The next day, agents from the National Security Agency arrived and interrogated both her and Yong Soo. Both were eventually cleared, but from that moment on, Yeonmi’s mother always cautioned her to “take care of your mouth.”
