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Chapter 9
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
In February 2007, Yeonmi and her family spent the Lunar New Year at her Uncle Jin’s house. Since Jin Sik’s arrest, Uncle Jin had resented him for damaging the family’s already weak songbun, and he didn’t hide his contempt during the gathering. Yeonmi noticed her father had also changed—his once bold personality was gone, replaced by meek obedience to the regime. But after listening to Kim Jong Il’s New Year’s speech, Jin Sik and Keum Sook decided it was time to escape North Korea. Rumors circulated that young women could find work in China, but Yeonmi and Eunmi would first need a broker who could arrange their crossing and bribe the guards.
Yeonmi’s observation of her father’s changed demeanor reflects the psychological cost of imprisonment: Jin Sik was once the most “outspoken” about the regime, but his incarceration seems to have conditioned him into compliance. This shift, combined with Kim Jong Il’s speech, helps explain why the family eventually decides that staying in North Korea is untenable. And because the prologue has already revealed that Yeonmi and her mother are trafficked immediately upon reaching China, the “rumors of work” register here as the first hint of a trap waiting on the other side of the border.
Active
Themes
Yeonmi’s parents instructed their daughters to discreetly ask friends how other young women had managed to reach China. The plan was for Yeonmi and Eunmi to go first, while Jin Sik and Keum Sook stayed behind in Hyesan until they were settled. While asking around, Yeonmi heard a story about a girl who escaped to China and was welcomed by a wealthy family—until she refused to marry their son and disappeared after running away. Looking back, Yeonmi realizes she and her peers were “naïve.” They never recognized these stories as those of human trafficking because they had been raised never to question anything.
In a regime that relies on heavy surveillance to keep its people subdued, “discreet” inquiry is the only way to learn about potential avenues of escape—but this method isn’t always reliable. The story of the vanished girl shows that although trafficking narratives existed in plain sight, they were misunderstood. Years of conditioning against questioning authority leave Yeonmi and others unable to see the warning signs and thus vulnerable to danger. Still, their “naivete” isn’t framed as personal failure so much as the byproduct of a system that trains citizens to accept stories at face value.
Active
Themes
As plans moved forward, Yeonmi continued seeing Chun Guen, who was preparing to begin military service. She couldn’t tell him she was leaving, and it hurt her to know she wouldn’t be there when he returned. Eventually, Eunmi found a broker willing to take the sisters to China, but before they could leave, Yeonmi fell ill and was hospitalized. Doctors suspected appendicitis, but they discovered it was only intestinal inflammation after cutting her open. The anesthesia wore off mid-surgery, and Yeonmi woke up screaming as they closed the incision. While she recovered, Chun Guen visited and gave her a ring. Eunmi also came, telling Yeonmi she planned to cross into China that night with another girl, despite Keum Sook’s pleas for her to wait for Yeonmi.
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