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Chapter 10
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
At first, Keum Sook didn’t believe Eunmi would actually leave without Yeonmi, so she never hugged her goodbye—a choice that Yeonmi says her mother would regret for years. When they realized Eunmi was truly gone, the family panicked and searched the town, hoping she might still be nearby. Then, in their bedroom, Yeonmi found a note Eunmi had left behind with the address of a woman who could help her reach China. Yeonmi and Keum Sook went to the house immediately, but when the woman answered the door, she insisted she knew nothing about Eunmi.
Eunmi’s surprising departure speaks to the urgency driving her—an urgency that Keum Sook did not fully grasp. Eunmi knows that if she doesn’t take this chance to leave North Korea, she may never get another, and she’s willing to face separation from her family in the hope that they might reunite someday. Her family’s frantic search, meanwhile, exposes their powerlessness in a surveillance state where ordinary people have almost no tools to find missing loved ones. They simply have no way to reach her.
Active
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A few days later, on March 31, 2007, Yeonmi returned to the woman’s house alone, hoping to glimpse inside and confirm whether Eunmi was being kept there in secret. Without Keum Sook present, the woman was far more accommodating and offered to arrange Yeonmi’s border crossing that same night. Yeonmi refused to go unless her mother came too, even though Keum Sook insisted she should stay behind with Jin Sik. Ultimately, the woman agreed to include Keum Sook and promised they would find Eunmi once they crossed the Yalu River. That night, without saying goodbye to Jin Sik, Yeonmi and her mother left with several young male guides.
Active
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