Summary and Review of book \'The Girl with Seven Names\'. PDF

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Summary and Review of the book 'The Girl with Seven Names' by Hyeonseo Lee. Revised by the college writing center. ...

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English 1010

Summary and Review for The Girl with Seven Names The Girl with Seven Names is an autobiography by Hyeonseo Lee that describes the long quest for freedom of a North Korean girl and her family. During the first chapters, Lee takes readers through an extensive description of landscapes, stigmas, and social behaviors under the dictatorship of Kim Il-sung or “The Great Leader,” as referred to by them. Starting with her younger years, she narrates the process of indoctrination from an early age. Then she continues to the slow awakening of her social conscience and her struggles to follow the rigid government. A series of events such as the death of her father in hands of government officials and the witnessing of social issues

-such as extreme poverty- stimulated the

author’s boldness and ends up fleeing to China. After a decade of living in China, she manages to escape both an unwanted marriage and a network of human trafficking. Everyday brings a new challenge, whether it’s a kidnapping from a gang or an arrest with a deportation threat, her clever maneuvers find the perfect way out. As she struggles, she can’t help but miss her old life. This leads her to try and get her family out of North Korea. When her hard-thought plan fails, her family ends up incarcerated near the border of Laos, an unknown country to her. She’s forced to witness the burdens of foreign prisoners and corruption and even endure them herself. “They had no clean water. They had to drink and wash from the same ration of dirty water each day. A couple of days earlier, they’d heard the guards beat a Thai male prisoner to death… ‘It’s pure hell,’ she said, ‘We should never have left home” (257).

Her family is reunited after a couple of months and a new series of obstacles make their way into their lives. The consequences of a life of a past of a micromanaging government will make freedom a real trial. Dealing with anxiety, guilt, and an identity-related crisis, the years to come will bring doubts about going back home and much pain to both the writer and her family. Lee finds a way to change her reality and helps those around her in the same condition. She concludes her story with an inspiring testimony of how education and braveness can impact lives. This book is a perfect fit for any creative writing class, because it takes readers out of their comfort zone, transitions from history to personal anecdotes neatly, and displays detailed descriptions of both places and senses which is unconventional for an autobiography. A mixed narrative of incredible adventures and almost unbelievable ways of life next to political and social issues make for a thrilling book. Finding yourself in places you don’t know and reading about practices that could seem unsettling will allow you to step out of your comfort zone, which is necessary for creative writing. For example, the author witnesses public executions. She says, “It is mandatory from elementary school [students] to attend public executions. Often classes would be cancelled so students could go. Factories would send their workers, to ensure a large crowd” (73). The image is horrifying and shows an example of her childhood experiences. It displays the importance of freedom for the human nature and the struggle of it. After the long quest for freedom, the protagonists find themselves second-guessing if it’s as good as they thought, as said by Lee, “... life in the South is far more daunting. It oftens makes [North Korean defectors] yearn for the simpler, more ordered existence they left behind, where big decisions are taken for them by the state, and where life is not a fierce competition” (281). This example and many

others in the book provide a new perspective into something perceived so natural by our society that’s not analyzed very often. The transition between history facts and the author’s story is both smooth and abundant. It’s a balanced book between collective and individual history. Readers learn about one of the hardest regimes in the world and how it affects the identity and individuality of each person under the regime. Lee describes some of the instruments for indoctrination such as her early academic experience, saying “... the most important lessons, the most deeply studied subjects, centred on the lives and thoughts of our Leaders Great and Dear. Much of the curriculum was taken up by the cult of Kim,” (49) and the trauma that haunts defectors, “many arrivals found it hard to shake off old mentalities. Paranoia, a vital survival tool when neighbours and coworkers were informing on them, prevented them from trusting anyone” (209). These quotes are an example of how the regime affects people directly and how history is not just some abstract concept. Her detailed chapters will intrigue and inform readers about what it seems to be a parallel world. The unusual narrative, proper to an out-of-the-ordinary author, is both interesting and engaging. This autobiography has the power to

transport

readers to three different countries, as if you were there physically. Lee describes one of her houses, “our new home in Hyesan was another house allocated to us by the military… it had two rooms and a squat toilet. The heating in the floor was piping hot, making the glue beneath the reja- a kind of linoleum- give off a smell like mushrooms, but the building was poorly insulated” (39). The author doesn’t spare any details to provide readers with an image of the environment of each scene, Lee later describes Laos as, “we crossed the border… bouncing through the hilly countryside…I stared again at the clean turquoise sky. It made the vegetation seem

extravagantly and lush- hardwood trees and rubber trees, by the look of them, and fields of sugar cane, and wildflowers everywhere, enormous purple hibiscus and golden jasmine hanging down from the canopies of the trees” (252). However, when it comes to feelings, description is not as abundant. Given it’s such an emotional piece, you find yourself asking for a more detailed insight on her feelings at some parts. The personality and culture of the author -as she explains at some point- prevents her from exploring her feelings. Most of the times, she restricts herself to physical emotions, such as nausea. At times, readers long to read about emotions that would allow for them to be able to relate to her story a little bit more. Same can be said for the grammar aspect, as great of a job as she does describing, it’s evident English is not her first language. Some readers could find this book basic as it lacks abundant use of literary devices and writing styles. It has a simple structure and a simple glossary. To conclude, Lee descriptions of physical places and events make the reader both interested and entertained as well as make the reader feel empathy and whatever emotions the author is feeling. On the other hand, the lack of describing emotions makes it difficult to connect with her completely. Despite this, it’s a good book to read for anyone enrolled in a creative writing class....