Log #6

Yeonmi, the author herself, had a childhood like no other people had. With their poorness and starvation increased every day, they were desperate to find ways to survive. What’s worse, her parents were sent to prison for some ridiculous reasons. Throughout the book, I can see how Yeonmi struggled with her childhood life and the only hope for her was the light across the Yalu River in China. There were some sentences that I felt really touched and impressed, she said, “I lived in North Korea, the country where we were supposed to have nothing to envy, and all I felt was envy – desperate envy for the people on the other side of the river. I still didn’t dare to think about why we couldn’t have so many things in North Korea, but I knew that I wanted to go where there were light and food. It was like being drawn to a flame without thinking about why. I wish I’d known at the time what that light really meant to North Koreans like me. Following it would cost me my innocent and, for a while, my humanity.” To Yeonmi, freedom and escaping seemed to be a distance idea; however, her heart had already flown across the river.

After Yeonmi and her mother escaped to China, little did they know that there was another nightmare waiting for them. She witnessed her mother raped by the brokers in order to protect her, her mother being sold to another farmer family and herself being transferred to brokers one after another. When I was reading this part, I was completely terrorized and shocked. I couldn’t imagine what if this scene happened in my family. I would probably kill myself already. The only thing I wanted to do at that moment was to hold my mom’s hands or hug her. All that happened to Yeonmi were like scenes that would only occur in movies. She was indeed a girl with very strong willpower and determination to survive and keep her family safe.