The biography “Escape from Camp 14” explains the life of Shin Dogn-hyuk. Shin was born into the North Korean Concentration Camp, Camp 14. Shin spent much of his life in the camp, raised to be an animal, and fighting for his own survival. The biography written by Blaine Harden depicts the cruelty and unfathomable events that make up Shins’ young life. As graphic as the novel is, it is still a New York Times Bestseller. “A gripping story, unsparingly told” is how Bill Keller from the New York Times explained the book. Several different aspects of the book captivate the readers and gain their attention. The reader is introduced to the history of North Korea, the lives of the local North Korean people and the journey Shin takes after leaving the
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Once escaping the camp, Shin has a hard time adjusting to the world around him. He has an even harder time understanding world history and what has actually happened, not the falsified history he had learned. In the camp the North Korean government “has taught [students] that South Korea started the war”, this explains why the people and prisoners are so loyal to their government (163). The prisoners were manipulated into believing exactly what their government wanted. This opens the reader’s eyes to how harsh life in camp was; that prisoners only knew what the guards chose to tell them, nothing more. By doing this prisoners were much easier to control. Harden created a book that reveals more about “human darkness in the ghastliest corner of the world’s cruelest dictatorship than a thousand textbooks ever could.” explains the Seattle times in a review of the “Escape from Camp 14”. This may not be the most cheerful book to read, but it is without a question one that will open your eyes and stick with you for years to come. The story of Shin may have been only two hundred and five pages, but acts as a window letting many into the harsh reality that is the North Korean Concentration
Once escaping the camp, Shin has a hard time adjusting to the world around him. He has an even harder time understanding world history and what has actually happened, not the falsified history he had learned. In the camp the North Korean government “has taught [students] that South Korea started the war”, this explains why the people and prisoners are so loyal to their government (163). The prisoners were manipulated into believing exactly what their government wanted. This opens the reader’s eyes to how harsh life in camp was; that prisoners only knew what the guards chose to tell them, nothing more. By doing this prisoners were much easier to control. Harden created a book that reveals more about “human darkness in the ghastliest corner of the world’s cruelest dictatorship than a thousand textbooks ever could.” explains the Seattle times in a review of the “Escape from Camp 14”. This may not be the most cheerful book to read, but it is without a question one that will open your eyes and stick with you for years to come. The story of Shin may have been only two hundred and five pages, but acts as a window letting many into the harsh reality that is the North Korean Concentration