Escape From Camp 14 Summary

Escape from Camp 14

Escape from Camp 14 is a story of Shin Donghyuk who is the only known person to be born in and escape from a North Korean labor camp. The book's author, Blaine Harden, interviewed Shin many times and has also spoken with former camp guards and North Korean traders. His book details Shins life both inside and outside the camp as well as the political landscape in North Korea. As Shin grew up he had not known anything of the outside world and accepted the camp's rules and policies. He was raised as a hard worker and was trained to snitch on his family, classmates, and coworkers. Shin was beaten and always hungry. This was life in Camp 14, one of the worst of all camps.

A part of the book that was a big surprise to me would be the disconnect Shin had with his family. Shin was the cause of his mother's and brother's death; but yet he felt no remorse. Shin was a child of a reward marriage. He never

A significant portion of the book is devoted to Shins distant, antagonistic relationship with his family. “When he was in the in the camp-depending upon her all his meals, stealing her food, enduring her beatings- he saw her as competition for survival.” At this time a family was alien to him, as a result didn’t care to share with the guard of his mothers and brothers plan to escape. Also informing on fellow prisoners was encouraged within camp and brought with it the prospect of better treatment and rewards. The principle of guilt by association meant that his family members were punished on another's behalf, and she knew that his mother and brother were putting him at risk. His conquest fear and anger motivated his betrayal and culminated in a stark scene in which he witnessed his mother and brother being executed. The author writes Shins experiences in the camp to aware the readers of the mindsets people in these camps could