37 pages • 1 hour read
Barbara DemickNothing to Envy
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Frog
Some educated North Koreans describe themselves as “frogs in the well,” meaning that they see the circle of light above their heads, but nothing else of the outside world. This image echoes the literal darkness of North Korea. It also indicates the population’s awareness of their ignorance about the rest of the world.
Frogs also occur appear in the book during the famine: characters turn to eating frogs, before the population is decimated due to overhunting. In this context, the unpleasant amphibian is a symbol of the depths to which North Koreans sink in order to feed themselves—a depth that they must go beyond when the frogs become difficult to find.
The pairing of these two contexts suggests that North Koreans are not only isolated from information, but also vulnerable because of that isolation, like the hunted frogs.
Darkness and Light/Electricity
North Korea’s darkness is a respite from the constant social surveillance, an opportunity for lovers to meet—or for defectors to leave the troubled country. However, it also represents the condition of ignorance—they are “in the dark” about the rest of the world.
Light and electricity thus become aspirational. When foreign journalists visit Pyongyang, the city is lit up with lights to hide the country’s actual poverty.Furthermore, when North Koreans do defect, they encounter a world of light and electricity that contrasts strongly with their experience. Electricity comes to represent all that is not available in North Korea: light, culture, connectivity, the Internet, and beyond.
White Rice
A staple of the North Korean diet, the government takes pride in providing all families with rice during the economic prosperity of the 1970s and 80s. The lack of rice in government rations is an early warning sign of economic collapse. At the height of the famine, many characters fantasize about it; Chang-bo, before his death, keeps talking about food.
Rice also symbolizes the better life available in other countries. When Dr. Kim sees a dog’s bowl filled with rice as she crosses the border into China, she fully realizes the relative prosperity of the Chinese—even their pets eat better than she does. Likewise, when Mrs. Song hears the beep of a rice cooker, she is convinced to defect to South Korea.
