Haley Hopkins

Ms. Nichole Wilson

AP Literature and Composition

14 April 2014

Prose Passage #1 Essay

Seven years. That is how long breakthrough, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Adam

Johnson spent writing his novel, The Orphan Master’s Son, centered on a young boy searching

for his identity in the midst of totalitarian North Korea. Though Johnson is a relatively new

author, his most recent work has been very-well received; the reasoning behind this is seen

clearly in pages 17-18. Johnson uses melancholy, descriptive language to showcase the horrors

of North Korea and convey the ultimate themes of identity and national interests.

At the least, North Korea is mysterious. It seems that the leaders of the country only let

others know what they want them to know – which must not be much, seeing as how it took

seven years of research for Johnson to gather enough information about its culture to create a

fictional novel. What he has gathered, however, makes for an unsettling premise: a young boy

subjected to the savagery of a totalitarian country, exposed to prisons “designed to erase

identity” (Kakutani), and forced to kill in exchange for survival. Johnson combines “fablelike

elements with vivid emotional details” to evoke empathy and expose the harsh truths of the

world Jun Do is living in: “There was…a small soldier…bones knit from the famine. He lay on a

cot, teeth chattering” (Johnson, 17). The Orphan Master’s Son is also filled to the brim with

melancholy diction detailing Jun Do’s yearning for his mother, whom he is certain is

“Somewhere…in a certain apartment, perhaps, looking in a mirror…” (Johnson, 18). The loss of

his mother – and the government’s refusal to give him any information concerning her - makes

Jun Do’s struggles throughout the novel even tougher, as he is constantly dreaming of a woman

who may not even be alive. It is the sadness in this, as well as the treatment of those who are

under Kim Jong II’s reign, that makes for an achingly beautiful novel. Johnson “employs the

technique of magic realism”(Kakutani) to “create a hallucinatory mirror of day-to-day

circumstances” that shock readers of all ages. After all, how could the entire world be so

unaware of such brutality? And furthermore, how could one country attempt to take away “all

that makes one human”?

Jun Do’s identity could never be erased; he never had one to begin with. As he learns

growing up, the propaganda spewed out of the loudspeakers daily is “an overarching narrative

framing everyone’s lives.” Without a mother and – as he is quick to learn- a father, his only

company seems to be Officer So, who is training him to become a kidnapper and, eventually, a

killer for Kim Jong II. What Kim Jong II and his associates allow to slip through the

loudspeakers is what all citizens know. Those under the reign of this twisted leader are stripped

of their identities. Jun Do is not stripped of his, but rather, given one, shaped by the ruthless

leader himself. Although Jun Do initially believes Kim Jong II is taking interest in him for his

admirable qualities, such as his loyalty, it becomes clear that the “Dear Leader” is only using him

in the interest of his nation – or rather, himself. There is as much sadness in this as there is in Jun

Do’s lack of an identity. Jun Do is constantly haunted by the absence of a family he’s never

known; “even the…orphans knew where their parents were” (Johnson, 18). An orphan veteran

used to conformity and following orders, Jun Do never had a chance to shape his own identity.

Jun Do’s story, though fictional, accurately captures some of the unthinkable brutalities

of North Korea through Johnson’s use of “vivid emotional details” and melancholy language.

Coupled with themes of identity and propaganda taking prevalence over the individual, The

Orphan Master’s Son makes for a tale that is equally heartbreaking and important.

Works Cited

Johnson, Adam. The Orphan Master's Son. New York: Random House, 2012. Print.

Kakutani, Michiko. "A North Korean Soldier Finds His ‘Casablanca’." The New York Times. The New York

Times, 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.