The excerpt that I am going to post about today is Pyongyang. Images are powerful, this is one reason I believe that graphic novels are so powerful and have been gaining in popularity throughout the years. Though for me the images make it harder to read because my mind wants to create images on it's own, but many people like having the pictures to look at. With that said, again images are powerful. The images in the graphic novel Pyongyang are indeed powerful but in a subtle way. There are many countries in the world that are well know and traveled by many people outside it's own population. North Korean in not one of those nation. If you can manage to get allowed to go into it, the gauntlet you must live under is crazy. This graphic novel gives us a great example of this. The author gives details an subtle clues as to what life is like in North Korea. He does this by telling his own experiences that he had while visiting there, by writing down his own day to day experiences. We get a glimpse of the communist nation and it's way of life through the eyes of a "foreigner". Every page in this novel shows great examples of this, from page 18 were is shows how foreigners are only allowed to stay in three specific hotels. One asks oneself, why are they not allowed to stay were ever they want? It also shows how foreigners are not allowed to go anywhere by themselves. Every where you go you must be accompanied by a guide and a translator. Even though every page shows examples of this there are two specific ones I want to focus on, pages 10 and page 49, (the last page). On page 10 the author talks about the isolation of the nation. Internet, radio, etc are not allowed. There are no cafes or entertainment that is not approved by the dictator of the nation. Here on this page he highlights how they are not allowed to leave their hotel room without their guide and translator, again you are left asking yourself why. He also states how meeting an actual citizen of North Korea is practically unheard of. If you do meet one they have scripts they must follow and you are not allowed to ask them any questions outside of the one you are given to ask. I find this odd, for their neighbor to the south, South Korea is totally the opposite. Among many places my family and I have lived, South Korea was one of those, (and by far my favorite), in South Korea the people have freedom and you interact with them all the time! There isn't any place that you can go where you do not run into a citizen and interact with them... night and day compared to North Korea...
In North Korea lights are scares and only the very rich have them, most people have no lights in their homes. On page 49, the last page of the novel, we see an image of this. It shows an image of the leader of North Korea lite up in grand display as everything else is in the dark. I believe this image is the greatest one in the novel. It gives a accurate depiction of real life in North Korea. Life and citizens are left in the dark except for Kim Jong Un. The citizens of North Korea are stripped of all forms of freedom and comforts as the leaders live in the lap of luxury and want for nothing. This is a prime example of how communism and socialism do not work for anyone but the elite. How the images of this novel work to tell the story of life in North Korea is amazing. they work hand in hand together to get the point across. An example of this is on page 48 where the author tells about how his guide accompanies someone. The scene is a dark place with a person walking and a car following behind him, the only light around is that of the headlights of the car. Again here we see how dark the life of North Korean citizens are and it is a great example of how words and images work together that we learned about in chapter 6. A picture is worth a thousand words, below is a satellite image of north and south Korea, I will let it speak for itself.
In North Korea lights are scares and only the very rich have them, most people have no lights in their homes. On page 49, the last page of the novel, we see an image of this. It shows an image of the leader of North Korea lite up in grand display as everything else is in the dark. I believe this image is the greatest one in the novel. It gives a accurate depiction of real life in North Korea. Life and citizens are left in the dark except for Kim Jong Un. The citizens of North Korea are stripped of all forms of freedom and comforts as the leaders live in the lap of luxury and want for nothing. This is a prime example of how communism and socialism do not work for anyone but the elite. How the images of this novel work to tell the story of life in North Korea is amazing. they work hand in hand together to get the point across. An example of this is on page 48 where the author tells about how his guide accompanies someone. The scene is a dark place with a person walking and a car following behind him, the only light around is that of the headlights of the car. Again here we see how dark the life of North Korean citizens are and it is a great example of how words and images work together that we learned about in chapter 6. A picture is worth a thousand words, below is a satellite image of north and south Korea, I will let it speak for itself.
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