Escape from Camp 14 - Essay Example

Escape from Camp 14 I. Dark secret in Shin’s life Camp 14 is known to be one of the cruelest in a system of hard labor prisons. Escaping from Camp 14 is an impossible feat since not only the attempted escapees but also witnesses were subjected to harshest kinds of torture. However, due to luck and courage Shin Dong-Hyuk was the only prisoner who managed to escape and travel to South Korea and from there to the United States. Till his early 20s, Shin was captivated in Camp 14. He like the other inmates of the prison faced immense torture at the hands of the prisoners. During his years in the prison, he was made to believe that he must never attempt to escape and must inform the guards immediately on knowing that anyone is making plans to escape. Shin never in his wildest dreams thought of a life outside the prison. Unlike other prisoners who were not allowed to live a conjugal life, the guards had selected Shin’s parents. They were the rare ones who were granted conjugal permits and hence Shin was born in the prison. For Shin, the world was what existed within the walls of camp 14. He never acknowledged feelings and emotions, and love and family had no meanings for him. The fierce battle to survive on daily basis was the only life he ever knew when in prison. In his growing up years, Shin witnessed his parents in a tortured relationship. He was regularly beaten up by his mother, and his father never blessed him with father’s love. Unlike any normal adolescent who learns the truth of life and death from reading literature, Shin did not have the scope to know that literature existed. Since he was born and brought up in a concentration camp, he accepted the brutal manners as values of life more because he was never exposed to the civilized world outside the walls of camp 14, “he called it home” (Harden, 4). At the age of 13, when he found out his mother and brother plotting to escape he told this to the night guard in exchange of more food. He was trained in the manner that he became instantly alarmed when someone pronounced the word “escape”, because he believed even a witness would be beaten, tortured or killed. However, he still could not escape brutal and inhumane torture since the night guard took the entire credit on himself when informing to his superiors. Shin was interrogated as if he was an accomplice and not witness. He suffered torture for seven months in an underground prison. He was tied to a chain that hung from the ceiling and was lowered on a tub full of burning charcoal till he lost consciousness from burning flesh. He was granted a reprieve because one of his classmates, Hong Sung Jo confirmed his story that he was an informer and not an accomplice. At the age of 14 he witnessed the death of his mother and brother. His mother was hanged to death and his brother was shot to death. In later years, when he recited this event to Blaine Harden, he repeatedly told that he at that time felt no remorse on watching his mother and brother dying in front of his eyes. He blamed them for the brutal torture he suffered during the seven months in the underground prison. However, this is the dark secret of his life since he was the one responsible for his mother’s death. II. Moral values of Shin The novel Escape from Camp 14 written by American journalist Blaine Harden is a harrowing tale narrated by Shin Dong-Hyuk who was a prisoner in the gulag which are prison camps situated in North Korea. In North Korea, any crime committed against the state was punishable offence to be doled out to the family members if the person committing the crime escaped. Thus, when Shin’s paternal uncle committed crimes like disrupting public peace by brutal acts and escaping to the South, Shin’s parents and brother were arrested and imprisoned for life. During his childhood days, Shin spent his days doing labour work without getting paid. From an early age he learnt snitching and stealing, “Before he learned anything else, Shin learned to survive by snitching” (Harden, 3 ) since this was the only way for daily survival. The children in the camp were daily subjected to brutal torture and starvation. In order to fight hunger, Shin and his inmate friends were forced to eat “rats, frogs, snakes and insects” (Harden, 20) which were found in abundance in the sprawling camps. When he was 13 years old, he once heard his mother and brother making plans to escape. In Camp 14 where Shin and his family were imprisoned, the first rule was “Any witness to an attempted escape who fails to report it will be shot immediately” (Harden, 51). Fearing for his life, Shin reported this to the night guard in return for more food. Subsequently, Shin was also tortured as he was held in a secret underground prison inside Camp 14 for seven months. His “crime” was that he told about the escape plan to one guard which meant he betrayed the other guards. Shin eventually, at the age of 23, escaped to South Korea and from there to the United States. Once escaping to South Korea he changed him name to Shin Dong-Hyuk “in an attempt to reinvent himself as a free man” (Harden, 1). Today, he is a dentist residing in Los Angeles. His values and morals are different from any person like us who has never experienced what he has gone through in his adolescent years. The years that we spend studying, partying and enjoying with friends and family, he has experienced inhuman torture day and night with no fault of his. What he did with his mother and brother may apparently seem horrible to us but it is not right to judge him in the usual manner. He was only 13, and the feeling of dread swallowed him when he realized that if he does not inform the guards about what his mother is plotting then he would be put to death. In his shoes, perhaps we would have done the same thing. A person captivated for life cannot be expected to have the same kind of moral values like the liberated people staying outside prison walls. III. Personal anecdote Shin Dong-Hyuk’s life is essentially different from any of us who has not lived to witness the torturous life in prison camps. That is a life that we cannot even begin to comprehend let alone stand to experience the untold torture. Shin Dong-Hyuk spent the first 23 years of his life in camp 14 which is considered as one of the most brutal concentration camps. Although the North Korean government deny existence of any such camps, Shin’s body which is covered with scars is a proof of what he has experienced in camp 14. The period of existence of North Korean camps make them unique. They have been in existence for twice as long as Soviet concentration camps, and 12 times longer than Nazi concentration camps. Shin’s story of escape is unusual because he is the only one who has ever succeeded in escaping the watchful eyes of the prison guards. He was born to parents who were forced to maintain conjugal life by the guards; therefore Shin never learnt the concepts like love, compassion and other positive emotions. I used to be a shy person and when I attended parties I used to feel lonely even among friends. I did not know what to talk about or how to join in ongoing conversations. Once I remember going with a close of friend mine to her cousin’s birthday party. After sometime, like usual I boredom crept in since I did not know how to participate in the events that were going on in the party. My shyness was perceived as arrogance by some people. After this I began to be left out from parties and there came a time I used to hear later on that my friends held a party of which I had no knowledge. It became very clear that I was being avoided. I took up the resolution then to change myself. I try to stay happy and practice conversations in front of the mirror. Whenever I feel low and feel like sharing my feelings with someone I call up my friends unlike earlier days when I used to pent up my feelings within myself and suffer from depression. Today, although I am not totally liberated from shyness and low confidence, still I have learnt to talk and make my presence felt in parties. In life we do take steps to resolve our negative aspects although not always do we succeed to completely liberate ourselves from our past. The same can be said of Shin. Although he has escaped from prison nine years back on January 2, 2005, he is still surrounded by the demons of the past. The experiences of horror, the burden of his mother’s death still haunts him although he claims that he feels no remorse because his mother was responsible for the torture that he went through for seven months. It is very rare that a person can successfully become liberated from his past, whether good or bad. Reference Harden, Blaine. Escape from Camp 14, Pan Macmillan, 2012 Read More