1. Chapters 9,10 and 11 Rachel Kirsch, Kiersten Hepp, Jeff Manes, Andrew Vance, Rachel Brunette

2. SUMMARY  Purpose for these chapters: In chapter nine, Shin revealed that he was allowed to return to school, the guard who was his teacher at the time goes to a lot of trouble to punish Shin for snitching his family out to another guard and not to him. The teacher encourage Shin to get bullied and have his food stolen, he denied him permission to use the bathroom, and Shin soiled himself several times. Shin is weak and having trouble healing after his time being tortured and the lack of food and the hard work are worsening his condition. Shin still doesn’t feel guilt for turning in his mother and brother and resents his parents for bringing him into this world where he suffers. It is explained that suicide is a greater temptation to those brought to the camps to those born in. Shin is saved when a new teacher replaces the one that had been torturing him. This teacher stops the students from bullying Shin and stealing his food, lessens the workload Shin has to do, and even lets Shin scavenge left over's and sneaks him scrapes. All of this help Shin not starve and heal.

3. Summary Chapter 10: Shin and other members of Camp 14 are building a hydroelectric dam on the Taedong River. Workers were well feed because they had to work fast. Shin sees several workers killed by falling concrete. North Korea doesn’t have much electricity at night almost all of it is turned off even in cities. North Korea likes the dams because they represent the idea of self reliance. But North Korea is extremely dependent on other countries for aid and trade. Most of the construction on the dam is done by hand. Hundreds of workers get swept away in a flash flood in July 1998, Shin notes this is the first time he sees people getting killed while they’re just doing the work. Workers scavenged for bodies for extra portions of rice. Shin notes that the time working on the dam was the happiest of his teen years because of the food. When students are graduate and are assigned permanent jobs 60% go to the coal mines, being a miner is basically a death sentence. The teacher decides who goes where and he sends Shin to work on a ranch

4. Summary Chapter 11: Shin is working at a pig farm. He and other workers have been beaten but not seriously and never to death. Meal portions are same around all around the camp but he has opportunity to steal food. Bullying is no longer a problem and he can sleep well. Shin and other workers would sometimes steal meat but to avoid detection have to eat it raw. He was on the farm form 1999 to 2003. During this time their economy failed and the Public Distribution System collapsed, this system fed most of the people. People were leaving to China to find work and started barter trade. Private markets grew and started feeding more people, and the World Food Program conducted a study of seventy percent of the children in North Korea and found two thirds of those in the study were underweight or stunted. The government started letting farmers grow food for profit on small lots of land but called it “honey-coated poison”. To battle effects of capitalism soldiers were sent to farms. At the end of the chapter Shin is moved away from the farm to a factory.

5. SYNTAX  Each chapter begins and ends with a short and ambiguous sentence *This contributes to the author’s purpose of crafting a “call to action” by pulling readers in and forcing them to keep reading *The use of short sentences pulls readers in and the ambiguity of their content makes readers want to continue to the next chapter. *Ex: Chapter 11 – “Shin did not work hard”  Author has some sentences that act as entire paragraphs *This creates emphasis for certain points in the story, such as in chapter 9: “Except for him”, emphasizing how much of an exception Shin is

6. SYNTAX  Author places stylistic margins in between paragraphs to show a transition *These allow for a gentle transition between topics, often switching between Shin’s story to exposition about North Korea as a whole *Ex: Chapter 11 - paragraph 9-10  The titles of each chapter clearly summarize the important concepts, without being too verbose or giving away details. *This adds to the overall suspense and entertainment of the book. *Ex: Chapter 10 -“working man” – the reader wants to know what Shin’s work is going to be like in this chapter.

7. DICTION  Author (sparingly) uses foreign or unusual words *This helps to give the author credibility, thus making the story more engaging and believable *Ex: Chapter 9 – “prisoners known as the jagubbanang”  Author’s word choice is primarily simple and common words *This helps to create the casual tone shown throughout the book and supports the author’s purpose by appealing to almost every reading level ~However, the author will use a few higher level words such as perverse, degrading, vagabond, etc. to give his writing credibility.

8. DICTION  When describing the contrast between the labor camps and the rest of North Korea, the author uses a lot of negative imagery for the description of the country outside of labor camps *Ex: Chapter 11 – “Outside the camp during those years – Shin did not know any of this” ~This passage uses negative words such as famine, destroy, collapse, explode, panic, etc.

9. CONNECTIONS  Overall, the usage of Syntax and Diction are for Emphasis Sentence length and style draw attention to certain important details and contrasting ideas Word choice provides greater insight and exercises knowledge on the topic  The Purpose of the novel is to act as a “call to action” or as an awareness boost  The author’s conversational voice allows the reader to feel placed in Shin’s shoes This also impacts character development  Story and character development are impacted through the emphasis of certain points through either sentence structure or word choice