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North Korea slams Scarlett O'Hara for 'bourgeois' motives

A North Korean mobile app includes criticism of the "bourgeois" characters of the novel "Gone With The Wind," including Scarlett O'Hara, depicted here as a doll, according to a South Korean news service on Monday. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
A North Korean mobile app includes criticism of the "bourgeois" characters of the novel "Gone With The Wind," including Scarlett O'Hara, depicted here as a doll, according to a South Korean news service on Monday. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- A translation of the novel Gone With The Wind, uploaded to a North Korea state-sanctioned mobile app, includes North Korean criticism dismissing the main protagonists as "bourgeois" and having "no basic morality," according to a South Korean news service.

NK Economy reported Monday a North Korean smartphone obtained by the news service included a translated copy of the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell, which was later adapted into an Academy Award-winning film starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara. The North Korean translation dates to 1999, according to the report.

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The North Korean preface to the novel gave the author credit for creating authentic characters and for the "dramatic depiction of human relationships."

But the prologue also slammed the book for its depiction of materialism and Scarlett's lust for money.

"Scarlett's personality is embodied in the bourgeois view that 'life is about making money' and 'the highest goal in life is to make money and seek profits'," the North Korean preface read, according to NK Economy.

"It is thoroughly individualistic and selfish to live out life this way."

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The preface goes on to say Scarlett's life goal of making money shows how she is void of "basic morality." Scarlett's capitalist mindset makes her "fearless" of criticism, and pushes her to "seduce" Rhett Butler during her second husband's funeral.

"Her only ideal is to make money that in turn makes more money," the North Korean criticism read. The preface also slammed the novel for glamorizing plantation life in the American South and for expressing "white supremacy" and "contempt and hatred for blacks and people of color."

In the field of media and entertainment, North Korea may have also been expanding its cartoon offerings.

Japan-based paper Choson Sinbo reported Monday Pyongyang aired the 100th episode of The Boy General after the animation first aired in 1982.

The 100th and final episode aired in December, making it one of the longest-running animated series, according to the report.

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