desolation we receive from the whole narration. History has failed to redeem its people turning them into soulless disciples dwelling on a bowl of rice, family has failed their children turning them into soldiers with no grade, and so did the educational system collapsing behind political rhetoric and fanaticism. In Cries in the Drizzle the primary school teacher forces Guanglin to write a confession for a crime he didn’t commit -hinting the collusive practice of the Party indoctrination system- in A Private Life Teacher Ti abused his power on the teenager Niuniu, harassing her verbally and physically. Generally speaking the total absence of role models forces everyone to retreat into themselves, renouncing to decode history as they know it, …show more content…
Swaying between life and death, forsaken by both, this trend of Chinese postmodernism that above we have defined as impressionist realism, seems to come to terms with death rather than life. The excess of Maoism and the contradiction of the market economy have shaped a generation of writers whose future expectations don’t match with their recollections of the past. And the past becomes a ghost. Chinese traditional sense of belonging fades away, family ties are dismissed, children are abandoned, people learn to stand on their own not to succumb. The protagonist are dissatisfied, deceived, alienated from family members, yearning for love, anti-hero of the revolution, never fully engaged in the present nor fully aware of their past. Forever drifting towards a would-be identity. Death, at last, becomes a liberation more than a loss of self, an alternative life for many of them to seal the awareness of human fragility and cruelty. Sun Guangming drowns, Su Yu dies of a cerebral hemorrhage unnoticed by his family, Fugui’s son is killed by unscrupulous doctors, his daughter by Red Guards disguised as doctors, secretary Ku and Song Gang died suicide suffocated by
“Saboteur”, written by Ha Jin exposes a difficult period in post-revolutionary China and the negative consequences on people’s lives. Mr. Chiu, a scholar who does not view himself as a common citizen, was wrongfully arrested while on honeymoon with his bride. As an egotistical man who thinks he is above everyone else, Mr. Chiu is arrogant and never takes ownership for his actions. This machoism subjects Mr. Chui to maltreatment from the police that ironically transforms the once seemingly innocent Mr. Chiu to a man consumed by vengeance. Ha Jin’s proficient use of ironic tone and conflict told through the omniscient view of his main character reinforces the story’s main theme: life experiences shape our character and have the power to transform us into a person we despise.
Travel Writer Kellie Schmitt wrote the essay The Old Man Isn’t There Anymore when she lived in China for two years. She writes about the death of a neighbor and a case of mistaken identity. It begins with the news that a family in her communal apartment building has experienced a loss in their family. Her confusion with the layout of the building, the identity of her neighbors and their connection with each other, and her halting progress with the Chinese language sets the stage for her confused progress through this strange social world.
Using a controlled and direct writing style Ha Jin have helped the readers to understand the theme of his short story more precisely. At the same time symbolisms used in the story conveys a direct approach to the theme. “In the center of the square stood a concrete statue of Chairman Mao, at whose feet peasants were napping with their backs on the warm granite and with their faces toward the sunny sky. A flock of pigeons perched on the chairman’s raised hand and forearm”, there are three symbolisms in these lines. First is the statue of Chairman Mao situated in the center of the city symbolizing the beliefs of Chinese people in communism.
Xiong uses battles, executions, assassinations, and scandals to appeal to readers of any genre. Once a reader gets into the book they are hooked in the epic events of the book and the deep look into the ruling class. Unfortunately, Xiong’s novel might somewhat difficult to get into for many readers with no experience in Chinese history. Xiong also attempts to utilize dialogue that often comes off as underdeveloped or simplistic.
You meet up with a friend that has been at war for the last few years. Your friend approaches you and your group of friends and begins spewing gruesome details about it. The group immediately begin to make excuses to leave and you find yourself alone with your war friend. What do you do? Believing that war is separate from society is easier to accept than admitting it as a part of our individual lives.
In the book Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, many diseases present themselves and show the reader how they affect each character. Tuberculosis, leprosy, and many mental diseases take a toll on almost every character. One of the main characters, Stephen, suffers from tuberculosis and another main character, Sachi, suffers from leprosy. Along with leprosy, she suffers from depression and self-confidence issues. When one suffers from any outward image altering disease, suicide often offers itself as honorable or a way of freeing their family of the disease or other sins.
Not many acknowledge or have any knowledge of the horror that led to the death of more than 300,000 civilians and soldiers within a few weeks. Author Iris Chang goes into great depth in her book The Rape of Nanking to explain that tragic truth of the battle in Nanking. Machiavelli, Rousseau, and Locke differ in their interpretations of government and human relations yet they all have philosophical views that fits with Iris Chang’s description of the Japanese soldiers, the Chinese, and the
On the other hand, it leaves a kind of profound thinking about the typical ordinary Chinese ideology and how great is the impact of such a decision on people’s
The novel focuses on coping with the death and horror of war. It also speaks volumes about the true nature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and the never-ending struggle of dealing with it. In the
Du Fu’s poems mirror this despair that he lived through and told a story on the surface but there was more meaning underneath. In “A Song of My Cares When Going from the Capital to Fengxian”, Du Fu describes a journey where he is trying to escape the destruction of the rebellion only to find that it was everywhere. Through the poem, he uses the harshness of the journey as an analogy of the ruin of his country that he once thought could protect him and was wealthy but ultimately ended up failing him.
Although he draws out a story where a Chinese boy turns against his own language and culture for the sake of fitting in, the moral of the comic is that the past will always be a part of you no matter what. The two texts give the readers examples of what makes the past, so rich and how our roots are truly forever bound to us. The authors, both hope to have their audience realize that wanting to fit into one’s generation is fine, but knowing one’s roots and accepting them as your own as you are doing so, is even
In Li-Young Lee’s poem, Eating Alone, Lee uses many literary techniques such as imagery and tone to develop the speaker’s grief towards his father’s death. The poem is about a son who is mourning the loss of his father in which the fall brings back the memories of his father. When first reading this poem, it is very confusing and does not make much sense. Once the poem is analyzed, the reader can determine the distinction between life and death in the poem, where the speaker is missing the presence of their father. Imagery is a big factor in the poem for the speaker to communicate his themes of memory and loneliness.
My Personal Code of Ethics as an Education Leader As an educator, and conceivable future educational leader, my personal code of ethics is one that envelops uprightness, correspondence, respect, imparted objectives, sympathy, open-mindedness, and confidentiality. A leader recognizes what is correct and utilizes it to make the best decision paying little mind to personal danger. I will utilize this personal code of ethics when settling on decisions including ethical issues and to guide my profession. I accept the focal and most basic reason for an educational leader is: To foster a dream for the organization as a learning community that respects the characteristic worth and abilities of every person and that fosters the planning of students
It is not everyday that a human being is offered another chance at life after death. Mo Yan’s protagonist, Ximen Nao, of the novel Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, experiences a day unlike any other when he receives a blessing to return to earth after having faced bloody execution; his return to the world of the living, however, did not go as intended. With every tantalizing offer, there existed a set of terms and conditions. Without awareness of the aforementioned terms, Ximen Nao cursed himself with the blessing he received. This novel tugs at readers’ senses of morality and of perspective.
In the poem, “A Hymn to Childhood,” Li-Young Lee talks about having fragmented individuality from childhood due to war. He is lost in perception of a traumatic childhood caused by war and a normal naïve childhood. Lee depicts the two diverged childhoods from his memory through the use of antithesis to emphasize the world perceived by a self fragmented individual. Throughout the poem, he consistently presents two opposing ideas to show what it feels like to grow up with emotional trauma.