A Cloud of Oppression Experiencing the torment of a label is difficult, especially if it is given to your whole family. In the memoir Red Scarf Girl, set in the time of the Cultural Revolution, being within the upper middle class was frowned upon and proletarians were seen as the leaders of society. The label of black class status tainted the bourgeoisie, including the Jiang family, with torture, ridicule, and incrimination by others influenced by the governmentally coercive ways of Communism. Political oppression was visible everywhere within China, affecting neighborhoods, families and even children. Subjugation may have been on a small scale, such as temporarily shutting down a nostalgic children's bookstore due to its name supporting …show more content…
Ji Li Jiang was accused of exploitation by Du Hai and Yin Lan-lan due to the fact that her family has a housekeeper, takes pedicabs, and had “‘serious problems with her class standing’” (70). Daily, Ji Li and her younger sister and brother are victimized by their peers at school, due to the fact that their family was originally supported by a landlord, a career considered cruel to the working class. The Jiangs are put in the political spotlight consistently to illustrate the perspective of those who were affected by the bigotry of Maoism. Additionally, the destruction of unique thoughts was present in Ji Li’s struggle to blend in with the proletarian class. She consistently felt pressured to disown her own family and alter the lifestyle so familiar to her. At school, Ji Li was even encouraged to turn against her own father, later leading Ji Li to wonder if she should love her family. The attempts at destroying the sense of pride held for one’s family in order to embrace new ideologies truly showed toxicity of the cause Chairman Mao created. The wellbeing of those under the rule of Mao Ze-dong was at extreme risk, due to the conniving actions of those around
In the book Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character in the book is Tyler Miller. The other main characters are Hannah which is his sister, Bethany Milbury, Yoda, and chip. One of the worse decisions he made is painting the school because that gave him a bad reputation. The other bad decision he made was when he didn 't do what Bethany wanted him to do so that was a bad decision because she made a whole lot of drama about it, and made him feel bad and was very rude about everything. He should have just did it and it wouldn 't have been his fault he may have felt bad but he wouldn 't have gotten the cops called because she gets passed around a lot so its not his fault at all I honestly think that everything that happened was all
The book, “Where Am I Wearing?”, by Kelsey Timmerman tells the journey that Timmerman embarked on to discover where his clothes were made and who made them. He traveled to rare places like Honduras, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and China to talk to the people behind his clothing in an attempt to better understand globalization and to minimize the difference between small-scale and large-scale stories and processes. “Where Am I Wearing?”, connects themes from Geography 2750 such as population dynamics, urbanization, and economics through small-scale stories and puts emphasis on how they affect large-scale processes. In the book, Timmerman helps explain the themes of population dynamics on page 172 of his book.
One day when the Liberation Army Dancer visited, Ji-Li told her dad that evening, “I [am] an Outstanding Student, an Excellent Young Pioneer, and even the da-dui-zhang, the student chairman of the whole school” (20). Explaining she was knowledgeable, through examples of her success, meant she knew that her political background would not get in her way of participating in the Cultural Revolution. A few years later, during the Cultural Revolution, Ji- Li was in junior high,
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
A Room Providing Freedom? A woman is given limited freedom. Something as simple as a room could give her a sense of liberty. In Virginia Woolf 's article, she claims that "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction."
“Virgins”, by Danielle Evans, is a tragic story narrated by a young girl who places what she views as “inevitability” into her own terms. The protagonist of the story is Erica, a young, physically well-developed girl who has her own view on men and what exactly they want from her. Throughout the story, a constant battling environment surrounds her, and one side of her keeps pushing her to the verge of giving up everything - even her virginity. Evans uses the title of the story to question the importance of finite as virginity in relation to the value of a woman’s body. Through the use of character development, plot, themes, language and style, setting and figurative language, she is able to come up with a true proposal of the both self-value,
This heartbreaking story is simply another powerful illustration of the oppression that these individuals faced on a daily basis. Tilly's suffering reaches its peak when, after nine laborious months of bearing the child, she is unable to retain her darling child since she is trapped at a different academy because of her pregnancy. "Where's my baby? I want my baby," she cries out desperately (226), her words echoing as guards forcibly lead her away. As Tilly's severe anguish is exacerbated by the rapid separation from her infant kid and the uncertainty of whether they will ever be reunited, the degree of oppression suffered by the gutter children becomes brutally apparent.
It came to dominate my understanding of the discussion on the social and historical scene and to restrict my ability to participate in that discussion.(444) If we go back and use the reference again of the electronic tool we can see the struggle of being at home and communicating with her family and having an influence of capitalistic viewpoints and living the life of a capitalist, then immediately having to communicate in a different language at school and being surrounded by socialistic views and living the life of a socialist. Her thoughts were constantly flip-flopping and this became very frustrating for her. If we bring all these struggles into one main purpose, Min-Zhan Lu’s mother falls into silence two months before her death and Min-Zhan Lu attempts to “fill up that silence with words that I have since come to by reflecting on my earlier experience as a student in China.(437) The struggles that she faced growing up in China as a student and her past experiences have really helped her overcome life obstacles and develop her as a better reader and writer.
Her classmates stand in tight groups during school looking over their shoulders and whispering to each other and a neighborhood boy follows her home loudly chanting “Half-City Jiangs! Down with the landlord Half-City Jiangs!” Ji-li walks into the police station after a long moment of questioning if she really should. She looks in the directory for the household registration office and goes upstairs to where it is located. At first she does not see anyone but, after yelling a few times Officer Ma emerges from his chair with his chopsticks in hand.
Lucille Parkinson McCarthy, author of the article, “A Stranger in Strange Lands: A College Student Writing Across the Curriculum”, conducted an experiment that followed one student over a twenty-one month period, through three separate college classes to record his behavioral changes in response to each of the class’s differences in their writing expectations. The purpose was to provide both student and professor a better understanding of the difficulties a student faces while adjusting to the different social and academic settings of each class. McCarthy chose to enter her study without any sort of hypothesis, therefore allowing herself an opportunity to better understand how each writing assignment related to the class specifically and “what
The cultural revolution lasted for 10 years from 1966-1976 the cultural revolution was a hard long time for the chinese youth and elderly. During the revolution there was a young girl named Ji-LI she was a 12 girl at the beginning at the end she is 14 Ji-Li is the main character of the story. Because of her bravery and affection she made it through the cultural revolution. But as her mind matured she realized the cultural revolution was not such a good idea. Ji-Li was very brave more than one account.
Jing-Mei’s American upbringing hindered her ability to understand her mother’s perspective – which was based on Chinese heritage – resulting in strong differences of opinion that led to arguments. In addition, since Jing-Mei and her mother failed to communicate effectively about their different perspectives, they became frustrated and upset with each other. The relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother was harmed by their emotional distance from each other. The absence of verbal affection between them translated to increased resentment and disappointment. Positive emotional connection between a parent and child proves vital in maintaining a healthy relationship in the face of
In “Girl Unprotected”, Sports writer and journalist Laura Robinson argues that if you examine the Judicial system, then you will find a strong bias against victims of hockey abuses with an emphasis against women. Throughout her essay, Robinson uses the case against Mike Danton and the NHL to emphasize the issues of gender inequality and the lack of recognition to the abuses in hockey. In her essay, Laura Robinson begins her argument by claiming that “women’s bodies were only allowed to be adjectives to describe men” (Robinson 326). By doing so, she suggests that women’s bodies are all that the men in hockey care about while their mind’s and talents are ignored and lack in value. To reinforce her thesis, Robinson also includes a quote from a
First person. For centuries the notion of war as an exciting and romantic endeavor has existed until Stephen Crane DE glorified war in his novel The Red Badge of Courage. He tells about the true nature and experience of war through a young soldier Henry Fleming and contrasts it with his romantic imagination. Crane introduces a more realistic approach to war which is in contrast to Henry’s expectations.
Jing Mei, while portrayed as an obedient child, is only willing to listen to her mother to a certain extent. Throughout the story, it is consistently hinted that Jing Mei would eventually explode against her mother as an attempt to free herself from her mother’s chains. In addition, after the fiasco at the piano recital, she eventually derives further from her mother’s wishes as she “didn 't get straight A...didn 't become class president...didn 't get into Stanford...dropped out of college.” (54). On the flip side, Jing Mei’s mother is a stereotypical Chinese parent who is fully determined to ensure her daughter’s success in a new environment.