A Map Of Betrayal Ha Jin Analysis

In the book A Map of Betrayal, Ha Jin ultimately suggests that the individual is more important than the collective. Jin uses the story of a spy, named Gary, who is betrayed to help get his point across. In the end, Gary is betrayed by China; this results in his literary death. Jin uses Gary’s literal death as a representation of a existential death resulting from valuing the collective society of China above the individual of Gary. Gary does many things for the communist party that value the party over himself. Everything from giving up his family to creating a whole new family. Gary goes so far as to betray the woman that he was already married to. Gary states that “[he] wouldn’t say he loved Nellie; his heart was numb and unable to open

When Gary is talking to Suzie he talks about his children, saying “I don’t have [a photo] now. I had one, but I left it in Hong Kong. They’re good kids and I miss them, although I’ve never seen them in the flesh or heard their voices. They know nothing about their daddy, I assume” (231-232), he longs to be with his family and children. However, his loyalty to the party keeps him from being truly happy and content with his life. As a result of this, in the end Gary sees no meaning in life and feels betrayed by the only thing that he ever truly valued in this life, his party. When the party then betrays him by not saving him from the United States of America. He loses everything that he ever stood for and dies because he simply has nothing to live for. Jin suggests that there is more to life than just the collective and ideals. Valuing the individual and an individual’s needs is more important. Jin illustrates that when this is not done, it results in an existential crisis of the soul, like is the case with Gary. When this happens the individual can lose themselves and be emotionally dead, and as is represented by Gary, sometimes physical death follows the mental. Gary puts the party first and goes against his true thoughts and feelings. As a result of making many decisions, putting the party first, he eventually suffers an existential crisis, which leads him to be very emotionally