Analysis Of Children As Enemies By Ha Jin

Are traditions always good? In many ways, they could be an obstacle in way of growth, because of the belief that if it always has been done it is the right thing to do but it could be very harmful to the growing society of today. In the short stories of “Children as Enemies” written by Ha Jin and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, it's visible how harmful old traditions can be. In “Children as Enemies” the characters Qigan XI and Hau are the ones who rebel towards a cultural and traditional change. They are willing to change their names due to the fact that their names aren't easy to pronounce in American schools and they are getting bullied over their first and last names. Meanwhile, their grandparents are living with them who are very against

The old generations may have to put up with this traditions so they want they young generation to feel what they have gone through and maybe how heroic were they to do those rituals. The grandfather mentions how he has severe concerns of United States schools and how teachers aren't as cogent as they have to be to make the students work hard as they can (page 3). As the grandfather mentions that they have to work hard as the students do in China and he doesn't approve of the process of schooling in the USA due to his lack of experience in any other type of schooling than China. The grandchildren are trying to fit in within their new situation and there is a gap of understanding between culture and tradition values and accepting new changes which are a need for the society to keep growing. In “The Lottery” there is a character named Old Man Warner where Mr. Adams says that some villages up on North are discontinuing the tradition of lottery and his response was that young generation is not bright enough to be listened to and there will not be a good result when their words are put upon action (page 4). Mrs. Hutchinson is a younger generation than Old man Warner and she may have come across the same realization that Mr. Adams was mentioning due to the fact that she was late for the ritual and she has not taken it as seriously as the old

Traditions that have no meaning or are very harmful are losing meaning to the younger. When Mrs.Hutchinson was late for the ritual she stated that "Clean forgot what day it was," Just as she would like to forget what was going on that day and trying to forget by cleaning she continued “ "Thought my old man was out back stacking wood," Mrs. Hutchinson went on. "and then I looked out the window and the kids were gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty- seventh and came a-running." ”(page 1). The fact that she was late shows how she doesn't value the traditions. Showing up early and collecting stones by all citizens of the city will be a sign of an ongoing tradition not when citizens are criticizing how the north is discontinuing this tradition and Mrs. Hutchinson caring about cleaning more than being on time for the ritual. In the other short story, Qigan is the first to mention that he demands a new name the response from the grandfather was that their names were chosen after consulting with a fortune teller and the exact response of Qigan was “Phew, who believes in that crap?” (page 3) He is not cherishing the idea of a fortune teller choosing his name that is hard to pronounce and easy to make fun of. The tradition of a name chosen by a fortune teller for a newborn is not as adored by the grandchildren as their grandparents. Traditions lose their values over time because every time that it's going to be done people get