SABOTEUR Ha Jin’s Saboteur describes the injustice of government authorized officers taking place in China. Mr.Chiu being the one facing the injustice have been portrayed as a very sensitive man since later he takes revenge. The setting of the story often tells us why the characters behave in a certain way. In the story since Mr.Chiu was not in his own place rather he was with his wife for honeymoon in a foreign land which influenced his behavior in the story. 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. The second one is the pigeons sitting on the raised hand of the statue symbolizing the peace due to communism in China. The peasants …show more content…
In the beginning of the story where Mr.Chiu being a man full of values and respect towards the government who is also a member of communist party, someone who believed injustice is never in his way, have been unjustifiably arrested for a crime which he never did only because the officers had the right to do literally anything they wanted. This situation directly refers to the theme as government is being unfair towards Mr. Chiu. Later Ha Jin develops the theme by giving another instance where Mr.Chiu is forcibly accepting all the accusations under the fear of the officers, where again his rights have been taken away from