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Pu Yi Character Analysis

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‘Pu Yi led one of the strangest lives in history’ (history today.com, 2009). He spent a good fraction of his life in the Quing Dynasty. In this time, he was known to have beaten his servants (Enuch’s), whenever he felt like it. One time in particular, he decided to reward in Enuch for his puppet show with a large chocolate cake. The only problem was it was full of metal shards, so that Puyi could be entertained by the look on his face when he bite into it. But what makes one do such things? Almost anyone can come to the same conclusion. It was the way he was raised, and taught. He didn't know any better. There was so much pressure put on Pu Yi, a three year old, being treated like a living god, and expected to make decisions for the whole of …show more content…

He nearly made it too, but he was captured by soldiers at the airport, and sent to a Communist Reform Camp, for betraying his country. This camp was where we can really see the results of his childhood. He realised that it did no good for him to have no chance to learn, realised what a waste it was to be in such little control of his life. He realised he was worthless at doing anything worthwhile. At first, he had men tying his shoelaces in the prison. ‘For the last 40 years, I had never folded my own quilt, made my own bed or poured out my own washing water. I had never even washed my own feet or tied my own shoes.’ (Pu Yi, From Emperor to Citizen) He could barely open door knobs at first, but soon he was tending to the prisons vegetable gardens. He had to restart his life all over again, only this time, he actually turned into as decent person. ‘Pu Yi shows us change, from emperor to citizen, from caterpillar to butterfly’ -unknown.’ Puyi went on to teach others about the Quing Dynasty, to work on political debates to make thing fair, and he even wrote his own autobiography ‘From Emperor to Citizen. Although Pu Yi was not a good person, he was not responsible for his larger decisions. He is not truly the person he was before he learnt things the hard way. This is because until then, he was never really in control. This is apparent through his time as the Quing Emperor, when he abdicated, his time as emperor of Manchukuo and though his service in the communist reform camp. It is quite apparent that he was taken advantage of. Puyi was a normal child, who made all the wrong

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