"Saboteur" is a short story by Chinese-American writer Ha Jin. The majority of the story is told in the perspective of the protagonist, Chiu Muguang, a professor in Harbin. The rest of the narrative is told in the perspective of Chiu's student, Fenjin. The fact that Ha Jin decided to tell the story through the point of view of the narrator shows that Jin sympathizes with Chiu.
More importantly, the character of Chiu is the "mouthpiece" of the author, which relays his criticism of China's corrupt police force and justice system. The story is an indictment of the systemic corruption in mainland China, from the police force and judicial system to the core government itself. Through the narrator's details of torture, injustice, and government corruption, the readers are conditioned to empathize with Chiu's final act of revenge.
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Whom does Ha Jin agree with, the narrator or the law system?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What is the theme of the chapter Lead?
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
The statement "Development policy needs to be about poor people, not just poor countries," carries a lot of baggage. Let's dis...
-
"Mistaken Identity" is an amusing anecdote recounted by the famous author Mark Twain about an experience he once had while traveli...
-
Primo Levi's complex probing of the Holocaust, including his survival of Auschwitz and pre- and post-war life, is organized around indiv...
-
De Gouges's Declaration of the Rights of Woman was enormously influential. We can see its influences on early English feminist Mary Woll...
-
As if Hamlet were not obsessed enough with death, his uncovering of the skull of Yorick, the court jester from his youth, really sets him of...
-
In both "Volar" and "A Wall of Fire Rising," the characters are impacted by their environments, and this is indeed refle...
No comments:
Post a Comment