In both books “Red Scarf Girl” and “Night” the main characters Ji-Li and Eliezer are both getting stuck in situations that cause them to make  or think poor decisions because they are losing hope. Ji-Li’s family, in “Red Scarf Girl”, are capitalist and they are getting punished for the families political choice. Her grandfather was a landlord which is considered “Four Olds” and her family was very wealthy which communism is against. Ji-Li repeatedly mentions that she wishes she wasn’t apart of this family so she cannot be humiliated and she can fit into society. Ji-Li thinks to herself she wants to change her last name. She thought to herself “I had had enough. All my bad luck and humiliation came from the name Jiang.” (Page. 228) so she went Residence Registration and said to the Comrade “I want to change my name” (Page 229). The Comrades response was encouraging and he said that she can’t choose her families political status but she can choose her future. She didn’t end up changing her last name because she didn’t want to be like her cousin Shan-shan who has no connection with his mother whatsoever. Ji-Li is in a hard situation and is forced to make choiceless choices to try to fit in with society but then realizes that she doesn’t believe in the same things and wants to stay with her family. In Night, Eliezer also makes many choiceless choices because he is in a life or death situation at Auschwitz concentration camp. He changes how he acts because he see horrendous events occurring around him. His father gets slapped and Eliezer barely flinches because he knows that if he does something he will get hurt. He makes the choice to do nothing rather than help his father for his own self good. Overall, cruel and awful situations can cause people to change how they think or feel. It can cause a change in beliefs that may result in choiceless choices in life or death situations.

In “Red Scarf Girl” by Ji-Li Jiang, the Cultural Revolution is causing Ji-Li and her family to run into arguments, problems, and becoming full of worry. Ji-Li has a Capitalist family and because of that her and her family are getting treated rudely by society.  Ji-Li tries to force herself that she believes in communism but deep down her family has raised her to be a capitalist and that’s what she believes in. The Red Guards are people who can search people’s homes to get rid of the “four-olds”, which is basically anything that makes them wealthier than other families. Her family doesn’t want their house to get searched so they try to hide or get rid of all their “four-olds” themselves by burning some old fashion pictures. The Red Guards found these pictures because they had to search the trash because they found a knife (which was an illegal weapon), and they ended up finding burned pictures and were able to recognize a picture of Ji-Li’s fourth Aunt who lived in their house. Ji-Li’s house resulted in getting searched. The author described this moment so vividly you could feel the actions happening. The author wrote “When I heard pounding on the door downstairs, I was not sure whether it was real or a dream. It was real. I heard my cousin You-mei ask bravely, ‘Who’s there?’ Six-Fingers’s voice replied, ‘The Red Guards. They’re here to search your house. Open up!'” (Page. 147-148). This made me feel that I was in her house minutes away from falling asleep and then I hear pounding hoping it’s not the Red Guards trying to search my house, and then I hear clarification that it is and get scared and can’t even think of what will happen to all my belongings. Ji-Li describes as her house is getting stripped to pieces about the people searching her room. She says ” I turned my head and saw another boy opening my desk drawer. He swept his hand through it and jumbled everything together before removing the drawer and turning it upside down on the floor” (Page. 149). This shows how careless and ruthless these Red Guards were to mess everything put without caring. This scene I felt was truly described very well making me think I was there. Overall, the setting of the search being at night and all images and sounds popping into my head makes the mood of this scene worryful and hopeful that Ji-Li’s most prize possessions don’t get taken away from her.

In the book, “Red Scarf Girl” by Ji-Li Jiang, Mao Zedong is trying to spread communism to the cities of China during the Cultural Revolution. By the Cultural Revolution, the cities had to get rid of the “Four Olds” which included old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. Mao Zedong believed that teachers were teaching students how to be revolutionst and not what they should be teaching them which was to be socialist and communist. All school classes for Ji-Li were suspended indefinitely and instead they had to write da-zi-bao which were hateful posters about teachers. Ji-Li realizes “No matter how I tried, I just could not relate them to the villains described in the da-zi-bao” (Page. 59). This is a significant line said in the book because this whole time she thought she was a communist. Her family is capitalist but she doesn’t really understand that. She thinks that because everyone is following communism she should too. She is realizing that she doesn’t believe in communism if she has to be mean to teachers. She doesn’t understand how she would criticize teachers when they have taught her and helped her. This adds to the text because she is going against society but she doesn’t know it yet. She is trying to fit in with her classmates but she doesn’t think the actions they are doing are right. She is an outsider trying to act like an insider. Her family has raised her to capitalist. This quote foreshadows that she will eventually realize she is capitalist. As the story goes on, she shows more foreshadowing of how she is a capitalist and doesn’t believe in communism even though she thinks she does. I think later in the story she might rebel or maybe her home will get searched because the Red Guards were searching through capitalist house to take things away that made them privileged. Overall, Ji-Li is starting to realize that she is a capitalist like her family and not a communist like the rest of society. Ji-Li needs to learn to stand up for what she believes in.

In the book, “Red Scarf Girl” by Ji-Li Jiang, the Chinese Cultural Revolution is going on right now. At first, I didn’t understand what this was. This arose in my book because the main character Ji-Li Jiang (also the author) wanted to audition to be a Liberation Army dancer. When she got an audition, she told her parents and they said no because the government will have to do a political background check on their family and he said “‘Ji-li, the fact is that our family will not be able to pass these investigations,’ he said slowly. ‘And you will not be allowed to be a member of a Liberation Army performing troupe'” (Pg. 26). I was confused what he meant by this so then I did some research and I found out more about the cultural revolution. I learned that the cultural revolution was about how the Chinese leader, Mao Zedong, wanted to spread communism among the cities of China. Then from learning this, I realized that Ji-Li Jiang’s family must be capitalist and they wouldn’t pass the political background investigation because the Liberation Army was fighting for communism. Another way I learned that their family were capitalist was when Dui Hai (Ji-Li’s classmate) said “’Jiang Ji-li, your family has a housekeeper. That is exploitation. You’re a capitalist’”. This proves that her family are capitalists and also it shows that there were high demands and brutal ways into forcing people to become communists. Ji-Li thought she believed in communism because of how most of the city did and she thought it was right, but when it came to her what it meant to be a communist, she rethought her political stance. When her classmates and her were supposed to write da-zi-bao (hateful posters about teachers), she thought “But now that I actually had to criticize the teachers who taught us every day, I could not find anything really bad to say about any of them” (Pg. 55-56). Overall, the Chinese Revolution is about how Mao Zedong wanted to spread communism and although Ji-Li thought she believed in communism, she started to realize she doesn’t. Even though everyone in a society is doing an action, that doesn’t mean the action it is right. It is ok to not believe in something others do and it is important to have your own beliefs to be your own self.

Citation:

Office of the Historian. history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/chinese-rev.
Accessed 27 Mar. 2020.