Red Scarf Girl, A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution - By: David Henry Hwang
Job #1 - Line Illuminator
Week 2: Chapters 3, 4, 5
Ivanna Hidalgo
Page 67
"Although teachers do not hold bombs or
knives, they are still dangerous enemies."
I think this quote is worth analyzing because, to me, it makes no sense at all. To begin with, this quote is pretty self explanatory that teachers cannot and will not harm anyone in anyway. Kids at school think that teachers are what is making them change their mind about revolution. Most children have the idea that teachers want to teach students that scholars are superior to workers and that teachers have revisionist ideas. In my opinion, it's the students themselves that are thinking about that because part of them is not sure about how the government manages things. I chose this GIF image because it's mocking how the dog breed chihuahua can be dangerous to people. It's very obvious that these dogs are defenseless and harmless. This is just like the teachers because they have no intention to harm anybody or say things to kids that are not true. These kids choose to think like this because they have no one else to blame. With a major reason, chihuahuas can bite and scratch; however it's never of a big degree. Therefore, teachers cannot say anything to people/children that will change their minds.
Page 72
In this quote, I can see people discriminating by only looking. By reading this quote, it tells me that Chinese kids only respected the people that had the right clothing. Also, these kids were only to judge by looks and not of what the person had in the inside. Having the wrong clothing was a very serious issue because people would look either like foreigners or fourolds. At this time, being fourold was humiliating because you weren't like others. This told everyone that Chinese culture had to be strait and strict and there would be nothing in their way to stop them. For example, in page 56, these people humiliated a man that was wearing fourold clothing and even cut his pants open so he wouldn't wear them again. Now, if we were to compare these two images with each other, there would be a big difference in everything. As a matter of fact, the American dress on the right might have been considered fourold clothing to Chinese culture, but it was perfectly normal to American people. If the Chinese government saw these types of clothing on their people, then they would definitely be punished. On the other hand, these kids had no right to judge the woman with the American clothing because people have completely different cultures. Image Sources:
American Dress
Chihuahua GIF
"Chihuahua Dog Stock Image." #25 Chiwawa Dog Price. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. <http://theanimals.pics/chiwawa-dog-price/25/chihuahua-dog-stock-image/>.
Chinese Dress
"Women's Hanfu - Junoesque Dress WHF-6017." FINE CHINESE CLOTHING. Web. 31 Aug. 2014. <http://www.finechineseclothing.com/eng/product/detail.aspx?ProductID=1117>.
I would like to respond to your first quote. You said that teachers would never harm their students and they pose no threat, but I disagree. The reason that the government was telling them that they were dangerous is to make them ignore or try to forget everything their teachers taught them about politics so that they do not rebel. Also, teachers are dangerous against the government because they can teach things to their students who will believe what they say. They could plant seeds of rebellion or spite in the heads of the students so that they might rebel against the country.
ReplyDeleteIvanna, I thought your thinking really pushed mine to another level because you explained clearly and insightfully how you related the images with the chosen quotes. The GIF was a very interesting and innovative idea, so great job on that. I also thought that it was great that you had the sources of the images in a nice and clean way of finding, and I also enjoyed a lot what you mentioned about the different aspects of people when it comes to clothing. You said that according to the community, they have different beliefs rather the clothing is appropriate for the society or rather it's extremely "different", in a bad way. I agreed with you and it made me remember and connect back to a book we read in seventh grade: Ties That Bind, Ties That Break. During the book we can also find this type of, what you called 'discrimination', when it comes to the way the, mostly, women dress. Great post, and what you said really pushed my thinking to another level in pretty much all aspects.
ReplyDeleteIvanna, I really like your choice of quotes because I remember reading them, but I didn't give a lot of importance to them. Yet, you made me realize that they have a big meaning behind them. For the first quote, I really like how you give the example of a dog. However, I disagree with you that the teachers would never harm their students. I see more what Gabe said. Teachers are dangerous because they can teach their students lies and inappropriate things. Adding, they could be propositally giving bad grades to their students for some personal reason and that can make the student very stressed and sad. How would you feel if that was your case? Secondly, I totally agree with you on what you say in the second quote. We see people everyday discriminating others, which is a horrible thing. In the school hallways, parties, and even in social networks this happens. In the book, the guy that had his pants cut by the people, is a great example. However, do you think these types of discrimination will still happen in the book? Will Ji- Li be a victim?
ReplyDelete