Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang
While reading the 7th chapter of the book Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-li Jiang, a scene struck me and reminded me of the book/movie Catching Fire. This part was when the red guards tortured, punished and eventually killed him because of not going with the so called Cultural Revolution. He died because he was kneeling on a washboard in the sun for to long. He was put there because the guards considered he had to many four olds. This reminded me of the Catching Fire scene mainly because not only the man in the end was put on his knees and killed, yet he was punished for defying and trying to go against the biggest force, which in this case is the capital.
Next, something that clearly reminded me of another book was that the families are trying to hide what they really are, and pretend that they are like all "normal" families, and what are called the "black" families are trying to do this even more. This clearly reminds me of the book Divergent, by Veronica Roth, the main character, Tris, has to hide that she is divergent and tries to fit in in one of the factions in her society. She is doing this because in her community, divergents thing differently that everyone else, so therefore they are considered dangerous, so if one is found, they will be killed instantly. This connects to the book Red Scarf Girl because, as I have already previously mentioned, the families are trying to fit in with the "standard" level, which is what the new government wants, and is happening due to the cultural revolution after all. In my opinion this isn't really a good thing because people are suffering, and a revolution should be something good for everybody, accept the government, which might get overthrown.
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Sources: Video, Divergent Symbols, Cultural Revolution
I really like your post! I also read Catching Fire and Divergent, and while I was reading I made the same connection with Catching Fire. I think the part with the torture of the old man and Gale show something. That both of them live in a world with revolutions, and with a cruel dictator that thinks that he is helping the people when he is only hurting them more. For example when the red successors were searching peoples houses for four olds really reminded me of when the peacekeepers were searching searching peoples houses for any sign of a rebellion and burning things as well. I never really thought about Divergent in that way though. Now that I think about the families that have a background or are one of the five black categories are just trying to fit in. Like Ji-Li's family. She had nothing to do with her grandfather, she never even met him. So when she found out, all her family was trying to do was to stay hidden from people so they would not find out that their relative was a landlord which is the worst of the five. But that did not really do well because she got bullied for from the red successors and it was not her fault. I think that is what most families are doing to keep the secret from their kids. But eventually someone is going to find out and they can't protect their kids anymore or they would get bullied or maybe even tortured for standing up against a red guard. Overall I think your post made very good connections with two dystopian books. I think China at that time was like a Dystopian. Because there are many people that are oblivious to the fact that what the dictator is doing is bad and is just brainwashing them. Do you think that China is like a dystopia, like Uglies, Hunger Games, and Divergent?
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