Ji-li was talking to Lin-lin at the moment about sewing. Lin-lin made a comment on how she just cant learn how to sew which led to Ji-li saying "If you had to do it, you'd learn" referring to her family living on sixty yuan a month. Sixty yuan converted to dollars is just $9.78. Not only do they get paid very little money, more than half of their clothes were confiscated. Ji-li soon had to start sewing items for her family to keep them warm. I found this quote important because it showed me that Ji-li still didn’t seem used to what was going on in her life and also confused though she seemed to know that she can’t do anything about it.
“Brave enough to
face and eventually overcome the difficulties of life,”
I chose this quote because this was when Ji-li repeated what Teacher Zhang had told her and started to realize that she still had a chance for a better future. Ji-li had started to give in and realized she stopped trying to be brave, an educable child. Ji-li got chosen to be a leader for her class, to show their honor. She was living her life in fear until Teacher Zhang talked some inspirational words to her. Ji-li then said she would not allow herself from trying to stop following Chairman Mao and has a bright future ahead of her. She has to be brave.
Flor,
ReplyDeleteYour post was quite nice! I completely agree with your first quote. I think people try things, but they don't try hard enough. However, if you had to do something to live, you would be good at it. For example, if you had to cook meals for you family every day, you would become great, because you would want them to eat healthily. You cannot say you are bad at something unless you try your best. I think that quote was very powerful to Lin-lin. I love how Teacher Zhang chose Ji-Li to be the student leader even after seeing her family background. He knows people you have never met don't change your future, and Ji-Li is a good person. Do you think her classmates will say anything when they see that she is the student leader? Thank you for improving my thinking for the book!
Mary