Line Illuminator week 4 - James

“we would learn military and political terms first. When he started with “Lay down your arms and we will spare your lives,” we were quite interested.” Chapter 10 pg 287

I choose this quote because it reminds me how lucky we are as students to learn about things that are interesting and fun. During the cultural revolution students had to learn things that were boring and were related to the new China. The quote above is when the students are in english class reciting sentences over and over. They found this particular sentence interesting which to me is not. I find learning about different cultures and science interesting (sometimes) which is a huge difference from what students back then were learning. The teachers also did not like to teach this material because all the material was made for them. The difference between now and the cultural revolution is massive in terms of learning and teaching.

“You saw your father. He is being remolded through labor. We have evidence that he has committed a serious counterrevolutionary crime.” He paused and fixed me with his eyes. “But he is very stubborn and refuses to confess. And your mother. Humph. She’s another despicable thing!” Chapter 11 pg 334-335

When I read this it reminded me a lot about the Stalin era. During the Stalin era many people that were against him or the country were sent to Gulag camps. In the book One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich we see the labor that inmates have to do. In the book there wasn't a lot of remolding of the inmates. We did see that they had physical changes because of the harsh hours and the small amount of food. Stalin was also trying to gain free labor to help russia become more industrialized. This may be the case with China and the vision that the New China had.