Sunday, February 3, 2008
Saboteur
I just finished reading Saboteur, and I actually liked it. I love the ending (not the part where it said two children died), and I choose to believe that all of the police staff caught hepatitis. It sounds harsh but they had no reason for treating Mr. Chiu the way they did. I thought the way he spread the disease was ingenious. I would like to know why the policeman threw the hot tea on them in the first place. All I can assume is that he somehow knew Mr. Chiu was part of the Communist Party. A party that the policeman himself dislikes. I liked how the author made sure the “criminal” was well educated, I feel like it made the injustice that much more obvious. If he had been stupid, the situation could have gone in a completely different direction making Mr. Chiu seem guilty. I thought it was funny how Mr. Chiu cursed by saying “[e]gg of a tortoise!” I do not know if that is a legitimate cursing in his country but it made me laugh. I also enjoyed Mr. Chiu’s optimism; by realizing being in jail would be a nice place to relax. In addition, that he realized that he needed to sign the confession merely for the sake of his former student. He did not let his pride stand in the way of Fenjin’s well-being. Standing up for what you believe in is a trait that everyone should posses, but being smart about how go about your stance is another thing. I hope that the injustice in the story is not still alive today, but I think it would be foolish to think that it has completely disappeared. You can tell the author is not happy with the Chinese government. I read the small author biography in the front of the short story, it is very evident why he wrote this story, and why it ended the way it did.
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I actually liked it too. However, I think that Mr. Chiu could have gone in a different direction with his revenge. I mean it says that he is a scholar. Therefore, he could have exposed the police department in a different way such as reporting them to a higher authority. I also think that by spreading hepatitis he stooped to their level instead of taking the highroad. I mean two children died just because he was treated badly. However, that tends to happen a lot in our judicial system today so really what’s the difference? Also, when you mentioned Mr. Chiu signing the agreement I thought that he did it because of his health condition. It didn’t enter my mind that he did it in order to save Fenjin from persecution which makes a lot of sense. He was trying to help his friend that was suffering in the heat because he was in jail. Also, I too thought it was hilarious when he supposedly cussed because who says "egg of a tortoise!"
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