ENC 1102 Essay on the short story “Saboteur” by Han Jin. 1369 words. Saboteur, written by Ha Jin exposes a difficult period of China: the cultural revolution and its consequences on people’s life. Through the author’s skillful use of setting, symbolism and the main character’s dynamism, the reader is able to understand the theme of the story that is revenge.
The setting of a story has a ponderous influence on the reader’s perception as it often justifies a character’s behavior. In Saboteur, the story takes place in communist China as witnessed by the concrete statue of Chairman Mao in the middle of the square. During this period, the communist leader Mao Zedong was ruling with authority and transforming the society based on a Marxist model. The author states that “the Cultural Revolution was over already and recently the party had been propagating the idea that all citizens are equal” (26).
The statue is located in the middle of a square before Muji train station. Muji seems to be a middle sized province town. The place is very busy as suggested by the “food and fruit vendors crying for customers in lazy voices” (3).
The place “smells of rotten melon and a few flies kept buzzing above the couple’s lunch” (3) foreshadowing a unpleasant event.
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The season in which the plot takes place is summer since Mr. Chiu and his bride are both wearing sandals. Additionally later during the story Mr. Chiu is offered to sign his self criticism carrying a date that is July the 13 th.
Through the description of the characters the reader understands better the conflict between the protagonist Mr. Chiu and the political system represented by the policemen. Mr. Chiu, with a “thin jaw” (4) and worried by a bad liver and acute hepatitis appears to be weak. His wife whose cheeks are pale wears “glasses” (4), which could be perceived as a sign of fragility. They live a comfortable life as indicated by the fact that they own a color TV, something that only a certain elite could own at the time of the story.
However, even she looks sick: she suffers from a headache. The couple obviously belongs to the intellectual elite and it helps justifying the policemen’s behavior towards them: during and after the cultural revolution, the relationship between the government and the intellectuals was not among the most pleasant. It is easy to understand that an uneducated people is easier to rule than a well-informed one. Even Chiu asserts it: “he is not a common citizen who would tremble” (49).
In comparison the policemen, their antagonists, are “stout”, “tall and of athletic build” (2).
The reader can already foresee an aggression from the policemen on the couple when the government employees “would steal a glance at Mr. Chui’s table” while “telling a joke” (2).
After his unfair arrest, Mr. Chiu seems hopeful that he will be treated with justice. “He wasn’t afraid.
The cultural revolution was over already, and recently the party had been propagating the idea that all citizens were equal before the law” (26).
Later in the story, when Chiu is taken to the interrogation bureau and questioned by the chief if the bureau, his behavior seems to have changed: “The moment he sat down in the office, he burped” (28).
Chiu is a scholar and it is generally admitted that people with education would not have the indecency of burping in public. Chiu’s new antagonist is now “the Chief of the bureau who was a thin, bald man who looked serene and intelligent” (29).
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This starts suggesting that Chiu might be in more trouble than what he thinks he is in. The two policeman had a brutal behavior and Chiu always thought they were no match in front of the power of his education and the fact that he can defend himself. With the chief of the bureau, Chiu faces somebody being as intelligent and smart as him. Chiu even feels physical pain when “something stirred in his stomach” (49) as the chief shows the statements from different witnesses. The protagonist is drifting from hopefulness to doubtfulness showing the dynamism of his personality.
This event also foreshadows and justifies Chiu’s final reaction. The reader can also realize the protagonist’s dynamism when he is sent back to his cell when Chiu tries to find courage in an old saying: “When a scholar runs into soldiers, the more he argues, the muddier his point becomes” (59).
Chiu feels “miserable ” (60) and is already resigning. Yet he does not completely lose hope since he is “more upset than frightened, because he would have to catch up his work once he was back home” (60).
In paragraph 66, Ha Jin writes that Chiu was the only one among his colleagues not to be affected by the fleas. In this section, the author might be comparing the fleas to the communist system who could never affect the hero. Chiu also changes his feelings towards his wife as “he even enjoys sleeping alone” (69).
He even thinks of her as a stupid woman in paragraph 75. As he rests in his cell, Chiu’s anger starts to grow and he feels that “those hoodlums had ordered more than they could eat” (73).
The scholar already thinks about revenge underlining again the character’s dynamism.
His health deteriorates as he sees his ex-student in the backyard and he is “overcome with a wave of nausea” (75).
It gets even worse when Chiu feels that “hepatitis is finally attacking him” (90) as he is offered to sign his self-criticism. Chiu had initially refused to sign it as he was hopeful in the fairness of the system and he was convinced of his innocence. However when he realizes that his fate and his lawyer’s depends on this piece of paper, he becomes hopeless and signs.
The Essay on “The Saboteur” by Ha Jin
In Saboteur, the author Ha Jin tries to make the reader believe that because Mr. Chiu was falsely charged with sabotage, he becomes a saboteur by causing a hepatitis epidemic in Muji to satisfy his immediate need for revenge. He purposefully spreads hepatitis to several restaurants around the police station in hopes to infect some policemen and their families. The build up of anger, frustration ...
The narrator’s omniscience allows the reader to share the rage the scholar feels when he is about to be released. Chiu is so angry that “he would have razed the entire police station and eliminated all their families” (99).
This part of the story also marks the turning point in Chiu’s behavior, when “he made up his mind to do something” (99).
The central character decides to cause pain to the people of the province town by spreading Hepatitis in a revenge frenzy. The lawyer Fen jin has a lot of respect and reverence for his ex- teacher, he tells Chiu that he “mustn’t treat him like a guest” (104).
Through his lawyer’s eyes Chiu’s face becomes “jaundiced” and he looks like an “ugly man” (106).
This symbolizes that the scholar has now become a fundamentally immoral person. Ha Jin writes this short story in a prose style with a minimalist use of descriptors. However, as previously stated, the author’s omniscience has a key role in showing the dynamism of the main character. Without it, it would be impossible to realize how the faithful educated scholar becomes a merciless assassin. The tone chosen by the author is sometimes hopeful at the beginning.
The protagonist is even confident that he is going to be “provided with a letter of apology” (50) to explain his tardiness to his university. The tone becomes hopeless when Chiu realizes that nothing but his signature is going to stop his nightmare. The tone is also ironic. Sabotage is defined as a willful damage to machinery, materials in the Oxford dictionary.
Chiu accused the policemen to be the saboteurs of the social order” (42) whereas he ends up being a saboteur himself when he infects eight hundred innocent people with Hepatitis and even kills six inhabitants including two children. The reader also feels the hero’s anger when “holding back his rage” Mr. Chiu says, let me look at that” (92) or when he keeps saying. “if only I could kill these bastards” (106).
The theme of the short story is revenge. Ha Jin suggests in his work that even the most reasoned individual, as a university teacher could be, can reach his personal limits and commit a crime if his personal freedom is taken.
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Works Cited ” Sabotage.” Oxford Dictionary Thesaurus and Word power Guide. 2003. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 4 th compact ed. New York: Longman, 2005.
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