The Use of Recurring Theme in Ha-Jins Work - Research Paper Example

The uses of recurring theme in Ha- Jin’s work Ha-Jin was a popular poet, novel writer and an academician of China origin who migrated to the US. According to Versava, Ha-Jin came up with a new and unique view of literature that was incomparable. He is a hero in the field of literature, an attribute that saw him win several awards during the literary awards in America. He wrote several novels including the highly coveted novel Waiting, the War Trash amongst many others. He also wrote several short stories, which equally received international recognition and acceptance in some learning institution and other fields of knowledge. Most of his literary works are about personal experience, a fact that present them to be more of autobiographies. He majorly writes about his experience during his stay in China, his experience during the proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1956, being the main fueling factor that propelled him to speak out through writing short stories in his famous collection known as The Red Flag, in which he points out the then normal daily lives of villagers. His work majorly revolves around attempts to speak the truth of life as it is without sugarcoating the psychology of the reader in order to make the work appealing. To some point, he views himself as a spokesperson to the people, but then his career as a writer prevents him from fully expressing his emotions and grievances. Thematic predominance: Humanity and human feasibility In his works, Ha-Jin addresses several issues in the day-to-day events of people in the society as he sees them, points out both good and bad equally without bias or favoritism. His emotional attachment to China, his home country, was so strong that he found the urge to speak for his people irresistibly for some time until he got a conviction to be an independent being. He detached himself from China and viewed himself as an immigrant with no intent of going back to his home country. After this, his writing style changed from personal experience as a Chinese and shifted to writing about the experience of Chinese immigrants in the U.S.A. His first novel in this new series was Free Life, which ushered him to the new dispensation. The main theme in his new works is humanity and human feasibility, which he explores throughout his later literary works. For instance, he focuses on the most recent political activities, as well as how these activities affect humanity’s life. He explicitly explored the political regime and its unfriendly reality, which was manifested in human’s life. An example is the story, Waiting (1999), which does not address the issues of culture revolution, but rather focuses on ones personal life, the desire of the heart, their love life. Dr. Lin Kong and Shuyu are forced to wait for eighteen years before marrying because he had not gotten his divorce approved by the court. Later, he gets the long coveted divorce then marries her after being permitted by a law that allowed those who have been separated for eighteen years to divorce; however, after marrying her, he does not seem to love her. The desires of human hearts greatly conflict the orders and values established by the law of the land. He has to travel to the village regularly to get his divorce and be free. However, he has to wait for this long trapped by societal demands and expectations with one woman on one side while, on the other side, he longs to be with the woman he truly loves. He is in a dilemma regarding the two women who belongs to different takes of life. For example, one belongs to the new China of the Cultural Revolution and one given to him by the traditions. This is a great love story that is seen overcoming cultural barriers of his family. This story explores the antagonism between an individual’s emotional feeling and the societal norms. Ha- Jin clearly identifies the existing disagreement between the individuals and the society. The story represents the constant change in the political nature and universal understanding of the principles of the human heart and emotions. With the position, interests and consideration for all his characters, Jin describes the difficulties that the world present to humanities and the effects of time on an endless love between the two people. Another instance of Jin’s work where the concept of humanity is presented is in the In the Pond (1998). This story revolves around Shao Bin, a Chinese man who works at a fertilizer processing plant in the northern provincial commune, and struggles to make ends meet as he brings up his young family comprising of his wife and child. He makes effort to get an apartment, but is unable to get it simply because some few individual politicians are seen as better deserving it, the corrupt leaders in the plant. His attempt to fight back leads to conflict between him and these officials against his expectations. The story highlights the repressiveness and ruthless treatment of individuals, a socialist society whose communism acts as a tool of oppression to the less privileged in the society, compiled of a ranking of corruption and nepotism. With his literary work, Ha-Jin tactfully channels his message against the Chinese corrupt and unfair socialist system. He puts emphasis on the theme of self-defense and dependence and not giving a loophole for the power hungry exploitative authority take from one what belongs to them. Another theme on which he puts emphasis is the one of universal assistance to one’s fellow friends. His comprehensive coverage of humane desirability on his work by exploitatively analyzing the cultural traits of the Chinese traditional beliefs and practices, this is evident in his work of short stories collection A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find. The story, which revolves around severally, failed attempts to shoot successfully a tiger-fighting scene by Wu Song who finally ends up being mentally ill. As Ge notes, “The failures … suggest the death of heroism in the modern age.” In other words, the failures symbolize “moral infringement or infirmity of ordinary people, usually men, in contemporary China” . This story is a symbol of audacity and courage tied in Chinese tradition. Heroism as a theme is another important aspect of humanity that is viewed as ubiquitous and surpasses nationalism and cultural values. As Ge illustrates, “Indeed the discourse of heroism has become politically and ideologically overcharged not only in China, but in the West, as well...The quest for heroism, in China as in the West, should not start with the prowess of killing a vermin but with the cultivation of one’s moral and psychological being”(Jin 53-54). Most of his work revolves around issues of human sexuality, social lives, and the chauvinistic nature of different cultural societies. A good illustration is in the earlier mentioned work Waiting (1999), with wisdom and subtlety, he highlights the idea of love and romance presenting Dr. Lin Kong and Shuyu in a loveless marriage, the doctor being in love with another woman when his wife is left in the rural. The traditional society is presented to be in control of people’s sexuality and the parents choosing spouses for the children, a culture that Dr. Lin Kong waits patiently in the world’s longest queue just to obtain true happiness of the soul. This aspect of Jin’s work is a reflection of his love for humanities. In some of his work, he presents the male exponent as asexualized and debilitated and are essentially pictured as sexually geld and castrated. Most of his work is characterized with sex scenes, for example, when a veteran of People’s Liberation Army rapes and defiles a virgin, and a man arranges for his wife to be gang-raped on ground of punishing her for her infidelity. Love being an important aspect of humanity is greatly exploited in most of Jin’s work as an emerging issue (Jin 31-32). In quite a number of stories, sexuality of different characters features as a crisis that needs to be addressed majorly because it is not a private matter anymore. In The Bridegroom, for example, the lead character is arrested for being homosexual. Again, In Broken, a young woman is punished for adultery and ends up killing herself using pesticides. Ha Jin explores other aspects of humanity and human nature such as emotions, for example, revenge features in “flame” when Nimei decides to marry Jiang Bing, Hsu Peng’s confession to her are words of hatred and a promise to revenge (130). She easily forgets about his goodness and kindness. This is after he is taken to prison after being found guilty of homosexuality. In the story, “An Entrepreneur Story,” Ha-Lin has clearly shown the current freedom of humanity in China that people have the freedom to develop their entrepreneurial skills without fear of victimization as they did before. The lady from Newyork, Liu Feng, who is also the writer of this story, gives the reasons for the sudden change in the social ladder by attributing it to people’s love of money (120). On the other hand, the woman from New York faces condemnation for having gone to look for money. The society here if painted as being male dominated and women are considered unfit in certain careers; instead, she is receiving disrespected. In Alive, a man who traveled to look for fortune, got injured, loses his memory and ends up marrying a woman whose family had perished, but after a while, he remembers the family he once had before the accident. He finds that he is assumed dead and all his properties gone. Because of this, the man regrets having come back home. Unaware of what happened to his own family during the period that according to the people, he was dead and long buried and forgotten, he is desolate and stranded. This is a story on the pains and tribulations that humans go through in their daily lives in the hands of the few strong individuals as labeled by the society. Immediately he is believed to be dead, his properties are taken. All these stories and illustrations show Ha-Jin’s artistic articulation of ideas that revolve around and build the theme that so much dominates his work, the theme of humanity. Right from his personal views on the plight of the Chinese people, his role as an advocate for them is clearly brought out in most of his works such as in the alive, an entrepreneur story, waiting, the war trash, the red flag, the flame, and so many others. He is a writer who manages to artistically, and with subtlety bring out his personal opinion and at the same time the real life situation, this greatly solidifies his work and his thematic expression. Work Cited Jin, Ha. In the pond: a novel. Cambridge, Mass.: Zoland Books, 1998. Print. Jin, Ha. Waiting. New York: Vintage International, 20001999. Print. Jin, Ha. The bridegroom: stories. New York: Pantheon Books, 2000. Print. Varsava, Jerry A. "An Interview With Ha Jin." Contemporary Literature 51.1 (2010): vi- 26. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2013. 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