World Literature Questions: The Censors, Dead Mans Path,Train from Rhodesia, Ocean of words - Essay Example

The Censors” The short novel “The Censors” by Luisa Valenzuela is a modern story in which the successfully used various methods to createsuspense. From the very first line of the story, reader’s mind is searching for answers to so many questions. The author skips the formal introduction and goes right into expressing the pity for Juan – “Poor Juan!” Then it is shown that something terrible had happened to poor lad, even grievous; he made a mistake, yet it was not a mistake. Who is Marianna and why her address is such a secret thing that it may only come from the trusted sources, even though later on it is mentioned she lives in simple neighborhood somewhere in Paris, where she is finally feel safe. “Finally?” What does the author mean by that? What had happened to Mariana before that she was dreaming about being safe? The author never describes her or her life, she is a mystery. Yet, she is obviously a very dear for main character, so much so that in order to have a chance to correspond with her Juan gets the job at the sensors office. Then the author drops a clue - the letter. The letter. It is not just any letter; there is something special about it. But what is it? The reader does not have an answer. There are some details provided about it – that the content I harmless. However, Juan is still being worried about consequences it might have. If not because of the content, how can someone be in jeopardy because of the letter, once it will go through sensors? Juan is trying to retrieve his letter. Why? The whole sensors office described as a monstrous machine, operated by heartless people. The office itself is huge – festive looking on the outside, but very stern looking inside; all sorts of tests are performed over each letter, including the test for explosives; after all is done, not many letters continue on their way to the recipients; every letter put both a sender and a receiver in jeopardy… So many questions are in reader’s mind. Some are being answered, but many are left unanswered and up to the reader to come up with the explanation. After starting off with telling the reader how worried Juan is, the author goes into telling that, while trying to retrieve the letter he does not worry any more. Then a short and terrible explanation comes – it is because Juan was sent to Section K where letter were scanned for explosives. 2. Dead Man’s Path For the setting of this short story author gives the details of the time it is taking place in, and then goes more extensively in telling about main character, Obi. He tells us about his aspirations and enthusiasm, his idealistic and modernistic approaches to education. He was a young and progressive headmaster, appointed to the very unprogressive school. However, in his zeal to make everything perfect before an inspector arrival and to achieve his main two goals – that is of keeping high standard of teaching as well as turning the school compound “into a place beauty” – he neglects to recognize his own and the villagers’ culture differences and the need to respect this difference. The incidents like this happen in life more often than not – good intentions lead to bad result of actions. That is the main theme of the story – cultural conflict, the “battle between new and old ways”. Obi is taking action to improve school ground and get rid of the “superstitious” ways of villagers. Other teachers may not understand why the path is so important to villagers; however they do respect their traditions and do not oppose it. Yet, Obi has his own definition of improvement and wants to do it “his way”, not being bogged down and respectful of the culture of the people he came to live with. He closes the path and is very blunt and sarcastic about it when talking with priest, who asked Obi not to be an obstacle for villagers. Villagers suffered consequences of his action – whether the incident of a woman dying in the childbed was connected to the closure of the path or if it just coincided is not up to us to debate. Villagers viewed it as closely related. The result is that in the few days Obi woke up in the morning “among the ruins of his work”. That was also the day when the inspector came and wrote a report about terrible condition of the school but more seriously about “tribal-war situation developing between the school and the village” that was cause by headmaster’s zeal. The inspector called it “misguided”, which is correct to a big extend. Having the path going through the school ground is the minor detail that can be easily ignored, or even considered as an advantage to teaching children respect and tolerance. The end of the story has the similar setting as the beginning - ruined school compound, and schools’ headmaster wondering what to do next. 3. “Train from Rhodesia” The “Train from Rhodesia” describes the arrival of the train from Rhodesia to a poor train station. It seems, the life of the people living in this village and very paced and slow moving. There are animals, children playing, people doing their choirs. Nothing disturbs their life except for the excitement of the train arriving to the station. “I am coming! I am coming”. It is a thrilling occasion and villagers are gathered in hopes to make some bargains. People on the train are rich. They can afford buying even something costlier. For the villagers it would mean a lot, while for the passers-by from the train it could be just in jest. Such was an occasion of young man buying a crafted lion for his wife. She liked the lion, but thought it is too expensive to buy. Her husband, despite her attempts to stop him, kept on arguing with the old man who was selling the lion to the point the he bought the lion for the third of the price and at the time the train was already departing. The old man had to run after the train to get the miserable pay. The young woman was very upset that her husband bought the lion. What upset her most was his disregard for human decency and dignity: he was bargaining only for fun, he didn’t really need to buy the thing; he blatantly ripped the old man off. On the other hand, for the poor native old man, the lion was a prized possession; selling it meant making some livelihood. What can be the solution of the situation? Whatever is done – is done. The train cannot go be stopped and the time cannot go back. Some deeds cannot be undone. The only right solution for the situation would have been for the husband to listen to the wife when she was reasoning with him and urging him not to buy the lion. The wife felt deep sorrow, remorse, loneliness and emptiness. She felt misunderstood. Besides not caring enough and not trying to relate to poor old man, the husband also did not care for his wife: it is not to make his wife happy that the husband was bargaining for the lion for. He was doing it because of his pride. From now on the lion would always be reminding both the husband and the wife about this incident. We can only hope that with time the pain will be forgotten and the husband will be forgiven so the wife would not feel so disillusioned any more. 4. In the book “Ocean of words” Ha Jin excellently depicts Communist ideology: in the core of it is hidden pursuit to wipe away everyone who has any knowledge. Communists needed obedient and thoughtless mob that will be simply executing all the orders of the leaders. Marx, Lenin and Mao were very educated people, however some people had a philosophy that educated individuals will pose a threat to the revolution, that they cannot be as faithful to the Revolution as proletariats. That was the main reason why Zhou Wen was treated by Chief Huang and comrades in such manner. “This is not college. If you want to be college student, you’d better go home first.” In other words that meant: “We don’t need smart people here. We will think for you. All you need is to be an obedient fool.” That was one of the reasons why Communist didn’t have success. It is easy to make a revolution with guns, to destroy something. It is much harder to create something that will work. That is why Director Liang and his wife really wanted to help Zhou. Though Old Liang was on-fire revolutionist and he could not read himself, life taught him the tragic lesson about importance of knowledge for the Revolution. How he would like that his youngest son Liang Bin would have such aspiration for studying as Zhou had! “Zhou Wen read “The three Kingdoms” under the road lamp. You have everything here, your own lamp, your own books, your own desk, and your own room. What you lack is your own strong will.” The director believed that when the time will come, and it will be very important, the educated will trait the Revolution. When these two ideological philosophies met in conflict, Director Liang stood up for Zhou calling to Secretary Si Ma and emotionally explaining why it is good that such a brilliant student as Zhou has Party membership. He even quoted Chairman Mao: “The Gun and the Pen, we depend on both of them to make revolution and cannot afford to lose either.” Unlike many true stories, this conflict was resolved positively for the educated individual. Old Liang used his authority to convince Secretary Si Ma to make Zhou a member of Communist Party and young guy in gratitude to his elder friend gave him “Ocean of words” dictionary which was priceless for Zhou; he also promised to his friend to study well to be useful for the Party. It looks like that the author Ha Jin wants to believe that from this moment Communist leaders will turn their faces toward the educated. Read More