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Chapter 11: Locked Up
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Red Scarf Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Loyalty
Class, Power, and Justice
The Power of Propaganda
Identity and Individualism
Hard Work and Success
Summary
Analysis
With Dad gone, Mom ill with vertigo, and Grandma sick with worry, Ji-li stays home from school to help. She takes on new responsibilities like sewing clothes for the family, since they have only Mom’s meager wages while Dad is detained. She’s finishing a jacket for Ji-yun one evening when Sun Lin-lin calls her from the street below. Entering the apartment, Lin-lin explains that Teacher Zhang asked her to bring Ji-li her homework and a message about attending a meeting after school on the following day. The meeting, run by Red Guards and Revolutionary Committee members, is already underway when Ji-li arrives. She learns that she has been hand-selected by her teachers to participate in an exhibition exploring the evils of class enemies.
Although the agents of the Cultural Revolution target Ji-li and her family for their allegedly black class status, Ji-li’s actions show her revolutionary spirit. Without any hesitation, she throws her full effort into helping her family, even at the expense of the education she values so highly. The contrast between her willingness to work hard and the charges of bourgeois exploitation she and her family face gesture toward the ideological emptiness of the Cultural Revolution. Yet again, the book suggests that the Party actually prizes conformity and power more than alleged ideals.
Themes
Thinking there must have been a mistake—she assumes her teachers know her class status, even if her peers don’t—Ji-li hurries to talk to Teacher Zhang. Delicately, she suggests that she might not be the best person to participate in the exhibition. After a pause, he tells her that, while no one can choose their family or their class status, everyone can choose their future. He believes that she remains an “educable child”—someone who has the self-esteem and bravery to overcome her family background. Overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunity, Ji-li heads home vowing to overcome her difficulties and make her own bright future.
Despite her black class status, Ji-li has been invited to participate in an exhibition disparaging people like her ancestors. Teacher Zhang’s words imply that this isn’t a mistake, but a conscious choice to allow her to prove her revolutionary spirit. Since she was first persecuted by Du Hai, Ji-li has longed for a way to do this. But readers should be wary of sharing her hopefulness; events thus far tend to suggest that a person declared a class enemy remains a class enemy in perpetuity.
Themes
Ji-li and her classmates throw themselves into preparations for the exhibition, which entail many meetings and long hours after school. Ji-li, Chang Hong, and their partners Fang Fang and a girl nicknamed “Ducky” decided to make a three-dimensional portrait of Chairman Mao using tiny millet seeds. Several hours into the project, Ji-li realizes they will have to work through the night to get it done in time. Chang Hong suggests they take a break, noting that if they just march resolutely along, they will eventually succeed. While she’s out of the room, making tea, the boys—including Bai Shan—finish their project, a Chinese ink painting. After they leave, the girls admire their work. Ducky teases Ji-li about having a crush on Bai Shan—at least until Chang Hong returns. Although they’re both Red Guards, Hong has been critical of Shan since he asked to go home for self-study.
As Chang Hong points out, the work that the girls put into their contributions for the exhibition are, indeed, an excellent chance to show their revolutionary spirit—in this case, their personal devotion to Chairman Mao. Ji-li remains cautious around Chang Hong, whose membership in the Red Guard indicates her own impeccably red credentials. Ji-li cannot forget the persecution she suffered from red classmates in the past. Beneath her revolutionary fervor, however, Chang Hong is a deeply kind and humane person, and her actions consistently show respect toward the people around her, even the ones with whom she might disagree.
Themes
Long after 3:00 a.m., the poster is still not done. Fang Fang and Ducky sleep with their heads on the desks while Ji-li and Hong soldier on. Ji-li worries about Dad. The family knows that he has refused to confess despite being the subject of several struggle meetings. Then, Hong breaks the silence by quietly admitting her feelings of jealousy for Ji-li’s intelligence and talent. Stunned, Ji-li replies that she envies Hong’s good family and class status. Hong lowers her eyes and explains that her life isn’t perfect, either. Her seven-year-old brother, whom she adores, has severe epilepsy. The family worries he won’t live long. Ji-li asks why Hong doesn’t stay home with him more, and Hong says that she can’t allow “personal matters to interfere with [her] revolutionary duties.” For the moment, Ji-li forgets her distrust of Hong, and they talk like friends until the sun comes up.
Despite their class differences, Chang Hong and Ji-li find space to cultivate friendship in their shared sense of revolutionary spirit and work ethic. Although most of the revolutionaries portrayed in the book misuse their power and authority, Hong’s example suggests that a person can agree with Party ideology without abusing his or her power. She encourages those around her rather than tearing them down. The introduction of her brother suggests that even in red families, the Cultural Revolution places immense pressure on familial bonds. Hong perceives her service to the causes of the Chinese Communist Party as more important than her family ties, although her clear love of her brother and her downcast eyes hint that she doesn’t find this choice easy.
Themes
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