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Chapter 16: The Incriminating Letter
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
Kneeling on a broken bamboo stool, Ji-li anxiously watches Grandma sweeping the street. She wishes Grandma could sweep faster. Although everyone knows about the family’s disgrace, she still hates it when they stop to stare. Even though it’s been a few weeks since the raid, Ji-li still hasn’t gotten used to the state of their home. The family sleeps on straw mats. They use an abandoned crate that Ji-yong found in the street as a dresser and a second crate as a table. Mom continues to suffer vertigo attacks.
The narrative has strongly implied that people like Thin-Face and Yang Fan or Yin Lan-lan attacked Ji-li’s family because they envied the Jiangs’ comparative wealth and success—remember how Ji-li described her family’s apartment at the beginning, with a focus on its luxurious fully-appointed bathroom in a time when many homes didn’t even have a toilet. Now, all that relative privilege and status have evaporated, and the family lives like their poorest neighbors.
Themes
Life has become harder than Ji-li could ever have imagined, both physically and emotionally. She must manage the family’s limited financial resources, take care of Mom’s ailing health, and bear the gossip of neighbors. And she must face her fears about the future. She worries that Grandma will be sent to the countryside for reeducation by physical labor. She worries that Mom will be detained for trying to help Dad. She worries that Dad will be beaten to death, that Ji-yong’s temper will get him in trouble, and that Ji-yun will lose all hope and happiness. Worst of all, she worries that she ruined everyone’s lives permanently by not hiding the letter well enough.
Ji-li now knows that her society will not reward her hard work with success; in fact, success seems to attract jealousy and persecution. Yet she works harder than ever before, demonstrating her own strength of character. No matter how hard the world around her tried to break her or tried to make her conform, she stuck to her own principles in the face of persecution and violence. And she does so still, despite her paralyzing fears about the future.
Themes
At first, Ji-li thought about running away and joining a reeducation troupe. She thought about taking her own life. But Mom put a stop to that a few days after the raid when she made Ji-li promise to take good care of Ji-yong and Ji-yun. Ji-li promises, and as soon as the words leave her mouth, she realizes that her actions have been making the same promise for months. She made it when she waited at the park with Grandma. She made it when she refused to testify against Dad. She made it when she hid the letter. Outside, Grandma stretches her back. Ji-li ducks her head behind the curtain. She knows that once Grandma kept an eye on her through the same window as she walked to and from school. Now the roles are reversed, and she keeps an eye on Grandma.
At first, in the wake of all her losses, Ji-li doesn’t know what she has left to live for. But Mom’s request reminds her that she hasn’t lost the one thing that truly matters: her family. No one blames her for the letter. Her family loves her no matter what. And they need her, just like she needs them. As she focuses on her family, she looks back and discerns the pattern of love and loyalty which readers have already seen. Ji-li’s family always mattered more to her than Party conformity, even when she didn’t realize it.
Themes
Ji-li considers how, once upon a time, her goals defined her life. She wanted to be the class chairman, to participate in the exhibit, and to become a Red Guard. Now she defines her life by her responsibilities to her family and herself. She vows that she will not give up or withdraw. Taking a deep breath, she renews her promise to take care of her family for yet another day.
Ji-li’s sense of her responsibilities and goals has changed, but her drive to succeed has not. When she vows that she will neither give up nor withdraw, she alludes to the language of Party slogans—once, Chang Hong used similar language to encourage her classmates to work through the night on their revolutionary poster project. But, having learned the price—and ultimate emptiness—of Party conformity, she now makes this vow towards those who deserve her love and loyalty: her family.
Themes
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