The Ultimate Fulfillment in Man's Fate by Andre Malraux Essay

People were so obsessed with proving their dedication to Mao that they lost sight of how irrationally they were acting. The author of The Mao Button uses extreme hyperbole to satirize this personality worship. The entire country of China lived with a deep-seated fear that their dedication to the Chairman would be called into question, and they would not be able to prove themselves - and thus would face ridicule, or the even punishment. Indeed, a mere lapel pin was enough by which to judge someone’s patriotism.

What is the idea of destiny in today’s society? How does it compare to Ancient Greece Society? Today, it can be seen as a minor thing, and people don’t think about it. In Ancient Greece, destiny was seen as a major part of their lives, and they even go to great lengths to fulfill their destiny the gods have set. In Sophocles’ work, Oedipus Rex is described as a loyal king, helping the people of Thebes, but once he loses track of his mission, his arrogance to follow the will of fate brings his downfall.

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

Many of us are very family oriented and believe that family should always be present in our life no matter what do in life. While some of us feel that, our desire is worth more important than family due to the lack of communication with family members. In the “Achievement of Desire” by Richard Rodriguez, Rodriguez recalls some of the difficulties he had at a young age, which was balancing his life academically and practicing the Mexican traditions. His desire was more important to him than his family because communication with his family was not as strong as before when he began to get more involved in his education, which separates him from his family mentally and physically.

To fully comprehend a work you cannot just read it. You must read it, analyze it, question it, and even then question what you are questioning. In Richard Rodriguez’s The Achievement of Desire we are presented with a young Richard Rodriguez and follow him from the start of his education until he is an adult finally having reached his goals. In reference to the way he reads for the majority of his education, it can be said he reads going with the grain, while he reads a large volume of books, the quality of his reading is lacking.

Even with her previous experiences at Beijing University and at Big Joy Farm, Wong still held some belief that the Chinese system wasn’t as bad as it was sometimes made out to be. This event proved to her that it was. “The enormity of the massacre hit home…Although it had been years since I was a Maoist, I still had harbored some small hope for China. Now even that was gone” (259). As a reporter Wong was able to view the progression of the protests in leading up to the massacre, and in viewing it understood that the Chinese people were much more independent than they had previously demonstrated over the past 50 years. She had continuously seen the Chinese people following what they were told between learning in school or with physical labor, yet this protest was one of the first large scale displays of the unacceptance of the regime by the people, and the government did not know what to do with it. But because of this, Wong was able to recognize that the people were not reliant on this way of life that they had previously been bound to, but truly could lead for themselves and take control. The massacre awakened Wong both to the reality that the government was not acting to benefit the people, and that the people were more than capable of acting for

Originally, Liang’s “parents were deeply involved in all the excitement of working to transform China into a great Socialist country” (4). Over a serious of unfortunate events, though, he became the child of a “Rightist’s cap” mother and a “Reactionary Capitalist stinking intellectuals” father (9, 51). Impacted by the shattering of his family and horrific bloodshed created by fighting, Liang Heng began to question the Cultural Revolution. He claimed that his “family had scarified so much… but it had given [them] nothing in return” (148). Liang Heng presents his shift in ideology to demonstrate that most Chinese were no longer in support of a Communist nation. His “troubles were common enough and anyone could see there was a discrepancy between the glorious words of the newspapers and [their] painful reality (232). Even Liang Heng’s father, after many years of devotion, found that he could no longer defend the Party’s policies after he experienced the ill-treatment of the peasants in the country

Throughout history, every country had a body of government. Some strived and some opposed, in which only the people that were under their rule would be effected. The way I see it, Freedom to do what you want and living under the government’s care is hard to keep in balance. My question is would having absolute freedom be appropriate for people, is having the right to freely to pursue life’s goal without government interference important? Or would having your government guarantee that nobody is in need preferable? For example health care or unemployment or even education. This is all opinion based and there are many pros and cons to these situations but personally, I’d rather have the government having my back. Aiding me with education, helping me look for a job when I lost one and paying for my medical expensive definitely helps the individual.

The most critical character in the entire novel is the antagonist Anton Chigurh: a psychopathic hit-man who kills almost everyone he meets. Chigurh is completely eccentric and strictly abides to a moral code; he believes that he is an agent of fate, and that each and every choice we make determines our fate, no matter how small. This moral code is demonstrated in each of Chigurh’s interactions with the other characters. Throughout the novel it is not known if fate is necessarily either good or bad but it does not really matter because in the end the inevitable is going to happen. In this novel, McCarthy suggests that regardless of what path we choose, life will always end in death. Chigurh embodies this philosophy and throughout the novel he consistently serves as a reminder

When Kang first heard about the Han nationalism that excluded all the non-Han Chinese, he could not understand the logic behind it. In order to rebut the revolutionaries, he wrote a long article to the Chinese Business Association in America to explain the ideas of ethnic sovereignty and cultural attitude. In this article, he had three major points about the Chinese identity. First, Kang felt that promoting Han nationalism was “the weirdest thing in the world” because the Manchus and Han had already formed “a nation for more than 200 years.” Kang said that the Qing Dynasty did not discriminate against the Han people and allowed them to work in the government. He thought that almost nobody had questioned the authority of the Qing Dynasty in the past 200 years. Second, Kang then argued that if the revolutionaries used ethnicity or race to define China or Chinese nationalism, there would be no real Chinese since in history the Han Chinese had many intermarriages with different ethnic groups. In the Spring and Autumn period, Confucius had already used culture to define Chinese identity and Kang believed that most Chinese intellectuals accepted this standard. Kang cited many historical events from the Era of Disunity and claimed how culture could unify different ethnic groups in China. Therefore, Kang promoted his Confucianism which ruled that if one practiced Confucianism, he or she was Chinese. He believed that as long as minority groups such as the Manchus accepted

Zhang Yimou’s To Live is a powerful indictment of communist authoritarian rule and blind patriotism. The film places the viewer in the position of an insider as the Communist Revolution alters the political and social landscape of China. By using dramatic irony, Zhang Yimou appraises communist collectivist culture, class structure and power in revolutionary China, and the Cultural Revolution. In addition, by using shadow puppetry as a symbol of indoctrination, Zhang Yimou examines the link between political change, personal tragedy, and bureaucratic incompetence.

During the second half of the twentieth century, many citizens in China fell victim to economic and social hardships as a consequence of the Great Leap Forward. As a result, Mao Zedong was marginalized and new power arose. However, fearing that traditional chinese culture and “ bourgeois ideology” were at risk of recurrence, Mao established the Cultural Revolution as his final attempt at abolishing his concerns. The Cultural Revolution brought about many young, loyal Maoists ready to risk it all in order to establish a new regime that rid chinese society of what Mao believed to be impurities. Among these revolutionaries included Red Guards and some members of the sent-down youth. In the memoirs, Call Me Qingnian but Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect and Images, Memories, and Lives of Sent-Down Youth in Yunnan, it is expressed that the Cultural Revolution greatly affected the lives of the revolutionaries, and although both stories entail different circumstances, the Red Guards and sent-down youth experienced both different and similar feelings of optimism as well as concern and apprehension for the future during a critical time in both chinese history and their personal lives.

Life was not idle in China as everyone had something to do. Based on Confucian values, groups and classes respected each other and their work knowing the value of each. Chiang's father further demonstrated this by being an "honest and generous man, respected by the people of the village in particular and surrounding districts generally" (Chiang 29). By giving honor and reverence to others, Chiang's father in turn received such respect. His benevolence was noticed by the community and thus treated him in a higher light. However, relation with other classes was not always bright, especially in other nations. Chiang describes his encounters in America as he says "California was not so hospitable a land socially for the Chinese as to make on feel congenial or at ease" (Chiang 68). Regardless of being part of the elite class, he was not always treated with the utmost status. Skin color and national origin created barriers between individuals and societies in general. Chinese elite's relations with the other classes embodied more than the typical notion of master and servant. Individuals were respected for their own work and valued for what they brought to China.

In addition, Chueh-hsin hoped that despite his arranged marriage he would at least be able to finish his education and become a high-ranking official as was hoped for him by his mother, of which he only had his tragic memories. Instead, he is removed from school and forced to enter the workforce in order to provide for his family and younger brothers, as dictated by the Confucian values of filial piety.

To what extend the need of being perfect leads man to its own destruction? Perfection seen through the film “The Black Swan”.