Red Azalea essays

Red Azalea essays The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the book "Red Azalea: Life and Love in China," by Anchee Min. Specifically, it will describe life in Communist China during the Cultural Revolution (late 1960s) for a young woman, and comment on the degree of independence-choice enjoyed by women in the book. The women living in China during the Cultural Revolution did not enjoy independence or choice they lived in fear and under constant scrutiny of the Communist Party. Anchee Min's book "Red Azalea" is a touching story of a young girl growing up under Communist rule in China. She had a difficult life, and although women took part in the Cultural Revolution and were an important part of it, women and all Chinese were not independent or free during this time, they lived under the watchful eye of the Communist Party. Most of what they did was not of their own free will, but chosen for them by the Party. Min says she was a grownup by the age of five, and she certainly had no choice about it it was expected of all the children, as she writes here: "I was an adult since the age of five. That was nothing unusual" (Min 4). She has to act as an adult because her parents, and everyone's parents, were busy working for the Revolution, and they had no choice either, because they would have been sent away, or even killed if they did not support the Communist Party and their Revolution. It is very clear that Min and her family did not enjoy the freedom and independence we enjoy here in America. At one point in the book, she is forced to speak out against her favorite teacher, Autumn Leaves, by the Party, and she does it because she is so afraid of them. I did not know why I was crying. I heard myself calling for my parents as I took the microphone. I said Mama, Papa, where are you? The crowd waved their angry fists at me and shouted, Down! Down! I was so sca ...