Saboteur

ENGL 1302 Professor Hutchison 22 December 2010 Saboteur The writer of this story is trying to point out that even though the Cultural Revolution is over not everyone is following the new rules. Thus the railroad police throw a tea pot and accuse Mr. Chiu of the crime and than lock him away. Mr. Chiu is a reasonable man but when an injustice is done to him he wants revenge. No matter whom you are when wronged you want to get even, no matter how it happens or who gets hurt. Mr. Chiu is just leaving to go back home after a two week honeymoon with his new bride. There is a foul smell in the air along with flies buzzing around them as they ate ”few flies buzzing above”(173)He is portrayed as a reasonable and intelligent man, but when the police take him to jail Mr. Chiu gets angry because of the injustice. ”I’m a scholar, a philosopher, and an expert in dialectical materialism”(176) Before he was thrown into jail he was on the road to recovery after fighting acute hepatitis. The prison has no medical personal there to give him medicine to keep him for getting worse. “I may die here if you keep me like this without medication…”(177) The narrator makes you feel compassion for Mr. Chiu because he is sick and has been wronged. Mr. Chiu is now enraged by the lack of care since he has not done anything wrong. ”Anger was flaming…”(179) His wife sends someone to get him the following day but the police have handcuff the young man, Fenjin a lawyer, to a tree in the yard and abused him. “…His wrists handcuffed behind him around a truck…”(177) ”…Slapped the lawyer across the face…”(178) This angers Mr. Chiu even more since Fenjin has also done nothing wrong. Mr. Chiu signs the confession that he is a saboteur to get Fenjin and he released. After being released Mr. Chiu goes to many restaurants with the intent to infect as many people as possible with acute hepatitis because of the injustice done to him and his lawyer. “If only I could kill all the bastards!”(179) Over the course of time, his anger and bitterness caused him to spread the disease to over 800 people, six of which were killed from his disease. “Six died of the disease, including two children.” (180)Revenge and anger took over his emotions and caused him to do things out of the ordinary for someone like him. By the end of the story Mr. Chiu has made himself a saboteur. Events like this cause people to do things that they would normally not do. The irony is that he claimed to not be a saboteur but in the end he ended up being one because he could no just do nothing about what had happened. Anger drives people. Words:466