Grass Soup and Food Division
Zhang's attitude towards splitting up food rations at the reform camp suggests he has not been completely broken down and reformed by The Party. The significance of the dividing of foods illustrates his remaining integrity and emotions that the hunger has affected, but not removed. "Unfortunately, no matter what group I was assigned to, the others always trusted me" (164). Being trusted usually is a positive sign of your character, but Zhang feels it is an unfair burden and responsibility that he would rather not have dealt with. The fact that the other convicts trusted him indicates the fact that he was a cerebral convict who had some integrity left. In this way Zhang is not as reformed as his fellow intellectuals because the other small workers are quick to criticize others, especially other intellectuals - a form of betrayal. Their betrayal displays the self centered attitude that makes others doubt that particular convict would be fair in the partition. Zhang is more unwilling to turn people in and overanalyze what others say so that he can seem better in the authorities' eyes. Only when he is asked specifically about Babylon does Zhang reveal something negative about him, yet even th
They see their homes as sources of food, not as their source of humanity and love. The lack of displays of affection for family members or loved ones exhibits the state of disrepair the sentiments of these convicts were in. The care with which they attend to the discussion and creation of measuring tools indicates that their passion though not directed at amorous affairs or cozy homes, is alive and channeled through their hunger into inventiveness in the division of food. The convicts in the camp do not seem completely void of emotions. On the other hand, negative emotions are also reached when dealing with the partition of food. Bibliography Grass Soup by Zhang Xianliang. "I silently pick up the pile of cucumbers remaining on the ground, one by one, and when I eat them the flavour is often mixed with my tears" (161). en he withholds comments that would have surely been used against Mr. He cries not thinking of his mother or the outside world. "Seeing it, one could believe that these men, scraped clean of everything including freedom, could have made an aeroplane with their own bare hands" (165). One of the few times Zhang shows any sign of outward emotion is in dealing with the division of the food. The convicts proudly create works of art with their hands when fashioning tools used for measuring food. The only way these men and women feel anything is if food is involved. Criminal convicts cannot participate in the partitioning of food, because they would undoubtedly cheat others out of their food. Convicts cannot trust criminal convicts either because it is obvious they are not worthy of anyone's trust and would partition the food completely unequally without fear of retribution.
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