From “Life and Death in Shanghai” by Nien Cheng
“The best way for me to snap out of fear was always to take the initiative in doing something positive.” (113)
“To have made plans and thought of some way to overcome difficulty gave me a new lease on life.” (121)
Word Count: 301
I felt that these two quotes very much tied into the message of the excerpt that the author was trying to portray. Throughout her whole story, she was verbally and physically abused by the prison guards telling her to confess to something that she did not do wrong. These actions did not break her fighting spirit and she stayed strong throughout her whole imprisonment despite the immense amount of pain that she was in. She took the route of looking at life through a positive lens and did not give up which made her not afraid and overcome her difficulties. I thought that it was interesting how she mentioned that when she was growing up, she was taught to not show any sign of emotion because it showed a sign of weakness. When the kitchen lady gave her the advice to cry to them about how much pain she was in and she did not take it, it ended up working in her favor. There were plenty of opportunities that she could have confessed and given up entirely, but she stayed strong in her morals. I think her not giving up and putting herself through torture it showed how strong she was as a person and how disciplined she was. I thought it was interesting how important it was for her not to die without confessing to what they thought she did because they did not want her to die with her “getting away with it.”
The quotes you used are very great examples of how mature she was for her time when she had been neglected and pushed away so many times. She seemed to had to grow up at a much younger age than most other kids, in which she didn't get the emotional support she needed, which defiantly creates a hard shell on the exterior. As you said, this ends up working out in her favor as all the things she had been through made her stronger.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said in this blog. I believe Nien was one of the toughest warriors I have ever read about and I love how you tied her morals into this response because it goes to show how internally tough she really was. Experiencing everything she experienced within that jail was traumatizing enough and I think she came out of there and wrote about it 13 years later as tough as ever. I only aspire to be a fraction of how strong she is. I really liked how much thought and preserver you put into this blog post and I agree with you on everything. Reading about your perspective was very interesting!
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