Frog was partly inspired by William Faulkner, in which Mo Yan, the author fictionalized his birthplace of Gaomi County in Shandong province as Northeast Gaomi Township. Frog is about Gugu (paternal aunt), the aunt of “Tadpole”, the novel’s narrator that performs various abortions after the implementation of the One Child Policy.
Mo Yan was born in 1955 to a family of farmers. His real name is Guan Moye and writes under the penname Mo Yan. In Chinese, it literally means “Don’t Speak”. Mo Yan’s work often is characterized by a darkly comic, sometimes surreal storytelling style. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 2012. Making him the first resident of mainland China to receive the award.
The path of research for this paper was
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How is Gugu like the Chinese government?
2. What are Gugu’s actions that resemblance that?
To accomplished this, this research dissected Gugu’s life into three major stages (Hogensen 1):
• First stage where audience sees the character “my Aunt”, who begins her medical career as a barefoot doctor and midwife in the countryside
• Second stage where Gugu became an administrator who carries out the family planning policy.
• Third stage where during retirement, Gugu started to repent for taking away the lives of many unborn babies.
According to Yan, “In 1953, Gugu became the first professional midwife in the entire township” (11). Gugu, once reputable and well-known midwife, delivered thousands of children in Gaomi. This happened when it was acceptable for Chinese families to have as many children as they pleased. Gugu joined the Communist Party in 1955, this was also the day that marked her one-thousandth babies delivery. Her modern midwifery skills and method captures the attention and trust for the people of Gaomi. People entrusted Gugu to deliver their babies, because the olden time midwifes practices witchlike child birthing methods. They often use something that is lethal to both the mom and
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Her role changed drastically from revered midwife to hated abortionist. Gugu’s loyalty to the Communist party was proven when she states, “I have been always been a Party member, and I will die a Party member!” (Yan, 58). In addition, Gugu was assisted by her dutiful intern, Little Lion, heartlessly placed the policy in action. They do so by forcing vasectomies, implanted intrauterine devices (IUDs), and late-term abortions on men and women.
According to Yan, “I’ll take a bath and burn incense before delivering babies for those who follow family-planning policy, but I’ll deal mercilessly with those who go beyond one pregnancy-every last one them! She made a chopping gesture” (103). Gugu loyalty to the Communist Party grew intensely when she became the head of the planning committee. She enforced the policies with all her might. People of Gaomi tried to retaliate with her, but each of them failed in their attempts. It was not until several mothers died under Gugu’s care that she lost her zeal in executing the policy and thought of
Today, the availability of birth control is taken for granted. There was a time, not long passed, during which the subject was illegal (“Margaret Sanger,” 2013, p.1). That did not stop the resilient leader of the birth control movement. Margaret Sanger was a nurse and women’s activist. While working as a nurse, Sanger treated many women who had suffered from unsafe abortions or tried to self-induce abortion (p.1). Seeing this devastation and noting that it was mainly low income women suffering from these problems, she was inspired to dedicate her life to educating women on family planning—even though the discussion of which was highly illegal at the time (p.1). She was often in trouble with
Most females are not respected and are heavily pressured by their parents. Many Chinese women are expected to be in arranged marriages and are not respected in their family or the work-place. Woman that aren’t even born yet suffer from infanticide. If the parents came to find that they were having a girl from ultrasound- they would abort that child and try for a boy causing pre-birth ultrasounds to be banned. “Negative social consequences, particularly sex discrimination. With boys being viewed as culturally preferable, the practice of female infanticide was resumed in some areas shortly after the one-child policy took effect.” (Document E) “I hate to say it but the one-child policy should party be blamed for some social issues in youth today.” “She wished she has a brother or sister to share all the attention.” (Document F) This evidence supports the claim that the one-child policy was a bad policy because women have always been culturally no preferable, causing unborn females to be aborted.
‘The Secret Life of Frogs’ is a poem that delves into the childhood perception of war, in particular World War I, and the experiences of their fathers. ‘The Secret Life of Frogs’ deals with the idea of misunderstandings incurred when children attempt to understand adult concepts. This is evident through the use of punning. The term ‘Frog’, which is frequently used throughout the poem adds amusement to the text because to the readers, it not only translates literally to a frog, but also represents the rival French people in the war through a negative light. However, the narrator, who is also one of the children in the poem, does not understand this other meaning attached to the term ‘frog’. This can clearly be seen in the final sentence
To the question “Why the Woman Rebel?” Sanger wrote “Because I believe that deep down in woman’s nature lies slumbering the spirit of revolt” and “Because I believe that through the efforts of individual revolution will woman’s freedom emerge”. Both highlight how birth control was not a mere technique to personal freedom, but an avenue to power. These quotes emphasize Sanger’s belief that the birth control pill would unleash the spirit of freedom amongst women. She did not argue for the open distribution of contraceptive to promote personal freedom. However, she believed that limitation on family size would free women from the dangers of childbearing and give them the opportunity to become active outside the home. In addition, Document 1 acknowledges birth control’s ability to bring about radical social class change. Sanger includes her belief that women are “enslaved by the world machine…middle-class morality”. Her idea of social change not only involved embracing the liberation of woman, but also the working class. It is believed that the birth control campaign succeeded as it became “a movement by and for the middle class”. Birth control provided middle-class women the opportunity to plan families without the stress of balancing growing expenses for a child that was not planned for. In The Woman Rebel Sanger introduces birth control’s larger mission of power and opportunity for women while incorporating the basis of social class.
Margaret Sanger’s hard work to legalize and promote contraception was rooted in her belief that those who were impoverished should not procreate. In her book My Fight for Birth Control, Sanger claims, “I associate poverty, toil, unemployment, drunkenness, cruelty, quarreling, fighting, debts, and jails with large families” (Planned Parenthood). Sanger set out to “sterilize the unfit” and make known methods to control the population (Planned Parenthood). Many of her colleagues were racist and believed contraception should be used for the purpose of maintaining
Many also believed it was the man’s decision as to how many children his wife should have. Sanger continued her quest opening a birth-control clinic in Brooklyn, New York, in 1916; one year later, the authorities arrested her for giving contraceptives to immigrant women (Bowles, 2011). At first glance it appears that Sanger had good intentions. “Others criticized her for involvement with eugenics, which was a scientific movement in which its practitioners advocated the notion that all mental and physical "abnormalities" were linked to hereditary and, with selective breeding, could be eliminated. They questioned whether or not Sanger's insistence on birth control and abortion was in fact a way to limit the growth of ethnic populations” (Bowles, 2011). “Of course, her activism put her directly at odds with law-enforcement officials and the Catholic Church, but little discussed is the actual extent to which her early Marxism guided much of what she managed to achieve. Her good friends included ultra-radicals like John Reed and Emma Goldman, and the truth is that Margaret’s feminism, and her support for eugenic ‘sexual science’, were both simply part-and-parcel of her own unique Marxist vision. Humanitarianism, per se, had little to do with what motivated Margaret Sanger” (Spooner, 2005). Sanger’s actions and motivations are a controversial topic that have been analyzed and debated for years. “According to her New York Times obituary,
For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in
Born to a socialist father who was also an early advocate of women’s suffrage, from him Margaret Sanger inherited her political pluck. This woman spent her life helping women take control of their own bodies and be educated; she is responsible for the plight of women in being able to reversibly prevent pregnancy through the use of a drug she pushed to get created known as “The Pill”. Margaret Sanger was over 80 years old when the first pills became available and by the end of the 1960’s there were many millions of women using the new form of birth control even though the Catholic Church and some states considered it vulgar and obscene and outlawed the use in preventing pregnancy. Ultimately this progressive change in thought and culture to women being able to control their own fertility and therefore be able to work outside the home; this also created a counter culture “sexual revolution” where women felt freer to express their own sexuality without the fear of becoming pregnant – while others saw this a moral decay of individuals and family. Conclusively the majority of people are happy with the results of Margaret Sanger work to provide women with a safe and healthy choice in preventing pregnancy but other are happy that only part of her philosophies were adopted by
Margaret Sanger, a birth control activist, spoke in New York in 1921 about the legalizing birth control to ultimately promote women’s equality. In “The Morality of Birth Control,” Margaret Sanger states that birth control is moral for women to use when they are not able to raise a child of their own. “The Morality of Birth Control” is not persuasive because she strongly opposes rights for people who are part of the lower class, and her use of words that weaken her argument.
Regardless of one’s views on the topic of contraception, Margaret Sanger’s Woman and the New Race helped to break new ground through encouraging women to take control of their bodies. Early in her writing, Sanger brings up overpopulation and how women’s primary role as mothers have contributed to this issue. “While unknowingly laying the foundations of tyrannies and providing the human tinder for racial conflagrations, woman was also unknowingly creating slums, filling asylums with insane, and institutions with other defectives. She was replenishing the ranks of the prostitutes, furnishing grist for the criminal courts and inmates for prisons. Had she planned deliberately to achieve this tragic total of human waste and misery, she could hardly have done it more effectively.” This artfully formed passage shows the passion behind Sanger’s beliefs. While on the surface it may seem that she is attacking women, the point of her idea is to frame the passive nature of women in Western Society up to this point.
Chinese women will take many precautions to protect their unborn and newborn babies from evil spirits. They will never attend a funeral and they will hang certain embellishments to ward of the spirits. A paper cut out of scissors is hung over the bed curtains of a pregnant woman and when a baby is born a special pendant is placed near the baby’s crib in hopes that any evil spirits would be more attracted to the pendant then the baby. Another example of keeping the spirits away is the parents of the child would make “arrows from wood of a peach tree and place near the cradle.” It is considered unlucky to name your child before they are born as well as to celebrate before the baby is born with a baby shower. This is normal for many cultures including some Native American cultures here is America. Though now it is more taboo and people are naming their babies as soon as they know the gender and having showers months before the baby is born to make sure that they are prepared when the baby arrives. When a baby is being born in China it is customary that the mother and mother-in-law of the mother to be, to be present during the delivery but not the father. It is considered terrible luck to be scared of labor as it is considered the woman’s job. After the baby is born the mother is in a “sitting period” for a month. This insures that the mother is completely healed and only has to focus on
“The Party: The Secret World Of China’s Communist Rulers,” by Richard McGregor is a book which provides detailed insight into the Communist Party of China, revealing many of the secret underpinnings of how the party is run, and explores the question of how they have continued to stay in power for so long. While other strong socialist powers, such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Germany, fell at the end of the 20th century, the CPC was able to stay in control and ultimately come out of that period even stronger. In McGregor’s own words “the party picked itself up off the ground, reconstituted its armor and reinforced its flank. Somehow, it has outlasted, outsmarted, outperformed, or simply outlawed its critics, flummoxing the pundits who have predicted its demise at numerous junctures.” Instead of letting its own ideologies weaken its power, the CPC has continually adapted and transformed its policies and goals in order to maintain their stronghold over the nation. Through his impressive list of Chinese scholars and political contacts, McGregor is able to lay out the fundamental workings inside the Chinese government and the impressive actions they’ve taken to remain such a powerful organization.
Also comparative to Nineteen Eighty-Four, sex is debilitated. This is effortless to achieve in the Community in The Giver due to the pill, but there still remains the need for propagation. This is dealt with by making the profession of some women Birthmothers; their job is to give birth to three children. This occupation is viewed as a proletariat job, this is indicated when Jonas's mother replies to Lily’s (Jonas’s younger sister) intrigued remark of becoming one, “Lily... don't say that. There's very little honor in that assignment.” By giving this pill and the task of being Birthmother to some women, the Community is sustained enough to fully eradicate sex.
From the beginning of recorded history, there has been a variety of traditions to help enter the baby into the family. Some traditions have a negative effect, while some have a positive effect. Some countries have important traditions, that have a major effect on the people, and some countries do not have very important ones. China, in this case, has a tradition that has been followed for plenty of years. This tradition is that the husband takes the pregnant wife, and walks on coals before the pregnancy. People say that the act of this tradition was being done because of confidence for the women’s pregnancy.The `myth of this tradition is that if the husband walks the wife over the coals, the pregnancy will be successful. The practice of carrying a pregnant woman over coals in China has a negative impact on the community because it leads to pain and suffering, causes financial losses for medical services, and it results in negative limitations for the wife during her pregnancy.
The people’s lack of morals led to an even more severe issue, a severe decline in population because of urbanization and industrialization that was under way (L.C). To ensure the economy’s increase, industrialization and a plentiful population, he decided the only way was to implement an anti-abortion policy. The policy was introduced in 1966 with the description of “ … prohibited abortion on demand” (Bachman). This decree also included the introduction of other pronatalist acts that would increase births. The decree outlined several requirements that must be followed: