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Gugu Like The Chinese Government In Mo Yan's Frog

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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