Chapter Summary And Symbolism In Peter Hessler's River Town

In the novel, River Town, Peter Hessler writes about his time teaching English and American Literature in Fuling, China. Hessler came about this opportunity by volunteering in the Peace Corps. Hessler taught classes in writing and speaking, but most of his time was devoted to teaching literature to third-year students. Throughout the book, Hessler also describes his time in Fuling. His intensive detail about the small fishing villages in the mountain, the housing situation the students have on the college campus, and the culture shock that he goes through while living in a town that hasn’t seen an outsider in years. Hessler describes the students and the people’s regime as they go throughout the day. He talk about how the boats always leave at a certain time and come back, the town is active at the same parts of the day and quiets down at the same time, and he talks about how the students follow a strict schedule... “Everything followed a strict timetable. There was the morning routine- the exercises, the bells, the classes- and often in the afternoons there was the whisk of brooms as the students did their mandatory campus cleaning. On …show more content…
Hessler does a great job about analyzing how the students think by using the students journals to show the differences between Americans and Chinese people. Within the first few chapters of River Town, he describes how the students view Americans much differently. In one part of the book, Hessler’s friend and coworker, Adam, compliments a chinese student on her freckles. Usually, a girl or anyone would probably be a bit bashful, but would take the compliment because here in America, freckles are considered to be cute. However, the student acted embarrassed and did not say anything. Adam read in one of his students journal entries, “We chinese have our own taboos. We never make frivolous remarks about people’s appearance. (Hessler, pg