To Live By Yu Hua Analysis

Throughout To Live by Yu Hua, there is a metaphor between the disease of Jiazhen and communism’s suppressive force. The author also creates a contradiction. This contradiction occurs because Yu Hua creates instances where the communist government is helpful to the lives of the people, but also creates instances where the communist government is not helpful and damages the lives of its people, like when Chunsheng is brutally beaten by servants of the government. Both of these literary techniques are then used to show the author’s mixed feelings toward the communist government. By characterizing Jiazhen as a sickly women confined by her disease, Yu Hua creates an extended metaphor that relates Jiazhen’s disease suppressing her ability to communism’s …show more content…
Yu uses these two ideas as a criticism of communist China, disparaging the supreme power of the government. The disease had the ability to take everything from Jiazhen and just like this, the communist government has the power to take everything from its people, just like how it took away everything that Chunsheng had including his life. However, Yu also portrays the communist government in a benevolent manner. This can be seen through the fact that the communist government takes away the traditional responsibilities of people. For example, Fugui cooks for his wife. This directly connects to how communist china ends these traditions. This contradiction is used again to show the author's belief about the role of the government. Also, Fugui also believes that the communist government helped him in his time of need. This was when Fugui was becoming older and he could notn perform everything that he needed to on the farm. The combined work of everyone allowed Fugui to still eat even though he was not putting in as much work as everyone else. The communist government allows him to do this. This contradiction that the author creates allows him to express his true ideas of the communist