Commune Leaders and Mortality during the Great Leap Forward
The novel, Dreams of Joy, by Lisa See, takes place in China during the Great Leap Forward, and describes the famine that took place as a result. In the article, Agency and Famine in China’s Sichuan Province, 1958-1962, Chris Bramall analyzes factors that may have caused the varying death rate in communes, and found “differences in local cadre responses to central government policy were decisive in determining the scale of famine.” (Bramall 990). When compared, See’s novel and Bramall’s article reveal that the commune leaders could have spared a number of lives during this time.…