Son of the Revolution essays

Son of the Revolution essays The struggles that Liang Heng went through in the story Son of the Revolution during the reign of Mao are an incredible story of loyalty towards political Party versus family. You can slowly see how Liang Hengs absolute loyalty towards Socialism is slowly swayed through personal trauma and strife as he slowly starts to disregard what the Party says and puts him and his family first. During the time of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, the party urged the masses to speak out and criticize the Partys shortcomings. Liang Hengs mother was originally skeptical about speaking out but after the urging of her superiors, she decided to speak out to please the Party. She said that her Section Head sometimes used crude language and liked to criticize people, that he should give his housekeeper a bed to sleep on instead of making her sleep on the floor, and that sometimes when it came time to give raises, the leaders didnt lead to the masses opinion (page 8). The Hundred Flower Movement then suddenly switched to the Anti-Rightist Movement in which every unit was given quota to find a certain number of rightists to meet and Liang Hengs mother name was a part of her unit quota, she later found out this label was attached to her because of what she had written in The Hundred Flower Campaign. She was sent away for labor reform which was the first division of his family. This incident not on labeled Lings mother as a rightist but his entire family. Liang Hengs father a firm Party supporter did not believe the Party could be wrong and divorced his wife and forbid his children to see their mother to try and distance themselves from her as much as possible, and clear the family name, as soon as his mother was reformed his parents divorced. Although the family cut off their ties with their mother Liang Heng and his family were permanently labeled as having a rightist mother. Two years later hi...