Spider Eaters

In Rae Young's Spider Eaters, the conflict between freewill and determinism is encapsulated in her dramatic life. Growing up in the oppressive environment of revolutionary China, Young's ability to exercise her freedom and individuality was limited by the rules and regulations of the Communist Party. Unlike a democratic society, people had to speak and act in conformity with the Communist Party or risk losing their lives and their families in Young's depiction of revolutionary China. As a nanve Red Guard, Young believed that she had liberated herself from the oppression of her teachers. She thought that she had the freedom to control her life and the lives of others. However, after witnessing the violence and the injustice of the Cultural Revolution, Young realized that she was caught up in a vicious campaign that spiraled beyond her control. Like other Chinese, she was a potential target and victim of the Cultural Revolution. Her short-lived freedom was merely an illusion cultivated by the Communist Party. In a world that stripped individuals of their freewill, Young had to struggle valiantly to hold onto her true identity in defiance of the oppression of larger societal forces of revolutionary China.

Through the Cultural Revolution that handed tremendous power to students, Young believed that for the first time in her life, she was able to exercise her freewill and her freedom to assert herself: "Now those who had made decisions for us teachers

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rmity with the spirit of the revolution. Going against her natural inclinations, she participated in the destruction of a home that resembled the home of her Nainai. In the process, she learned that she was able to suppress her feelings of uncertainty and follow her fellow Red Guards: "My fellow Red Guards have already started [thrashing the home]. I mustn't fall behind" (Young 125). Essentially, Young's exercise of her freedom as a Red Guard was intermingled with a sense of fear. Underneath her composure and avid participation, Young realized that she was at risk of becoming the victims abused by the Red Guards. By the time she and her fellow Red Guards participated in the killing of the man who took off his undergarment, Young was aware of the ugliness and the tragedy produced by the Cultural Revolution. Terrorized by the incident, she tried to blame the death on the man himself not based on ideological reasons, but because the man had not given the ideologically correct answers or even lied to save his life (Young 138-9). In her recollection of another incident in which she and her fellow Red Guards thrashed a young girl who spoke against the revolution, Yang admitted to herself that she participated in the beating out of fea

Category: Literature - S