Chapter 14 Summary and Analysis

Er-hong wants to be helpful as a "boy scout" type of helpful has become very popular. She sometimes sees men pulling heavy carts up the street and will put her weight into pushing to ease their burden. Then a classmate tells her that those are enemies of the state and that she shouldn't help them. She turns to her teachers—who she considers the authorities on such matters—and they have no answers for her. She doesn't understand "class enemies" and once asks an elderly neighbor what her life was like under the cruel reign of the Kuomintang. The woman says the Kuomintang weren't always cruel, which confuses Er-hong even more.

Er-hong is being pulled into Chairman Mao's teachings. Many of the literature books in her school contain writings and propaganda by Mao. One day, the students are told...