Themes

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Family
One of the most important themes in Red Scarf Girl is family should stick together and help each other to get through hard times. Ji-li feels protective of her family and cares that they will not be tortured. Also, Ji-li decides not to be an educable child. She chose instead to stay with her family and support them. For example, her mother says, “If anything happens to your grandma and me, remember, you’re the oldest. Make sure you take good care of your brother and sister.” Ji-li answered by saying, “I will take care of both of them. I promise.” This shows she really cares about her brother and sister. Ji-li’s family also has to stick together when they are forced to follow the government’s rules of destroying the fourolds. For example, when their house is searched, Ji-li tries her hardest to hide the letter. She is protecting her family when she refuses to give the people from the theater the letter. They told her that she could follow Chairman Mao instead of her family if she gave them the letter, but she knew her family would be miserable if she gave in. Ji-li needed her family during the Cultural Revolution, too. For example, her father tells her that she shouldn’t audition for the Liberation Army dance class. Her father is trying to protect the family from humiliation. Ji-li’s family members need to rely on each other for protection and support.

Prejudice
The theme for this chapter is prejudiced. It is prejudiced because no matter what somebody's family history is or what their parents believe you can't judge people by their family's history. In this chapter Ji- Li is judged and severely made fun of because of her family's background when she doesn't even believe in capitalism. The author has been put in torture because of prejudice and she is completely against it. One of the big ideas the book Red Scarf Girl is prejudice. The author believes that the landlord should have nothing to do with her life. Just because she was once related to a landlord who is dead now doesn't and shouldn't relate to her and her thoughts. In the book, Thin face insults Mom by saying, “You're a damned landlord's wife!” Mom wasn't even a landlord's wife because Dad wasn't a landlord. Thin face was falsely accusing Dad of being a landlord. Ji-li thinks in the book, “What does a dead landlord have to do with me?” She was right. Her Grandfather had been a landlord and he died many years ago. Why were they even against landlords anyway! Just because you owned some land and maybe someone rents the space, you are considered a bad person.

Courage
One of the themes in this book is to have courage when you are going through hard times. For example, Ji-li wants to take the final exam at the end of the year so she can move up a grade. Another time Ji-li shows courage is when she is picked on by some of her classmates, such as Du Hai. She is so miserable that she thinks she should change her name and break away from her family, but she acts courageous and does not. Courage is a main theme in this book.

Standing Up for Beliefs
One of the themes, or the author's message in this story is that you should stand up for what you believe in. In this story, Ji-Li, the main character, faces the communist oppression. She is loyal to the communist party, but she is counted as a capitalist, so she is treated badly by the communists. The theme in this book is standing for what you believe in, and throughout the book, Ji-Li meets many situations in which she would like to speak out against the unjust acts of the Communists. At the end of the book, Ji-Li expresses her thoughts in which she wishes she could have said something and showed how she felt about the Communist's rash actions. Standing for something you believe in is a large portion of this story.

Overcoming Obstacles
One of the themes is how to overcome obstacles in tough times. For an example in the book Red Scarf Girl Chairman Mao makes life tough in china because of things called Four olds. Which doesn't allow any foreign things in China. She has to overcome these obstacles by sticking together with her family and not giving up. Another theme is how to deal with bullies and mean people at Ji Li's school. A mean person at her school is a kid named Du Hai. She makes fun of her grandfather because he was a landlord. She has to overcome this by ignoring him.

Loyalty
One theme in Red Scarf Girl is loyalty. Loyalty appears in more than one chapter. In Writing da-zi-bao, Ji-li is instructed to compose large banners criticizing her teachers. Ji-li decides not to because she is loyal to her teachers. She now she can't write bad things about her teachers because she always thought what they taught was right. Ji-li is also loyal in Writing da-zi-bao when she doesn't want Aunt Xi-wen to see her face when her class goes to post the da-zi-bao on her door. Loyalty is why she ducked down out of sight, she didn't want her aunt to see her. Ji-li is also loyal to her friend, An Yi. When her grandmother died, she went to the funeral and helped An Yi cry and and supported her. She let An Yi grieve and she comforted her when she was sad. Not only does that make her loyal, it makes her a good friend.

Deception
In this story there are many themes that the author brings up and uses but the most common one in this story is deception. The author shows this through out the entire story the leader Chairman Mao has the whole country of China in a cloud of deceit and confusion with the goal to get rid of the four olds. Ji Li is confused during the entire story, “Why is my dad considered black and why does that matter when people think of me.” she thinks. People think what ever Chairman Mao is perfect they never question what he says he tells people to break up old store signs on page 23 no one questions what he says because what ever he says is right to them. This caused Ji-li a lot of trouble through out this story her family is persecuted because of his deceptive teachings they haven't done anything wrong and they are still social outcasts. That is what the main theme is in the story red scarf girl.

**Golden Rule **
The theme of Red Scarf Girl is “treat others the way you want to be treated” This is the theme because throughout the book there have been many topics about prejudice and family, but even then, the most important thing that came into play were the government or Ji-li’s classmates betraying her and her family and they cant fight back. In Ji-li’s class, Du Hai and many other peers would pick on Ji-li because of her political background. Also, the government has done awful things to a lot of China like detaining citizens and making people lose their minds. An-Yi's grandmother committed suicide because of Chairman Mao. It all could have stopped if they treated others the way you want to be treated. = = =**Staying Strong**=

The theme of the Red Scarf Girl is staying strong to what you what and what you believe in. This theme is demonstrated many times in the book. Other themes are demonstrted also but the most abundant is staying strong. One example is on page 214, I sat in the empty room, picturing telling Mom and Dad that I had changed my name. I jumped up and ran out." As Ji-Li was about to change her name, she realized she didn't want to give up on her family. So, she got up and ran home. She is staying strong by dealing with the critcism and prejudice of her every day life, and still not giving up and breaking the relations with her family. Even though she is excluded and ignored she is staying strong for what she believes is right even though the severe bullying will continue.

=**Perseverance**=

Ji-Li pushes through and never gives up. She took care of her siblings. She took on new responsibilities, like taking care of her Grandma and mother. She also learned how to cook and shop for her family. Another character that persevered through tough time is An-Yi because when her grandma committed suicide she did not stop she kept trying to help the rest of her family and Jiang Ji- Li. Whenever things went wrong, Ji-li and An-yi would rely on fate to keep their hopes up. Another person who persevered in the beginning of the book was Du-Hai. Even when he was wrong he kept looking for things to use against her, such as knowing that her grandfather was a landlord. Someone else who persevered in the book was Chang-Hong. She was always trying to help Ji-li become someone who wasn’t a member of a black family because she thought that was what she wanted.