Entry Fifteen: Jin

"Saboteur"
Ha Jin (1996)

"A swoon swayed Mr. Chiu, and he held the arms of the chair to steady himself. A numb pain stung him in the upper stomach and nauseated him, and his head was throbbing. He was sure that the
hepatitis was finally attacking him. Anger was flaming up in his chest, his throat was tight and clogged."

Saboteur has joined the stories-that-blew-my-mind list, and in ways I wasn’t even aware would do such a thing. To be honest, I wasn’t sure of what to think when I read the title or the first page; they both seemed pretty ordinary. The story kept that kind of feeling throughout, even though the actions and words made an amazing impact as events culminated.

Since this unit is about setting, I feel that it’s pretty important to mention it here, even though I had a rough time figuring out what that happened to be. At first, I thought it might be a Communist China, but with the reactions the Interrogation Bureau officers had to Chiu stating he was a member of the Communist party, I had to second guess that assumption. Even so, the strict policing and attitude in which Mr. Chiu was being treated, it felt very much like this was some sort of Utilitarian or Totalitarian government – something which Mr. Chiu was very well educated in.

In addition, the time in which this story takes place evaded me as well. There was no direct line that gave away the actual time in history – it could very well have taken place in the same time of Communist China, or perhaps in our distant future. Either lend themselves to what’s been said in the text, and as a whole, I don’t think it matters quite as much at the physical setting.

Something else that struck me was Mr. Chiu’s case of hepatitis. It was mentioned at first as nothing more than a character detail – it didn’t have any significance at the time, but it comes into play much later. It’s something not everyone talks about, and I had to do a bit of research to really understand what it was. With that new information in mind, I had a new appreciation for this medical issue.

For Mr. Chiu, this hepatitis seemed like an inward manifestation and symbol for the savage inside him. It stood for the crude and uncivilized person he had dwelling in the darker corners of his psyche, similarly to everyone else around him. The guards at this detention center let their darker sides show more often, and being in their presence sparked the change in Mr. Chiu. With the unruliness around him, Mr. Chiu was free to let his temper go, and in the end this orderly professor lost himself to anger.

Which is why, after his release, there’s a further spread of this anger, which drove people to do things they never intended to do – it changed people.