Custom «Saboteur and Dead Mens Path » Essay Paper Sample

Both novels are comparable and similar in one way or the other. The two authors though they are from different parts of the world have based their literature works on the happenings of their society with regard to justice, development, and human skills. Ha Jin is telling on the injustices in china whereby the main character is tortured and abused by authorities having harmed no one except the authorities whereas Chinua Achebe is telling on a hardworking teacher who applies personal skills to bring educational development in the society.

First, in the novel, Saboteur by Ha Jin, the author's main objective of this literary work is to inform the world on the injustice which affects the Chinese people and in particular the scholars. In support of this point, Ha Jin had to free his homeland to the United States where there is freedom which could allow him do his work freely. The main character is a professor, Mr. Chiu. He is provoked by a policeman for no valid reason other than his scholarly title. On reacting to the policeman's mockery, Mr. Chiu is arrested, the reason being saboteur and disruption of public order.

In addition, saboteur in china is said to have started in the period during which communist party which was led by Mao Zedong was reined. Howe4ver, the author tells the story of what was happening shortly after Cultural Revolution in china. After the arrest of Mr. Chiu, he is taken to interrogation bureau where he explained the reason for his arrest to the chief interrogator, his explanation fell into the deaf ears and since the chief had already made up the mind on the charges to induce. The desperate Mr. Chiu continued to explain that he belonged to a communist party to the chief who after hearing that turned more ruthless rather than calm.

Furthermore, the author tells us that Chinese people never expect to get justice from their courts. In support of this, Mr. Chiu gave explanations which were used against him rather than giving him justice. The main reason to why these courts are injustice to the people is because they are run by political communist parties from which orders to the judges come from. However, on realizing that justice was not on his side, Mr. Chiu refused to write down self- criticism which made the chief to send him back to the cell.

On returning to the cell, Mr. Chiu complains to the cell guard pretending to be ill but no response did he receive. This illustrates that Chinese government does not emphasize on the justice of the prisons rather they considered enemies of the state. On a Monday morning, Fenjin, a former Mr. Chiu's law student, is arrested for offending the police boss as he comes for Mr. Chiu's release. Chief threatens to punish Fenjin if Mr. Chiu fails to admit his crime. However, the above story in the novel have relating facts in the history of Chinese government violation of human rights thus the novel is a reflection of the factual happenings in china (Gioia,p.34).

Secondly, in the novel, Dead Men's Path by Chinua Achebe, the story begins in 1949 when the main character Michael Obi as a young man is appointed as a headmaster of a mission school, Ndume Central School. To him this is a dream realized earlier than he had expected. The young man had wonderful ideas which he anticipated to put them into practice. The author tells that he was Obi had a good secondary education which put him ahead of other older headmasters who were in the mission field. More also, He was an outspoken character in condemnation of the older headmasters who had narrow views with regard to their education background. This implies that obi was an arrogant character though energetic.

However, Ndume School was dragging behind other schools in terms of development in both education and infrastructural development but energetic headmaster Mr. Obi managed to raise its standards. This was achieved through the persistence of hard work by both the teachers and pupils and also turning the school compound into a beautiful place. After the rain fell, the beautiful hedges of hibiscus bushes blossomed which beautified the entire school compound.

One day, as Mr. Obi was moving around the school compound admiring his achievements, he saw an old lady from the neighboring village hobble across the school compound through the beautiful hedges. This scandalized him and walking up there he found signs of a disused foot path which runs from the neighboring village through the school compound to a neighboring bush. On asking an old teacher about the foot path, he was told that it connects the village to the burial place. However, he arrogantly said that village matters had nothing to do with the school.

However, Mr. Obi decided to close the foot path by planting sticks across it and he further strengthened them with barbed wires. The villagers were angered by his action which made the village priest to approach him three days later. The village priest informed him that the path was an ancestral and nobody had the right to close it. Mr. Obi's response to the priest illustrated his arrogant whereby he wore a weird smile when telling the priest that he cannot allow the school compound to be abused by illiterate villagers. He went further top abuse the ancestors.

Later on, a woman died on the childbed and when villagers consulted the diviners they were astonished to learn that the death was a sacrifice to the ancestors who were angered by the fence. On reacting to this matter, the villagers pulled down the fence and school infrastructures during the night which followed. However, on arrival to the school the next morning, Mr. Obi was angered to learn the villagers' reaction. The same day the education supervisor came to the school and made a bad recommendation which pulled down the school's status.

In conclusion, the two literary works have the aspect of pride and arrogant used as tools of inducing injustice to the oppressed society. In the novel, Sabotage, policemen are arrogant and abusive to the scholars whereas Achebe has used the image of a school head teacher uses his living status to abuse the rights of the villagers. However, the two literary works have sad endings whereby in the novel, the sabotage epidemic punishes the oppressors whereas in the Achebe's novel, supervisors negative recommendations punishes the arrogant head teacher.