Critical Lens Essay On Dawn

“Most of our mistakes, the big ones at least, are the result of allowing emotion to overrule logic. We knew the right choice but didn't obey.” - Unknown speaker. This quote is an overview of what is to come soon on in this essay, as we knew what the right decision was, but we appealed to emotion and overruled our logic. During the novels Dawn by Elie Wiesel, Red Scarf Girl by Ji-Li Jiang, and The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu, we will see these themes take action and these characters react in a time of change and confusion. The novel Dawn takes place after World War II and tells the story of the Israeli resistance fighters against the English rule. Red Scarf Girl tells the story of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and everything that

As the novel comes to a close, we see Elisha murder John Dawson in the name of the Resistance. Elisha was assigned to murder John Dawson before the dawn of the morning and there were in a basement together for several hours. As dawn comes near, Elisha kills John Dawson and he is very stressed about what he has just done. He struggles to see who he really is, and when he walks back upstairs, he is vividly a changed man mentally. This confusion is shown in the following

It can also be inferred that Ji-Li is being swayed into the words, although her family does not agree. This is understandable, though, because he is all she knows as a leader and it naturally makes sense for her to really consider what is going on and accept it. She seems to want to agree with him, but what exactly is holding the Chinese back? Has the Chairman given a valid reason for the revolution, bringing in the fact that many people died from this revolution that accomplished nothing. Correspondingly, as we see Ji-Li speak of about why the four olds should be rid of, we now see one of the early effects of it in the following passage. Days after Ji-Li has that conversation with her grandmother, all of the four olds signs were being taken down and all of the shops had been renamed. Her parents do not agree with what is happening either as we find out, their occupations do not align with what is wanted in China and what is needed to be taken out. “The newspapers and the radio said so. I knew the movement was vital to our country’s future, and I did not understand how Mom and Dad could not be interested in it. It was almost unbelievable. Within a couple of days almost all the four olds shop signs had been removed. The stores we had talked about had all been renamed.” The Cultural Revolution in China lasted from