The Ironical Aspects in Li Rui’s Electing a Thief Essay Example

rather shallow and fairly superficial. It begins after the villagers pissed off the head of the production team as they have collectively vote that he is the thief who stole the bag of grains.

The team head got really angry about it and decides to leave the villagers and not to care a thing about them anymore. It is quite obvious that the villagers dislike the team head and they probably just want to teach him a lesson at first. Moreover, they also want to show him their feeling of suppress, but then, they realize his existence is necessary to the village since he is the one who supplicate for the relief of their loans and grain. “Who’ll we pick? You? Will you be able to bring us back relief loans and relief grain at the end of the year? ( Li 323) The passage shows how ironic it is that the person they dislike is also the person they need. In exchange for the slight moment they enjoyed from fooling the head man, they are now stuck with a series of problems to face. “If he really quit, then from now on there’ll be no one to call us to work and assign tasks. If we mess up, the wheat harvest really will be delayed, a man can’t walk without a head, and a bird won’t fly without a leader. ” (Li 323) Without the leader, they won’t be able to go to work, which means they somehow loose their main source of income.

They can’t afford to be jobless because they survive with the very little amount they earn. In the end, after realizing his

importance to the village and since no one come up with any other solution, they decide go together as a group to plead for his return. Another example of a superficial irony takes place in the middle of the story when the election is going on but women are not allowed to vote. “There was no suffrage for women, so they clasped their babies in their arms and squeezed into a corner to watch for the excitement. ( Li 322) Women in the old days do not hold any power or rights to speak for themselves and yet, this is still one of the major problems in the rural area of China, especially in the farmland villages. Ironically in the story, the women are the ones who end up to be put in front of the group and take the lead for the apology to the team leader. “Women in front- they’re good with words- their small talk and making-up will keep anyone from losing face. ”, “Right, women go first. ” (Li 324) This passage exemplifies how ironic it is that the women who didn’t get their rights to vote are the ones who end up helping the mess created by the men.

Moreover, this passage clearly shows that the men are trying to deny their responsibilities and pass the trouble to the women by putting their position in front of the group without any negotiation between men and women. Even though this story is written in a way that it’s not complicated to understand but the real ironical aspects that Li Rui is trying to convey is somewhat profound. Apart from the very shallow

ironies discussed above, the first irony that the author actually focuses on happens when the team leader orders the men from village to elect the grain thief. “Elect!

If you don’t elect a grain thief this very day, there’ll be no threshing, which means no wheat harvest this year... Come on, hurry up about it, everybody pick whoever he wants, but no talking allowed! ” (Li 321) This passage reveals the leader’s point of view, he thinks he is solving this issue democratically because they have a choice to vote. “Don’t be afraid. This is a democratic election, you can pick anyone you please, Elect whoever looks like he might have stolen the wheat. ” (Li 322) This quote shows that he is quite confident that he can solve the thief problem with the democratic election he proposed.

To his surprise, they all elected him and he left furiously after jinxing all the villagers’ ancestors. Although the team head has the right procedures of how the election should work, he apparently has a misconception on “democracy” because he thinks that it’s just a way to gather people up to jointly solve the problem. In reality, it means every citizen is equal before the law and gain equal access to power and freedom. In addition, the villagers are too naive to understand what purposes does election serves.

Li Rui uses the link between the team leader’s misunderstanding of democracy and the villager’s ignorance on democratic election to demonstrate how ironic and useless it is to apply democracy on such people where as they all lack the education and knowledge for it. The second irony that Li Rui is focusing

occurs towards the end of the story when the villagers are all panicking about the resignation of the team leader. They decide to go collectively to make an apology to the team head so that he may return to the village and help them again. In their mind, they don’t even care about the thief who stole the bag of grain anymore. Just a sack of wheat- if it’s already lost or eaten then it’s too late to do anything about it- was it worth offending him? ” (Li 323) At first, their feelings of suppress make them choose to offend him but by the end, they rather choose to obey him instead. Even if the team head is the thief, they will still have to conform to him because he is the breadwinner of the village. The author is emphasizing the villagers’ obedience by their wish to survive. Their obedience is not due to the desire of having lots of unnecessary goods; all they want is to have enough live.

Li Rui is demonstrating the ironic aspect of how rural people in China have no power to revolt and they can only follow and obey even though the person they comply with may be someone terrible. It might seem that the existence of the six students from Beijing is not necessary in the story, but Li Rui uses them to represent something else. The author wants to make the distinction of different perception in “democratic election” between the youthful student and the ignorant villagers. The Beijing students has a symbolic meaning to the story, they symbolize the educated people who have the sufficient knowledge on

the term “democracy”.

They’re educated enough to know how and where this term can apply. When the team head resigns, they suggest electing another one instead. “Quite out of their depth, the student said, If he’s really gone, we’ll pick another leader! ” (Li 323) This quote shows that the student understands how democracy works because the villagers can now elect someone else they like better to represent for their village. The purpose of a democratic election is to give people a chance to pick their most favourite with the ability to help them in their future living.

Unfortunately, the villagers didn’t want this chance, they simply just want keep their former team head rather than electing a new one even they all dislike him and feels suppressed by him. The students see this democratic election as a joke because they know how it really works in the realistic society. The villager’s ignorance and being naive to “democratic election” has an allegorical meaning to the story. In the end of the story, the villagers regret for the joke they played on the team head whereas they feel they somehow destroy their own main source of income. The villagers under the old sandalwood woke up from their previous mirth; how could they joke about the wheat in front of them, their subsidies at the end of the year, their food, their clothing their very lives? They’d gotten a bit slaphappy just now. Their smiling faces were blank again, and now with some lined of worry. ” (Li 323) Li Rui tries to use this passage to imply the political system today is rather worthless and ridiculous to the

villager who lives in the farmland which all they need is to have enough goods to survive.

The villagers will not dare to jeopardize their main source of income because it’s all that they are living on. The author is stating his point that democracy will not work for the rural areas because farmers and villagers think is something irrelevant to their life. In conclusion, Li Rui uses this story to disclose his view on the political system in China. He discretely reveals his view by using the connection between the leader’s misunderstanding on democracy and the ignorance of the rural people has on democratic election.

The author indicates the application of democracy to the rural people who are living far away from the urban cities is quite ironic. The rural people don’t know what concept or purposes do it serves and they think is something insignificant to have. The villagers in the story only care if they have a job to work, they don’t need any rights to vote, all they want is to have enough of what they need. He tries to use the story to inform the major hold back of applying democracy is the poverty problem in China.

People who live in the rural area are too poor to afford almost anything, so it’s not surprising that they don’t have the money to afford education. The lack of education is another restrain of executing democracy in the rural areas since they can’t even distinguish the meaning of freedoms and rights. Li Rui doesn’t have the intention to be against the ignorance of the rural people, but to purposely point out the issue of the

unfeasible execution of democratic policy on such people.

Reference Editors: Joseph S. M. Lau and Howard Goldbatt. The Columbia anthology of modern Chinese literature. US: Columbia University Press, 2007. 2nd Edition.