Post 9

When I first began to read River Town I thought Hessler as the observer. He never really got to personal about how he really felt about China’s culture. Until, he started to talk more about the history of China and how it has affected their culture. However, how he reacted to the shoeshine man was a bit surprising. It was the first time Hessler got really angry. He is usually a very calm and relaxed person. When the people of China do tease him he usually ignores it. However, this was his breaking point.

“There were two things in particular that could anger me quickly in Fuling. One was any sort of physical violation…The other was when people treated me like an animal, grunting or gesturing bluntly because they assumed that the waiguiren was very slow and couldn’t speak Chinese (318).”The shoe shiner seemed to think that the waiguoren he was messing with didn’t know any Chinese and would not be bothered by his teasing. Most of the people who teased Hessler were poor, uneducated people. The shoe shiner was defiantly both of those characteristics. The way he teased Hessler also showed that he thought he was better than Hessler and that Hessler didn’t know anything about the culture of China.

“The person he had angered was somebody I myself really didn’t know, because that person had never existed at home. Part of what Sichuan had changed about me was that in many ways I was more patient and tolerant than before there was also another part that had neither tolerance nor patience for more abuse of this sort (320).” I think Hessler had every right to act the way he did. The first time the shoe shiner bothered Hessler it was the common teasing of “Hahh-llooo!” which was something Hessler could ignore. However, when the shoe shiner started to treat him like an animal by shoving food in his face and telling him to eat it; that was pushing the limit of his tolerance. It was extremely disrespectful and Hessler had every right to tell that shoe shiner off.

After Hessler had proved himself and insulted the shoe shiner many times. He instantly felt bad and embarrassed because he knew he had money and had a better education level than the shoe shiner. In some instances he probably shouldn’t have insulted the shoe shiner that much but he needed to show the shoe shiner that he was wrong about not needing waiguoren around China. The situation was complicated, like most situations that Hessler is either put in by someone or himself. Like Hessler, observing seems a lot easier to me because I can see both sides of the situation and I do try not to pick a side but the shoe shiner was defiantly on the wrong side of this argument.

Mimi Zycherman