Analysis Of Mao's Last Dancer

Mao's last dancer written by Li Cunxi published in 2003 is an autobiography set in China; that recounts the journey of Li from early childhood. He describes his life of growing up in extreme poverty to being chosen for Madame Mao’s prestigious dance academy. In between he overcomes hardships to be a world-famed dancer through his use of inner strength, whilst battling cultural barriers of Mao's communistic rule. My brilliant friend written by Elena Ferrente published in 2011 depicts the journey from childhood to adulthood of Lena as she grows up with her best friend Lila. It focuses on her friendship with Lila as it evolves from plain rivalry to mutual trust and later to the purist form of friendship. Throughout the book they encounter struggles
In Mao's last dancer, Li grows up finding his self-identity through both physical and emotional struggles whilst in transition from childhood to adulthood. Li uses characterisation to express the key themes of inner strength, and strong emotional determination through his journey. This is exemplified through the descriptive language in 'I am, deep inside, happy about this god-given opportunity, but I am overwhelmed by sadness as well. …I will feel in Beijing,” (Cunxi, 2003) this displays how even when things seem daunting, bravery enable him to overcome fears. Through Li's childhood many of his traits of physical resilience and perseverance is shown through physical struggles such as "I did bear the pain but the hardest thing was to pretending to walk normally afterwards” (Cunxi, 2003) shows how ballet would cause permanent damage to his feet but his strong physical resilience did not falter. On the other hand much alike, in My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrente conveys the struggles of Lena growing up as a child through this statement of “I feel no nostalgia for our childhood, It was full of violence.” (Ferrante, 2012) She was also confronted with emotions of inferiority to Lila in every way possible from intellectual ability to physical appearance. This is evidently shown as they proceed to adolescence through the comparison and description by Lena “What I lacked she
Mao's Last Dancer is set in the China during the Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1976) where under Mao Ze Dong's rule; everyone in china was indoctrinated believing that Mao was the saviour to China. Li's village suffered through harsh poverty and an era of strict adherence to regulations as he distinctively describes how Mao's propaganda and communistic rule had terrorised his teenage years through this metaphor' now I was a bird trapped in a cage where even my feet had to conform to the rules.” (Cunxi, 2003) Also later in the book when Li’s actions of remaining in America caused the Chinese communist party to believe that he was being influenced by the western culture and attempted to kidnap Li back to China. However Li protested and was later banished from China by the communist party. The insecurity and threats by the unknown certainty of his future deeply impacted Li and it also shows to a large extent that the Chinese communist party would do anything for their ideology of a perfect communistic country. Similarly my brilliant is also set in the political turmoils and economic boom years of 1970s after World War II. In My Brilliant Friend, it is immediately clear that the understanding of the hierarchy of power occurred naturally even for Lila and Elena and the other children. Much alike in