Character Analysis: To Live By Yu Hua

In China it is said “One must eat bitter in order to taste sweet.” And what is it that they are referring to? The chinese are referring to life, specifically the hardships and the smooth trails through we have. Xu Fugui is the main character in the novel To Live by Yu Hua and he has not had an easy life. His life has been filled with bitterness, but he has also received a bit of sweetness. In the novel, Fugui cannot seem to escape all of the bitterness in his life. It just seems like he will never be truly happy. One part in the novel that I believe is the most bitter, is the part when Jiazhen, his wife, passes away. Jiazhen was the kindest character in the book, a great wife, and an extraordinary mother and seeing her slowly pass away was very bitter. She was Fuguis rock and the reason for him to continue to work hard and live. Even though Jiazhen passed, life gave Fugui two things - one was life and two, Kugen and Erxi. Kugen and Erxi are now Fuguis world, they are now his reason for living. Fugui tasted the bitterness of the deaths of Fengxia and Jiazhen so now life is allowing him to taste sweetness for about 5 years. Like Fugui and the
This taste of bitterness lasted me 8 years. My grandfather was deported and I was not able to let it go. I needed him home. My grandmother, my mom, my dad, and my aunt did anything possible to get my grandfather back home with his family. My family was committed to getting him back that they were ready to do anything and pay anything just to have him back. And there I was, right behind them, listening and trying to help anyway I could even if I was just a kid. I would stay up at night and right letter after letter to our lawyer, to ICE, I even wrote one to the President (which I very much doubt my mom sent