Ha Jin The Saboteur

Who’s to Blame? Revenge puts off an aroma of evil to the outside world when a person seeks to pay someone back for the wrong committed against them. There seems to be no laws against declaring revenge against a neighbor in our country, but society should know that revenge lends no reconciliation to either party. Also, who truly decides the guilty party when both have committed a wrong towards each other? Mr. Chiu, a character in Ha Jin’s story “The Saboteur,” makes the transition from vacationer and victim of saboteur, to the very essence and definition of saboteur; Jin’s use of role-reversal in this story conveys the concept of revenge clearly and effectively. “Mr. Chiu and his bride were having lunch in the square before Muji Train Station” (Jin 179). The young couple had taken a trip to Muji on their honeymoon and were about to head home on the train. “[Mr. Chiu] was glad that the honeymoon was finally over and that he and his bride were heading back for Harbin” (Jin 179). He also stated his joy for avoiding and conquering a long battle with hepatitis during the trip. Mr.
Chiu begins to ask his wife if she felt alright when, “…the stout policeman at the next table stood up and threw a bowl of tea in their direction. Both Mr. Chiu’s and his bride’s sandals were wet instantly” (Jin 179). As the man began to defend his wife and his pride, the police officers began to arrest him; Mr. Chiu yelled at the officers but “the young fellow added, ‘you’re a saboteur, you know that?’…and together the two men were dragging him away to the police station” (Jin 180). “The single window in the room was blocked by six steel bars…he was too exhausted…so he lay down on the narrow bed and shut his eyes” (Jin 180). Mr. Chiu is taken to the head chief of the station to be interrogated later in the day; as the men began to argue about the true saboteur of the city, Mr. Chiu’s anger rose. The station had witness testimonies against him and proof he was in the Communist party- this truly was sabotage. On the inside, Mr. Chiu felt the onset of his hepatitis; “He felt miserable, massaging his stomach continually” (Jin 180). Overnight, Chiu began to relax, but also began to feel worse. “When he woke up on Monday morning, it was already light…a young man was fastened to a pine, his wrists handcuffed around the trunk…Fenjin must have been sent over by his bride” (Jin 183). Mr.
Chiu now realizes his present situation with the hepatitis is worsening, and he also knows he must figure out a way to rescue his student and himself. “Again they took him upstairs to the Interrogation Bureau…He asked the chief, ‘If I sign this, will you release both my lawyer and me?’” (Jin 184). As Chiu and his lawyer left the police station, the man was incredibly sick and determinately seeking revenge. If given the chance, “he would have razed the entire police station and eliminated all their families. Though he knew he could do nothing like that, he made up his mind to do something” (Jin 185). On their way back towards the train station, Mr. Chiu and Fenjin stopped and ate at as many restaurants as possible eating only a few bites at each. “Within a month over eight hundred people contracted acute hepatitis in Muji. Six died of the disease, including two children” (Jin
185).
Ha Jin’s example of role-reversal in this story gives off the aroma of revenge clearly and effectively; he creates a character, Mr. Chiu, which believes the saboteur to his life was outrageous, but then in turn seeks to be the saboteur of hundreds of innocent lives. There are no laws against desiring revenge, but the moral code by which a society should inevitably live by should give ample reason to honest behavior. This story gives the reader an insight to two different mindsets of a character- good and bad, right and wrong. Jin defines the theme of role-reversal and lessons in literature, and in life.