In The Pond By Ha Jin Summary

PART 1 The book begins with the main character (Shao Bin) being introduced. From there, we start to learn about his life as a worker and how he wants to upgrade his living situation for him and his wife. When his request is denied, he decides to do something about it. He uses calligraphy as a form of propaganda. When one of his drawings ends up in a newspaper, things start to go south. The people who are in charge of Bin and the other workers (Director Ma and Liu) find out about it and publicly humiliate him. To counter their attack, Bin accuses one of them of having an affair with a woman who he saw in their office. This fires everyone up and madness ensues. I feel like the issues being discussed in this book are very important, but the contents of this book are not very exciting. The attention-grabbing moments are few and far between,
The main character (Shao Bin) was basically a tool to bring about the questions of “What would happen if we all stood up for what we believe in?” and “How can we take a stand for justice?” He addresses these two points within the first ten pages. “… the true scholar’s brush must encourage good and warn against evil” (Page 8) This passage from the novel was a quote from Wang Chong, who I believe was a Chinese philosopher during the Han Dynasty. It’s an amazing idea to start the book off with such powerful words. Ha Jin included this as an important inspiration for the character Shao Bin. It leads him to speak out against the unjust ways of his supervisors. “As an artist and scholar I ought to expose those corrupt leaders… A good piece of work should be as lethal as a dagger to evildoers.” These words fuel Bin throughout the entire novel. They are the match that lights the flame. Jin tactfully placed them in the beginning as a form of foreshadowing the theme of the entire novel. The theme that also applies to the aforementioned news