The Influences In Da Chen's Colors Of The Mountain

In Colors of the Mountain, Da Chen has his father as a major influence in his life, responsible for the many impossible feats Chen accomplishes, while Prfessor Wei and La Shan, characters who leave lasting impacts that altered Chen's life for better or worse.
Chen's father is the most obvious and important influence in his life. The father's influennce had already started when Chen was young. With the new reform in China, Chen's father had been "fired from his teaching job..." and "most of the time [he] was away at labor camp" trying to support the family (5-6). Because of the poor status his father had required, Chen was labled as a landlord's son. This had made getting into school tough for Chen, but once in school worked harder than anyone because he new that the status put on him unintentionally by his father could get him kicked out of school if his performance was low. The impact of poverty put on by his father lasted throughout Chen's adolescent lifee, making great oppurtunties to
In elementary school, La Shan was one of Chen's teachers that disliked Chen presumably because of how he was a landlord's son or that his family was suspected to be counterrevolutionists. One day La Shan had asked Chen to stay after class and accused Chen of "saying antirevolutionaty and anti-Communist things" to his classmates (25). This caused Chen to flee town and quit school because La Shan instilled fear into Chen that he would be taken away and put into jail potentially for the rest of his life. La Shan and influenced Chen with his hateful words, to the extent where Chen had to live away from his family and quit school, the only tool Chen had to make a name for himself and his family. Even though La Shan had done this, Chen was able to have the strength and overcome his fear of La Shan and get the education he had