The War Horse By Lao Jiu Analysis

Lao Jiu is a story containing many themes, education, tradition, relationship and duty and responsibility. The theme that stands out the most is education, where the message “The emphasis on education in today’s world results in high expectations from one’s family” stands out the most. Kuo Pao Kun managed to very creatively express this message through the plot as well as the language.

The plot shows many instances when all of Lao Jiu’s family members work together to give him all the help he needs just to get the scholarship, expecting him to get the scholarship. For example in Act 1: The War Horse, after Lao Jiu’s family received the news that he is invited to participate in an examination for a rare and prestigious scholarship, the whole
family gets excited to help him prepare for the examination, believing that he will produce great results.
His father said “I never dream our family …so special, clever, Li-hai! You all must help him. Everybody.” Following that was help provided from all of Lao Jiu’s sisters and brothers-in-law, offering to make his room sound proof so he would not be disturbed, making nutritious food etc. From this example we can see very clearly that getting a scholarship for one’s education is so important that Lao Jiu’s family members all sacrifice their time and effort to help him. They had high hopes for him and thus were eager to provide him with things that will help him study better. This can also be seen in Scene 4A: Into good form when Lao Jiu returns home from the examination and “he is immediately subject to everyone’s query about how he did in the first round”. It can be seen that his family is anxious to see if he did well or better than all the other candidates, showing the competitive spirit when it concerns education and that all candidates are expected to perform well. These examples lead to Lao Jiu feeling stressed out like students of today’s world where they are expected to do well to have a bright future. Many schools stress on doing
well in examinations like the A Levels in Singapore and Korea’s University entrance exam with many students aiming to get into their ideal university. Some also aim to get a scholarship to enter prestigious universities like Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, and MIT etc. Every student’s family will do their best to help the child achieve good results and hence have a high expectation of the child.

The importance of education leading to one’s family helping out and anticipating good results can also be seen in the language aspect portrayed.
For example in Scene 7: Father and Son, Lao Jiu’s father said “But you…you…everyone hope you can go university!” We can tell from the hopeful tone in his voice that that he, on the behalf of the whole family is stating their hopes for him. The word ‘you’ was repeated, emphasing that Lao Jiu was the one who they were all rooting for do to well in the examination, showing the high expectations from his family members. The father also stresses that scholars are the leaders of the world with the exclamation marks in “Must study! He say success belong to scholars only! The world all in scholar hands!” Majority of the ministers and those in government position are scholars, and in this context it holds true as well. To be a scholar, one has to have a holistic education and hence to be successful one is obliged to work very hard. If one does not work hard, the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a scholarship will be wasted as stated by Lao Jiu’s father in Scene 9: Master and Father: “But you know, this is so good an opportunity. Must not miss! We can try and try and try, another 18 lives also cannot get another chance like this.” Kuo Pao Kun uses figurative speech like “another 18 lives” to show the importance of getting a scholarship and that it is such a rare opportunity others would not give up on, being expected to press on no
matter what. When the father found out that Lao Jiu is contemplating giving up the scholarship he describes him as “unreasonable” and “crazy” not only to express his frustration but also to remind the audience that Lao Jiu has disappointed his family greatly.

Kuo Pao Kun has deftly portrayed the theme of education very clearly in this story, through the plot with his family members expecting him do well and providing him with all the help he needs to meet their high expectations as well as the language used to show the importance of education and the disappointment felt by the family after Lao Jiu gave up on the scholarship. Education – the main focus in today’s world leading to one’s family placing stress on one to do well.