Red Scarf Girl Essay

Studying Karl Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” can help us understand communism in theory. However, Red Scarf Girl gives us an idea of what communism looks like in actual practice. How do these two perspectives on communism differ? What do we learn about communism in practice, in China during the Cultural Revolution, that we might not understand by simply reading the “Communist Manifesto”?

Please compose an essay in response to this prompt. Your thesis statement should clearly answer the bolded question. To answer this question thoroughly, you will certainly need more than 5 paragraphs.

Please use what you have learned about effective writing as you compose and revise this essay. For the body paragraphs, you must use the four-part quotation analysis pattern we have been practicing. You also must use quotations from BOTH Red Scarf Girl and the “Communist Manifesto.”

In thinking about the prompt, you might consider the following:

·         What are the true costs of communism in the Red Scarf Girl? (By costs, I mean those things that are lost or sacrificed in the name of communism: things like privacy, home, deference to elders, family history and identity, etc.)

·         What “despotic inroads on the rights of property” (quote from Marx) do you see more clearly in Red Scarf Girl? Does communism only affect the “rights of property”? What other rights are affected?

·         How well does communism deal with human nature? What characteristics of human nature are amplified under communism?

·         Marx indicates his government will be truly democratic. What do you learn about this kind of democracy from Red Scarf Girl?

 Please attach the following to your final draft:

·         Prewriting (brainstorming and outline)

·         First draft with written feedback from a trusted adult (or a signature indicating the adult has given you detailed feedback orally)

The final draft should be in MLA format. A Works Cited page is NOT required for this assignment; however, you should include in-text citations for all quotations from Marx and Jiang (Lastname 34).

Due date: Wednesday, Nov. 12.