When the Purple Mountain Burns

1432 Words6 Pages
When the purple mountain burns Through the characters used in the novel ‘When the Purple Mountain burns,’ Shouhua Qi, has managed to narrate the occurrences in China after the invasion by the Japanese military. This happened several years ago for few days, which the author stresses, were terrible and traumatizing to many. The city that was attacked in China was known as Nanjing, which the incident adopted the name, ‘Nanjing Massacre.’ As the book shows, many people including women and children lost their lives as the army fought the people indiscriminately. We note that the author has skillfully put in place the events from day one to day six with the specific dates and inclusion of the fictitious characters that have been established to create different perceptions regarding the events. Clearly, there is a moral dilemma faced by two characters, Ling and Little Chao, which caused much tension. We, however, realize that the tensions and uncertainties were caused by the unexpected attacks by the Japanese military such that the characters expressed different ways in tackling their problems. The purpose of this paper is therefore to compare the two characters and explore how differently or similarly the dilemmas they faced were and how they resolved them either individually or together as well as the final impact of the resolutions. As the turn out of events unfold, Shouhua Qi introduces the attack by the Japanese military, the two characters are in a dilemma as to how they are going to survive the attacks. This was a common worry for both of them as we realize, the two only had each other to lean on as the situation was clearly getting out of hand. When looked at from a moral perspective, the common moral dilemma that the two faced was whether it was logical to help a suffering person and risk their own lives, or remain quiet and save their selves. According to
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