Ha Jin's A Good Fall - rushtermpapers

Ha Jin’s “A Good Fall”

A Good Fall is a book with dozen stories that delineates on the lives of Chinese immigrants whose hope has been crushed in their new home-US. The immigrants struggle to make ends meet. Various characters have been used by Ha Jin in exploiting various themes about the lives that immigrants goes through. In the book, some of the characters are self-possessed hence have free will while others are slaves to forces that are beyond their control. Example of self-possessed character is Master Zong, while character depicted as a slave is Ganchin-a monk that came from Gaolin Temple in China.

In the book, Ganchin is a protagonist of the title of the book” A Good Fall”. This man represents the oppression and hardships that immigrants suffered in America. He is therefore a slave to forces and cannot control the situation that he finds himself in. Ganchin endures many challenges in life as an Immigrant. Despite being a monk in the temple for duration of more than two years, he is not paid his dues by his master. He faces most difficult moment when the master fires him when he falls sick on grounds that he is not able to perform his duties effectively. When he asks for his salary, he is told that, the fact that he was provided with lodging and boarding services, he does not qualify/entitled to be paid for the services he rendered.

Another illustration of slavery against Ganchin is when Zong withholds his passport. Ganchin is left to survive on his own in a foreign country. Life changes abruptly for Ganchin who feels that everything has come to a standstill as his visa has already expired and now he lives as an illegal alien in America. The person who he trusted and was loyal to desserts him and leaves him to go ahead with his own life.

Ganchin has constricted himself in the temple serving as a monk and therefore lack skills, experience on the outside life. This is another kind of slavery since he is not exposed to the outside world. He is unwilling to take on new challenges after being excommunicated from the temple by Zong. He does not know English and feels that he does not have anything constructive to offer or engage in. However, to survive he must learn to adapt to these new situation. Due to desperations and dissolutions, Ganchin attempts to commit suicide to end his agony and live challenges.

On the other hand, the character by the name Zong is oppressive and seems to ignore the rule of law. He mistreats Ganchin by refusing to pay him his dues, dismisses him and even withholds his vizas denying Ganchin an opportunity to enjoy his sweat. Even though Zong is an immigrant, he is self-posed and therefore has a free will. He makes decisions solely and does whatever he wishes to do. He is the kind of a character that Ha Jin has projected as a person that seems to think that he has an upper hand and has right to do whatever he wants to do.

Even though the book, “A Good Fall” by Ha Jin has a variety of themes and character, Ganchin represent forces of slavery while Zong who is his master depicts a person with free will. Therefore, Ha has actually managed to contrast the two characters with the roles they play in society and the kind of treatment they get. In general, the life of immigrant’s in America is projected negatively as those in low economic class are oppressed by the mighty in society.