Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Red Scarf Girl, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Conformity vs. Loyalty
Class, Power, and Justice
The Power of Propaganda
Identity and Individualism
Hard Work and Success
Summary
Analysis
Ji-li Jiang was born on Chinese New Year. Her mom and dad chose her name, which means “lucky and beautiful,” hoping that she would be the happiest girl in the world. Looking back, she knows she was happy because she was always loved. But she was also too trusting, especially in the ideas of the Chinese Communist Party, which told her that she should love and honor Chairman Mao even more than her parents. She wears her red scarf, the emblem of the Young Pioneers, with pride. Then, in 1966, when she is 12 years old and in sixth grade, everything changes: the Cultural Revolution begins.
The prologue introduces protagonist Ji-li and one of the work’s main ideas: that there’s a difference between loyalty to the people a person loves and conformity to the expectations of their social group. Although Communist Party ideology tells Ji-li that Chairman Mao should be the most important person in her life, this passage places him second, after the family which gives her the love that makes her happy. She quotes an oath recited by schoolchildren which encouraged them to love Mao more than their families; one of the ways the Party ensured conformity was by using propaganda, slogans, and sayings like this to outline expected behavior.
Themes
