Footprints on the Flag

Organization and Ideas 

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1.    The first paragraph depicted Min’s action that gives us some ideas to know her. First, she is very patriotic. Through her words, we can see that Min’s has a deep-rooted thought that people can by no means show their unrespectable attitude or disloyal behavior to their nation and regime. This kind of idea probably has a strong connection with her education of communist in China. Also, she is careful and responsible. She wiped the flag clean with her jacket each time after a viewer steeped on it.   

2.    Narrative also presents other conflicts besides the one between Min and the artist, such as the conflict between Min and the artist's admirers, the conflict between the artist's admirers and China, the conflict between Min and United States, the conflict between Min and China and the conflict between United States and China.

3.    I think the most important conflict is between Min and China because under Maoist regime, Min was forced to denounce her beloved teacher as an American spy in order to demonstrate her loyalty toward the Communist Party. She feels sorry for herself to be brainwashed under that kind of regime. In addition, she went to the America to run away the repressed and unfree life in China and to seek for shelter after denounced the Communist China.

4.    The thesis is “We should value our hard-won freedom and never take it for granted.” From Min’s overall experience, she described her unfree and hard time in China which makes her treasure and cherish freedom now. Therefore, she felt unbelievable and infuriated that the artist claimed that he lacked freedom. To Min, the artist was too free to truly understand the value of freedom.

5.    In Paragraph 4 and 5, Min’s narrative is kind of exaggerated because she felt emotional about the burning flag idea and got worked up by saying that the words were “boiling” in her head when the artist's admirers told her to get her English straight.