The Theme of Corruption in Ha Jin’s Saboteur Marcum Nance College

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process, he does not become a monster, and if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” These immortal words spoken by Nineteenth-Century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche sum up the plight of the protagonist of Ha Jin’s Saboteur. Mr. Chiu begins as an honest citizen standing up for his rights. He is tortured physically, and psychologically by a corrupt justice system until he is transformed into a psychopath driven by the desire to kill innocent people as a demented form of retaliation against those who tortured him. Ha uses Mr. Chiu to show the reader how corruption can spread like a disease and both are indiscriminate killers.

Saboteur, is set shortly after the Cultural Revolution in China, which took place in 1966, and continued until 1976 after the death of the Communist Party leader Mao Zedong. At the start of the Cultural Revolution, Mao asked for kids to rise up and help purge the state by joining the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) subsequently, he eradicated each opposing political figure in power. The Communist Party president Liu Shaoqi was imprisoned amongst many of his supporters. After Mao eliminated all the divergent political...