Perspective

The autobiography is written from the point of view of Cheng. The entire novel stays with her perspective and outside commentary from other key characters during this period of her life are never brought in. For this reason, we can only know what happened to Cheng from how she relates it. Considering the social and political environment at the time, it would be nearly impossible to find an honest depiction of this time period from anyone in her life during the Cultural Revolution.

Cheng's perspective is an important one for the novel. By keeping her perspective throughout the novel, the reader gets a better understanding of her motivations, feelings and emotions. After all, it is difficult to understand how anyone could endure losing everything in her life due to a false imprisonment charge and becoming the pawn of a political person like Jiang Qing and still remain sharp...