In Zhang’s ‘‘Love Must Not Be Forgotten,’’ the narrator, Shanshan, discusses the discovery of her mother’s love for a married man, and much of the story is devoted to the unfolding of the details of this secret attachment. Zhang uses Shanshan’s memories, in conjunction with the diary, to allow the reader and Shanshan a glimpse…
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Love Must Not Be Forgotten – Setting
Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of the People’s Republic of China in 1966 commenced a political campaign designed to protect and consolidate Mao’s power and eliminate any threat posed by dissenters and enemies. Artists, academics, and intellectuals were accused of being elitists, and their works…
Love Must Not Be Forgotten – Literary Devices
First-Person Narrator and Present Tense A first-person narrative is one in which the person telling the story refers to himself or herself as . In ‘‘Love Must Not Be Forgotten,’’ the first-person narrator happens to be the main character in the story, Shanshan, although this is not always the case in stories narrated in the…
Love Must Not Be Forgotten – Themes
Marriage According to Shanshan, marriage as it exists in the People’s Republic of China in the 1970s is typically a simple business arrangement. Love rarely factors in, and marriage and procreation are necessary duties to be performed. Shanshan sums up the Chinese view of marriage by saying that it is focused on ‘‘law and morality.’’…
Love Must Not Be Forgotten – Summary
In Zhang’s ‘‘Love Must Not Be Forgotten,’’ the narrator is a thirty-year-old woman contemplating marriage. Shanshan, the narrator, describes her suitor Qiao Lin as handsome but quiet. Unable to discern whether his silence derives from a contemplative nature, which makes him reluctant to speak, or from the fact that he simply has nothing to say,…