Nathan MurphyMegan EddyEnglish 102-2516 March, 2015Title Placeholder Until I Can Think of A Better TitleYiyun Li has employed various writing techniques to depict images of what China may have been like during the cultural revolution in her book, "A Thousand Years of Good Prayers". Using imagination and stories passed down to her, she has crafted several stories all with relation to China and it's dark history. However, the themes within the story convey a much deeper and personal message about the characters, as well as the environment they are in. In Li's story, Immortality she explores the meaning of identity and self worth. In the beginning, the narrator tells of a young boy who has the face of the country's dictator. When the real dictator died, he became the dictator's impersonator, assuming his identity and his worth among the people of China. However, as the cultural revolution began, Love for the dictator quickly faded. Eventually, the Chinse government ursurped the title of the impsersonator from him, and he was sent back to his village with great shame (Immortality). Li uses the thoughts, emotions, and actions of the characters in her story to portray particular themes. Of these themes, identity and the search for love stand out as the most prominent in Immortality. In the very beginning of the story, Li introduces the reader to the Great Papas and the Chinese tradition of supplying eunichs to their emporer. Before serving as the emporer's slave, the eunich must first surrender his maleness. Perhaps ironically, this was seen to be as a great honor and opportunity for the young boys. To the people of a small village, Li writes that the Great Papas, "filled our hearts with pride and gratitude" (46). They provided the town with glory and gave it a sort of recognition. From the services they provided, they created a centralized identity for the small town. Li confirms this, "If not for [the Great Papas], who were we, the small people born into this no-name town?" (46). Along with bestow a special identity, these eunichs meant to immortalize their family names through honor. However, the narrator never mentions any family names involved with the Great Papa stories. This is a subtle suggestion foreshadowing that the attempt to immortalize anything is futile.A decade after the fall of the emporer, communism arose. A boy is born under the song of communism in China with the dictators face, a thing the public feared and praised. The dictator was described as cruel, sentencing younch children to labour camps for the incorrect spelling of his name. However, people were also led to follow his rule. Li describes him as, "Our Father, Our Savior...[and] the Never Falling Sun of Our Era" (48). As the boy matured, his face became closer to that of the dictator. Finally, the dictator died and the government wanted to install someone into power that resembled him. The boy, now a man, went on to audition to be the "impersonator". Succeeding in obtaining the position, the man assumed the mantle as one of the most powerful positions in China. He reignites the people's hope and, "nostalgic tears fill everyone's eyes" (59). The people look up to him as if he were the dictator himself, and in a way, he has truly become him. His identity has changed and now reflects that of the dictator, but he enforced these changes upon himself. Seeking the same immortal glory and recognition as the former dictator, the young man soon falls to his own faults.The plot outcome of this story was especially important because it proves that identity should not be found, but defined by oneself. The man in the story, who's name the reader has never been told, had rose to great power, yet could not find happiness. Although assuming position of the greatest person in the country, he was unhappy because he was not truly himself. Furthermore, that lack of love played a significant role in his downfall. The author writes, "Now that none of the daughters are available anymore, he starts to fantasize about the women he should have had long ago" (62). The people of China sought to immortalize the image of the dictator by hiring impersonators in his place; but, time is inevitable and not even names of people live on forever. Yiyun Li could have picked any setting to choose to write her stories in; however, China puts great emphasis on the themes she intended for the reader to understand. For most of her stories, the time period is at or before the cultural revolution in China. People lived under Mao's reign and suffered deciet and famines. Her themes seem to contrast that of her setting, like the theme of identity in a communism village. Her characters define the theme mainly through their actions. In an interview with Yiyun Li, she says, "To me, fiction is comprised of 'situations...' " (Reale). Yiyun prefers to develop the stories through emotion, actions and events rather than dialouge. Furthermore, ones own definition of love varies by each character and helps define their true identity. This idea coincides nicely with the fact that the man in "Immortality" didn't have an identity and therefore did not experience love.

Works CitedLi, Yiyun. A Thousand Years of Good Prayers. New York: Random House, 2005. Print.Reale, Michelle. "Yiyun Li." Writer (Kalmbach Publishing Co.) 120.9 (2007): 58. Literary Reference Center. Web. 23 Mar. 2015.