Chapter Summary
The chapter begins with Jim and his parents setting off for Hunjao - a country district 5 miles to the west of Shanghai - to go the party. Usually Jim's mother would tell Yang to avoid the beggar who stayed at the end of the drive, but that day Jim saw that the front wheel crushed the old man's foot, and he worries about him.
Jim desribes how he is ''fascinated'' by the police at the checkpoint, and he thinks about their guns and how he had found one at home once.
Jim 'felt sorry for the peasant woman' when she had her sack of rice spilt over the floor and her cart turned over.
He doubts - as does his father - that England could ever beat Japan in the war, despite being English himself.
Jim says that the chief attraction of Dr. Lockwood's parties was the disused airfield, and he is relieved to find upon arrival that the party would not be a success.
Character summary
JIM:
1. Sympathetic
- the beggar
''the snow formed a thick quilt from which the old man's face emerged like a sleeping child's above an eiderdown. Jim told himself that he never moved because he was warm under the snow''.
''Jim worried about the beggar'' but his mother reassures him that he was given a warm bowl of rice.
These quotes show that Jim feels sorry for him, and he even tries to persuade himself that the he is okay during the Winter nights, but his conscience is never really settled when it comes to the old beggar man.
- the peasant woman
''Jim felt sorry for the peasant woman, whose sack of rice was probably her only possession''
He is sympathetic towards the peasant woman, but at the same time he feels respect for those responsible for her need for sympathy.
2. Interested in aircraft
''the chief attraction of Dr. Lockwood's parties was the disused airfield''
''He...liked to think of himself as the co-pilot of the Packard''
This quote shows that although there is no aeroplane involved, he likes to think of himself as a 'pilot', and the fact that he automatically uses an aircraft-related metaphor shows that he holds a great interest for real aeroplanes and even the ''balsa aircraft'' that he carries around with him.
3. Has a rebellious side
''Jim doubted if there was any point explaining to Mr. Maxted why he had left the wolf-cubs, an act of rebellion he had decided upon simply to test its result.''
This makes the reader think that Jim likes to see how far he can push his luck, and MAYBE he likes to feel in control of something - in this case his attendance at the wolf-cubs - in a war where he has no control over anything else?
''The communists'' (could be seen as rebels in that time) ''had an intriguing ability to unsettle everyone, a talent Jim greatly respected.'' Here, he even wonders about telling Mr. Maxted that he has become a communist, probably just to test the result again, but then there could be a small part of him that would want to be a communist, as he says that he ''greatly'' respects them.
''On his cycle journeys around Shanghai - trips of which his parents were unaware -'' This shows that the trips would be forbidden, otherwise he would tell his parents, and therefore he is acting out against their wish, and so being rebellious.
4. Realistic
''...and their weird voices full of talk about a strange, inconceivable England. But if the war came, could they beat the Japanese? Jim doubted it...''
At first, the reader might get the impression that Jim is being unpatriotic, as he is originally English, however he has obviously thought about it, and he doesn't see the point in having false belief that his home country will beat the powerful country in which he now lives.
5. Admires the Japanese
''...he admired the Japanese. He liked their bravery and stoicism, and their sadness which struck a chord with Jim, who was never sad.''
Stoicism:indifference to pleasure or pain
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