Like Su Tong, Yu Hua ventures to demonstrate the inevitable escape from history, particularly, the history of the Cultural Revolution. In “1986”, Yu Hua portrays a high school history teacher going missing during the revolution and his return ten years after the event. Yu Hua employs different perspectives in depicting the story of the history teacher as to illustrate the idea that everyone is closely connected to history and no one is able to escape from it. The history teacher, his wife, daughter and the onlookers are all shrouded by the nightmare of the revolution and all attempts at taking different means of escape. Before he is taken away by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, he is calmly washing his feet while at the same time meditating, “He is thinking that it may be his turn now.” (Yu Hua 342) Different from most trauma sufferers, he does not have a lack of preparedness for the event. …show more content…
Therefore, we may assume that Freud’s notion of the difference in terms of the reaction between trauma victims who are “unprepared” and who are “well prepared” (Beyond the Pleasure Principle 26) is seemingly non-applicable to the protagonist. However prepared he is for the event, ten years later, he is still traumatised and cannot return to the normal state of mind that he even practices sadomasochism, which proves that Freud’s theory is not applicable to his case. It is noteworthy that though it is in his knowledge that the Red Guards would come sooner or later, he chooses neither escape or flee to other cities because probably there is no way to go. Furthermore, Yu Hua’s representation of shadow as history is well demonstrated in the story. After being taken to a classroom to write confession, “he sees the shadow on the wall, in which he sees a black hole that enables him to break out…… His fingers are through the black hole, then his arm. He squeezes himself into the black hole more