In Class Assignment - Chapter 24 Synopsis and Analysis

   

The chapter opens a few days before October 1 when the POWs are told by the Communist leaders in the prison house to observe their National Day by raising their flag.  Using materials found in the compounds, the prisoners are able to make flags, flagpoles, and weapons.  Their plan is betrayed to the Americans by a prisoner in one of Yuan’s neighboring compounds, Compound 7, and the Americans confiscate all the weapons they find.  Yet on October 1, the POWs continue with their plan and raise the flag.  The consequences are disastrous as the GIs attack the poorly armed but defiant POWs in Compounds 7 and 5.  Many POWs are killed and wounded.  However, Chaolin, the leader in Compound 7, declares a victory and Commissar Pei congratulates the POWs.  This alarms Yuan in light of the loss of life.  

I agree with Yuan that the prisoners were being used during this chapter by the Communist leaders for their own motives and also found it odd that the leaders would respond to this tragedy with praise and declarations of victory.  For the leaders of group which valued fraternity, it seems hypocritical for Commissar Pei and Chaolin to treat the deaths and injuries of so many of their fellow countrymen so lightly.  I think it displays the human natural inclination toward self-interest rather than interest in others.