Red Scarf Girl

The red scarf is the symbol of devotion to Chairman Mao and the Communist Revolution. The title of the book is Red Scarf Girl because the book as a whole illustrates the connection between girlish naiveté and blind devotion to Chairman Mao. In the Prologue, the red scarf is connected to Ji-li’s “heart bursting with joy” (1), and in the Epilogue, Jiang pairs the red scarf with the naïve belief that one can achieve anything. Not surprisingly, then, by the end of the book’s narrative, the red scarf has disappeared, and so has the “girl” who wore it, replaced by a much wiser young woman

Though this sign plays a small part in the overall book, showing up in only one scene early on, the story of its destruction at the start of the Cultural Revolution is symbolic of the durability of the “‘Four Olds’: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits” (21), and why, for better or worse, these things are not easily broken. People throw the board on the ground, they jump on it, and even suggest running it over with a truck. Finally someone takes an ax to it, and the board “groaned with the impact” (24).