Settings-Phoenix Mountain

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  • Phoenix Mountain
    • Why is the Phoenix Mountain a significant place in the novel?
      • Phoenix Mountain is significant because:
        • it is the main setting throughout the novel.
        • it is the place where Luo and the narrator were sent for reeducation, during the Cultural Revolution.
        • during their stay on Phoenix Mountain, they became more mature.
    • Climate
      • Humid
      • It rained often
      • Storms or torrential downpours were rare
      • Insidious drizzle that seemed to go on forever
      • Foggy and misty
    • Background information about the mountain
      • Phoenix mountain is a rural area with terrifying altitude and vertiginous slope.
        • Usually, each village took in 5-6 young people from the city.
          • However, the village that Luo and the narrator were allocated to, was so poor that they could only afford two: Luo and the narrator.
      • The Phoenix of the sky comprised some  twenty villages scattered along the footpath.
      • Villagers were uncivilized and uneducated.
        • For example, when Luo and the narrator first arrived to the village, the villagers were very enthusiastic to see a clock. As there had never been an alarm clock in the village.
          • The two city boys were surprised to see how the alarm clock seized the imagination of the peasants.
      • The village was very primitive and had little contact with the outside world.
      • A hundred kilometers away from the Phoenix Mountain would reach to the banks of River Ya and the small town of Yong Jing.
    • Quotes
      • "The name was a poetic way of suggesting its terrifying altitude." (p.11)
      • "It rained often on Phoenix Mountain. It rained two days out of three." (p.15)
      • "Hundred-odd 'young intellectuals' who were banished to the mountain known as the Phoenix of the Sky" (p.11)
      • "Throughout the years of our reeducation on the house on stilts remained almost entirely unfurnished." (p.13)
      • "The peaks and cliffs surrounding our house on stilts were constantly veiled in a thick, sinister mist." (p.15)
      • "This wild and lonely place, so thickly screened by giant trees, tangled creepers and lush vegetation." (p.12)
      • "For any signs of civilization, you had to tramp across rugged mountain terrain for two days" (p.11)
      • "People had timed their days by sunrise and sundown." (p.13)
      • "There was no road into the mountain, only a narrow pathway threading steeply through great walls of craggy rock." (p.11)

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