In this custom research paper, the extract analyzed is The Communist Revolution in China, taken from the book Total War, Totalitarianism and the Arts by Gloria Fiero, Chapter 34, pages 420-421. Gloria Fiero is a famous writer, lecturer, and Ph.D. in Humanities, which determined her field of work and the creation of the given book. The researcher has been teaching the Humanities, World Literature, and Art for twenty-five years or more. That gave her many conclusions and ideas, which she decided to systemize and customize for the humanity. This extract depicts the period in the history of China from 1911 to 1963. The book was written and published in 2002.

The reviewed extract discusses the beginning and development of totalitarianism in the world and its influence upon Chinese political views, culture, social life, and art. The piece has information about the formation of People’s Republic of China, development of communist ideas, and their aimed formatting and interpretation performed by Mao Zedong (Fiero 420). Furthermore, it mentions the results of his rule including economic, cultural, and social reforms (Fiero 421). The author pays specific attention to the influence of Mao Zedong’s reforms on art, giving examples of new tendencies and requirements for creation of ideological literature. She also illustrates the sample of woodcut art that was the symbol of the initial avant-garde in China during the Cultural Revolution (Fiero 421).

Thus, this piece of writing clearly shows that people can be easily manipulated and ruled with the use of proper ideology. The easiest way to do this is to use the communist ideology, which is the closest to the ideal image of society among the “masses”, as Mao Zedong calls the people, and to adapt it properly to the real world of a certain society. It becomes evident in what way political leaders can influence minds of people through taking total control over all spheres of life including literature and arts.

In general, the writing is rather interesting as it presents the information in a very compact way, depicting the development of totalitarianism, its influence, and results within two pages. Moreover, the style of writing and language are easy to read and the piece is well-structured, which leads the reader to the end of the article. The most important is that this extract reveals the history and the initiation of Cultural Revolution in China, providing the evidence of significant influence of communist ideas and ideas of totalitarianism in China and in other countries.

Work Cited

Gloria K. Fiero. Modernism, Globalism, and the Information Age. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002. Print.