Chen Ta Erh: The Time Bomb

Ch'en Ta Erh: The Time Bomb

In Man's Fate, Andre Malraux examines the compelling forces that lead individuals to join a
greater cause. Forced into a life of contempt, Ch'en portrays the man of action in the early phases of the
Chinese Revolution. He dedicates himself to the communist cause. It is something greater than himself, a
phenomenal concept that he has fused into. It is something for which he will give his life. How did this
devotion come about? A combination of his personality, his interior life, as well as society's influence,
molded him into a terrorist. Ch'en is self-destructive; he is controlled by his religion of terrorism and his
fascination with death. He is representative of the dedicated soldier who begins as a "sacrificial priest" (4)
and ends as a martyr. After all, the ideologies of communism and terrorism were practically a religion to
those involved in the revolution.
An examination of Ch'en's past gives us an idea of how he formed his beliefs, and fell into a state of
isolation. At an early age, his parents were murdered in the pillage of Kalagan. In addition, at age twenty-
four, his uncle was taken hostage and killed because he couldn't afford the ransom, and with no wife or
children he was severed from any attachment to a family. He was practically brought up by pastor
Smithson, representative of the thousands of Christians that were present in Shanghai, who gave him his
Christian education. However, "[a]s he was devoid of ...

Chen Ta Erh: The Time Bomb

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