Lulu and Compulsion



In class, “Lulu” sparked discussions around violence, around dualism (between the twins, society, difference between countries, etc.), around the neutral use of technology, and around censorship (of both siblings). To further this discussion, this essay will focus on the common thread of compulsion among characters. The various compulsions include that of Lulu to post and to discover things, of her mother to keep the image of the family, of the brother to check on her sister and to play video games, or society as a whole to follow the instructions in the name of “safety” if not for others than to themselves.





Narration comes from her twin brother’s perspective, who specifically explains the intensity of the bond between the two twins, but also invites readers to understand the moral choices the unnamed brother finds himself torn between. The brother is readers’ window into the story, told from the I, with no reference to his given name. Then, in the opening, the brother refers to the “luck” they had to be siblings at all, as the “one-child policy of family planning” really took to mean “one birth policy,” so most other people did not have siblings, but they were able to be raised together without penalty because they were birthed together. This notion already imbues a relationship that includes responsibility for continued meaningful survival, but it also implies a certain oneness and intense connection. The brother offers these sentiments in the opening and closing of the short story. He describes the idea that their skulls were imprinted by the other twin, even indented like puzzles to fit the other’s skull, and then he says, “Later in life, when we were apart, I used to touch my hand to the back of my skull when I thought of her, as if seeking a phantom limb.” A phantom limb, so deeply connected, and so he feels compelled to check on her like her “Big Brother.” A “Big Brother” who is surveilling her, but with kindness, unlike George Orwell’s from1984. He worries to be seen as spying in such a creepy and untrusting: “I worried that if I said something [about knowing her online identity] she'd see me as somehow untrustworthy, as though I'd been spying on her.” He wants his successes to reflect pride and honor for his twin, ending the story with “I prayed for victory, and hoped that she would be proud.” He notes exactly how he feels about this role in explaining his inner complexity in how to feel about her actions: “I couldn't tell if I should be proud of her, worried for her, or angry with her. I supposed I was all three.” jIn his perspective, he always honored her in his life.






Lulu shows that she can trust her brother first and wholly, particularly when telling him about her pregnancy and even borrowing his laptop risking he’d find out. She feels that her actions online are not stoppable, despite showing she feels most guilty to him. She apologizes most frequently to her “Big Brother.” Her compulsion is revealed most heartfeltly in her apology after her continuous rant and the constant stream of posting on her webpage, revealing pieces about who she is based on her father’s occupation, and brought more attention to her page. She writes, “I'm sorry, Big Brother. I couldn't stop”.






The mother figure cries after having tried to offer her two children blessed lives in honor of their survival. She tries to protect the family name while her golden child was now in prison instead of following a better path she imagined for Lulu. That path is named in the way she hides the predicament to the brother’s girlfriend then-fiance, telling her Lulu was " ‘in the northeast, preparing to get her Ph.D.’ "





Even still, the most heart-wrenching compulsion that the big brother explains, is the unexpected one to Lulu that Lulu’s landlord subcame to--that of duty to the state. Unlike her brother, Lulu’s landlord presumably betrays Lulu letting the state officials in and honors her role as a citizen giving consent to the system retaining control. Her brother describes this compulsion as something that would “haunt her [Lulu].” The change she was supposedly fighting for in the name of access to [unverified, but probable, activist] information via proxies to the citizens of China was undermined by the lack of will for change. The system was avoiding chaos, an act that honors Confucius's ideal. The system may be corrupt to Lulu, but if other people continue to give their consent, her efforts and those of others would amount to futile.








The various compulsions coincide with the scattered constant input that various technologies have allowed, taking certain compulsions to duties to extremes by now catering towards mindless behaviors. Those behaviors may be independently neutral or carried out without ulterior-supra motives, but others ascribe values onto them: like internet activism being hailed to a certain extent by Western influences, or playing video games relentlessly and not think of defeat/death can be seen as a social good to a gaming community.

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