Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Characters

The story aids in convincing society of the negatives of the Bourgeoisie, as they are portrayed this way in the piece of literature through the sisters’ self-importance and sense of entitlement. Moreover, the hard working and virtuous Beauty embodies the positive aspects of the Proletariat in the text. Furthermore, the merchant’s wealth directly affects his importance in the story. This story is one of the many examples of an allegory used to promote an author's viewpoint as it is seen as a romantic story on the surface, but underneath, shows the importance of wealth and presence of class within society. This story can prove that readers must broaden their scope in order to examine all aspects of a text and analyze them in a way to draw true

Luo decides to undertake the project of educating the Little Seamstress by reading books by western authors to her in hopes that she will learn from the characters in the stories and try to adopt their civilized ways. The Little seamstress forms a connection with the books almost instantaneously from her first exposure to Western Literature. According to Luo, “after I had read the passage from Balzac to her word for word...she took your coat and reread the whole thing, in silence. When she’d finished reading, she sat there quite still, open-mouthed. Your coat was resting on the flat of her hands, the way a sacred object lies in the palms of the pious” (Sijie 62). The is astounded by the wise words of Balzac and it is and eye opening experience for her. Through Sieves diction in this passage, the word “pious” also indicated that reading books is also a sacred or spiritual experience for the Little Seamstress. This moment is one of the most significant in the whole text, because it makes the beginning of the Seamstress's Transformation, by showing the great effect that literature has on her. From the Little Seamstress’

Stories give people new ideas and experiences along with lessons that they are unable to realize in their own lives. The narrator feels as though he is in the land of Balzac’s Ursule Mirouёt even though he has never before seen France. He is so fascinated with the story that he does not put the book down until he has finished the last page (Sijie 57). This allows him to experience life in an entirely different manner from which he is accustomed. From these stories, the boys gain insights into thoughts and emotions that are completely foreign to them. While Luo visits the Little Seamstress telling her of the stories he as read, the narrator feels one of these unfamiliar emotions. He states, “Suddenly I felt a stab of jealousy, a bitter wrenching emotion I had never felt before” (58). Although jealousy is not usually seen as a good feature and while this emotional awakening may seem like a negative effect of storytelling to some readers, it is actually an amazing accomplishment. Stories provide their readers with a new perception of life. They are able to feel what they have never felt, to see what they have never seen, and to be what they have never been. While these experiences may not be the most enjoyable, all experiences leave people with a more extensive idea of what life really is.

The protagonist, Shinji, in The Sound of Waves can be contrasted to the protagonist, the narrator, in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Shinji found a girl, Hatsue, which he loved, and pursued to go after her even when it was forbidden by her father. On the other hand, the narrator loved the Little Seamstress, but didn’t go after her because his best friend, Luo, already had a growing relationship with her. Since Shinji was determined to win Hatsue’s heart, he went after her. This action of

In communist, Mao-ruled China, children were ripped from their families to be “reeducated” to have individual intellect snuffed out and made to better fit the mold of the ideal communist. Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Seamstress tells the story of two boys subjected to this practice. A boy named Luo and an unnamed narrator who are put through the difficulties of being forced into another way of life. . In pages 142-144 the headman of the village the protagonists are staying in comes to arrest the narrator for telling forbidden western tales. To avoid this arrest the protagonists decided to help the headman with a tooth decay. While the narrator controls the speed of the makeshift drill, he starts to slow down the rotation speed to

A big indicator of the relationship issues is the Old Miller’s point of view, him being unbiased and just an observer. His use of imagery may symbolize more than what initially meets the eye, so to speak. The Old Miller relates the Seamstress to a swallow, her arms as wings and he shows her flying through the air with the other birds, this could show many different things but to tie all this together it would be best to say that this shows that the Old Miller sees the Seamstress as a free living and elegant being. He shows her flying above her surroundings and that seemingly depicts her as a celestial being, above(or better than) this world in which this takes place. This is contradictory to how the Old Miller views Luo. The Miller briefly goes over Luo while calling part of him shrunken, and depicting him falling asleep. At first glance the shrunken comment was very accurate but it may also be to show how much of opposites Luo and the Seamstress are, what with the Seamstress flying with the birds and Luo laying on the shore, shrunken. The Old Miller also tells how the Seamstress falls into the water, “her wings,extended, did not fold until she touched the surface of the water and plummeted into the depths”, this not only shows that she can jump into a pool of water but also may give an unintended representation of the relationship between Luo and the Seamstress. Although this would be beyond the Miller’s knowledge it is possible that Sijie intended this, the Seamstress being the bird, being swallowed by the water, surrounded in it's embrace. Moreover Luo is controlling the Seamstress in ways that are unconventional to a good relationship, he trains her to be civilized and won't let her be herself, sounds like he's enveloping her into his world, much like the water envelops the Seamstress into itself and pulls her to the depths.

Lou lost the Little Seamstress to individualism and her wanting to have free will. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress suggests that we as people evolve in our lives. We learn thing about ourselves and change our perspectives based off of our experiences. One of the major themes in this novel is that you cannot dominate people completely and try to force people to do things then you are in the place of power. The human imagination cannot be restricted and put into a box called communism. The Little Seamstress realized that Luo was trying to control her like the government authorities of China was trying to do to their people towards the end of the book when she says told Luo that “she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price” (184). People are going to want to live as individuals freely and find a way to escape the rules. The topic of not being able to fully dominate and control people is a topic that is still relevant to today’s

China is and always will be a land seen as mysterious to those with roots in Western culture. And in its own way, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie is what can happen when Western and Far Eastern culture interact. Outside of the cultural revolution, headed by Mao Zedong, which makes the whole novel possible, and was a push back against Western involvement in China, the novel includes many other ideas of cultural interaction. However, it also prominently provides complex emotions and changes within the characters who are followed throughout the novel. In fact, one passage in particular reveals much character change and development in the narrator of the story (who will simply be known as narrator for the entirety of this essay), and it occurs on the pages of 166 to 169. The passage is a daydream of the narrator’s after having taken a beating by a band of hooligans and potential suitors of the Little Seamstress. In it, readers can see the narrator develop to the same sort of manhood as Luo: the satisfaction of changing something and reaching independence. However, after reaching this stage, he also realizes the drawbacks to having done so, causing him to feel remorse for his actions. This is achieved by the narrator’s expression of hidden desires he developed over time and what lustful feelings and desperation accompany them.

Written by Dai Sijie, and published in English in 2001, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a contemporary piece with a classic story. The book is about a boy, known to us as “The Narrator,” and his friend Luo. It takes place in communist China. Luo is the son of a well known dentist, while the Narrator is the son of a lung specialist and a consultant in parasitic disease. Due to their parents’ education and status, the boys are sent to a mountain village to be re-educated. While there, the boys live in treacherous conditions and live life, similar to that of Sisyphus, but instead of a boulder, they carry sewage. The Narrator possesses the skill of playing the violin beautifully, while Luo was graced with a story telling ability. While being re-educated, they become acquaintances with The Little Seamstress, eventually becoming more. They begin to read her stories, which they steal, and begin to put their lives in danger. By then, it gets interesting. One major scene that showcases their actions is when Luo has to tend to his sick mother, pages 158 to 160, leaving the Narrator watching over the Little Seamstress. Within this passage, the Narrator’s usual tone drastically changes into a militaristic attitude which reveals that when he is put into a position of power, he conforms to the idea that he should be emotionless and straightforward, in order to hide his true desires.

“When I finished the book Luo had not yet returned, there was no doubt that he had gone to visit the Little Seamstress so he could tell her this wonderful tale of Balzac’s. In my mind’s eye I could see Luo telling her the story and the Little Seamstress listening vigorously open - mouthed. As I was thinking about her I felt a sudden stab of jealousy, a bitter emotion I had never felt before and my desire to be with the Little Seamstress grew stronger. Later that day, Luo came back with leaves of a gingko tree. “We made love there, against the trunk”; those words made me feel somewhat sick in the heart, I didn’t even know that was possible. I strained to imagine it but words failed me... Why does Luo always get everything? He even said himself

The tailor finds another way to escape the controlling grip of Mao. On his customary tour of the villages before the New Year, the tailor decides to stay with Luo and the narrator while working in their village. The two are baffled upon the

In the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress written by Dai Sijie, the interaction between Luo, the Narrator, and the headman reveals the purpose of re-education and its cultural values that shaped Chinese culture and shows the impact that it left on characters such as Luo and The Narrator. Not only does the Chinese government encourage re-education, but through this, it discourages individuality and showing your intellectual abilities.

Through the Seamstress’ time with Luo at the lake, she expresses her individuality therefore building on her character. Repetition of “you’re” such as “I know what you’re getting at…” shows the Seamstress’ ability to be brave and stand up for herself. She is aware that others make judgements of her vulnerability due to her strong loyalty to Luo, however she addresses the reader through these pronouns to uphold herself, exhibiting vitality. Her confrontation with the reader shows confidence and strength, characteristics she didn’t have when being cooped up inside her house. Through the selection of detail, the Seamstress claims she isn’t like the “French girls Balzac talks about” and describes herself as a “mountain girl”. Here, the Seamstress is acknowledging that she is different and unique. She separates herself from other girls with the descriptive word “mountain”, applying that she is more adventurous, bold, and courageous than the “French” girls.

The Narrator is not free of such infractions, either. On page 162, when he is reading to the Seamstress in Luo’s stead, the Narrator says he is “merely a substitute reader” to her, but goes on to claim that “She even seemed to appreciate my way of reading... more than my predecessor’s”. He is reading too deeply into her opinion of him, and feels a sense of entitlement to her affections; he tricks himself into thinking she is more into him than she is her actual boyfriend. Later on, once he learns that the Seamstress is pregnant and seeking an abortion, he “summoned every means of persuasion to stop her from running to the sorceresses for a herbal remedy” (page 172). Describing her as “running” off on her own shows his own lack of trust in the Seamstress’s judgement, and reveals that he thinks she is irrational. On top of this, nearing the novel’s end at page 196, the Narrator is indignant that the Seamstress “had not thought to tell [him]” about her plans to run away to the city. His entitlement to her affections shines through once again, in that she didn’t even want to tell her actual boyfriend about her

In the beginning of the novel, Luo is performing as a high-caliber kind of individual towards his best friend, the Narrator. He is acting like he is superior over the Seamstress, saying things like, “She isn’t civilized, at least not enough for me” (29). Luo doesn’t believe that the Seamstress is that important of a figure, at least not considerable enough to be in his life at this point and time. All that he believes that she is to him is a little seamstress girl that he can read books to. Nothing more than that. The a Seamstress isn't as polite and courteous, as so he thinks. Despite his “uncivilized” feelings about her, he still reads books of reeducation to her and goes by her every chance he gets, which conveys that there is something there that he may be trying to hide, such as his underlying feelings for her. The Narrator noticed that Luo had been “following her every move”(29) and “taking his time to reply”(28). This specific action that Luo tried to hide wasn’t hidden enough for the Narrator to pick up on. Luo doesn’t want to admit that there may be some