The Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Essay

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

In the book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, the two main characters Luo and the unnamed narrator are sent for reeducation in the Countryside of China in the 1970’s for crimes of their parents. The main characters encounter a village girl known as the Little Seamstress along their travels in the Phoenix Mountain Area and Luo and the Little Seamstress pursue an interesting relationship throughout the course of the book. From pages 149-151, the portrayal of the relationship between Luo and The Little Seamstress through Luo’s perspective reveals his condescending nature towards her and his idolization of her physical features while overlooking the majority of her personality.

What is the ironic result in his success in making the Little Seamstress more Sophisticated?

In the beginning of the story, both the narrator and Luo immediately fall in love with Western literature because they value the actual content of the books and understand its power. In fact, the narrator is so compelled by the novel that he eagerly writes down a few passages from Ursule Mirouet on his sheepskin coat. When Luo reads the passage to the Little Seamstress, both Luo and the narrator start to acknowledge the power of literature: “‘This fellow Balzac is a wizard,’ he [Luo] went on. ‘He touched the head of this mountain girl with an invisible finger and she was transformed, carried away in a dream. It took a while for her to come down to earth...She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent’” (62). In addition to the narrator and Luo realizing how potent Balzac's novels are, the two realize the benefits of Western literature towards their relationship with the Little Seamstress. It is quite clear that both of them seem to have an affection towards the Little Seamstress, and thus realize the crucial role that these books play in order to strengthen the bond between them and the Little Seamstress. The problem with the two becoming obsessed

Storytelling can be found in every corner of the world. It is used to pass the time, tell of past or current events, and is the way that we communicate with each other. In Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress, by Dai Sijie, storytelling occurs during times of hopelessness when life seems hard and allows the characters to live vicariously through the tales told. The narrator and Luo use storytelling as an escape from reality in times of desperation. The tailor is influenced by the stories to the point where he changes the style of clothing he creates to escape the boundaries of Mao approved clothing. The importance of storytelling to the little seamstress is that she learns the importance of beauty, and is able to leave the current life

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.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a feminist novel as it empowers women through the change of the Little Chinese Seamstress. Throughout the novel Luo and the narrator alter the Little Seamstress, as they talk to her and introduce her to western literature she grows more independent and begins to make her own decisions. Going by the name of The Little Chinese Seamstress throughout the entire book, the only main female character does not have a real name. This can first be interpreted as a sexist remark by Dai Sijie but in reality it helps bring out the feminist values of the book. From this broad name The Little Chinese Seamstress represents all women in China during that period.

Throughout the story, even though the Seamstress is a girl, she still takes the same actions as Luo and the narrator who are boys. One of the actions she takes place is when Luo throughs the keys down the water, and she goes diving in the water to hunt for the keys. By Dai Sijie putting this information into the story, we are able to tell that the Little Seamstress can do the same things that Luo and the narrator do. Therefore, women shouldn’t be judged by their appearances. They might not have the greatest language skills, or they might not have other great things, but looking into the Little Seamstress, her physical appearance and her heart is wonderful.

After she begins to dress the way a city girl would dress, and act the way a city girl would act, she makes the seemingly sudden decision to leave for the city and start her new life there. When asked why she did, why she would make such a sudden change on the very last page, Luo quoted her saying, “She said she had learnt one thing from Balzac; that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price.” This sudden and drastic change was very unlikely based solely on her actions. However, like all ideas, her transformation was not entirely spontanious. She had thought about what she would do, perhaps for a very long time. Although it is not obviously stated, her thought process beginning to change was hinted at long before she chose to leave. “Suddenly swung her head around to face us. ‘About those books of his- what if we stole them.?’” (Sijie, 89) At the time, this strikes the reader as somewhat uncharacteristic. Before this, she had been very mild mannered and chose to go along with the will of others. So much so that one would assume that she would not act on her own will. Because of this, one could argue that her seemingly abrupt transformation was due to the actions of Luo wanting to change her. While this claim is understandable, it is not really true. Yes, Luo did tell her the stories and attempt to make the little seamstress more cultured. In many ways, he succeeded in doing so. However, he was only the messenger, the means of getting

The narrator suddenly pauses to add dramatic effect as he is speaking, as he does, Luo softly whispers “Right now … you're doing better than me. You should have been a writer”(125). Luo is the main storyteller, so therefore when the narrator obtains a compliment from him he gets a sense of hope that he could do something with his life even in the midst of the cultural revolution where he is constantly restrained from being himself. The narrator uses the books to escape the containment of just being Lou’s friend, he switches the roles and he takes the upper hand. Through the novel, the narrator gains the courage to be his own self and never be in the shadow of Luo again. In contrast to the narrator, Luo is inspired by the books to persevere in times of sickness. Luo uses the knowledge from the stories to keep hope alive even when things seem to go downhill. Luo, one day, receives a letter from the Little Chinese Seamstress, as Luo and the narrator are talking. She petitions Luo to journey down to her village and tell her one of his stories. Luo at the time of receiving the letter attains malaria, nonetheless he still wants to see the Little Seamstress. He makes the journey, but when they get there he is hit with another wave malaria, making him unable to perform. Therefore, the narrator tells the story to the Little Chinese Seamstress. The narrator illustrates a story

In the novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, author Dai Sijie utilizes character experiences to reveal different important aspects of the characters and their personalities. One passage that exemplifies this is on pages 143-144. The headman of Luo and the Narrator’s village overhears the Narrator reciting stories to the tailor and gives them an ultimatum that if they don’t fix his tooth, then he will report the Narrator to the authorities. The passage picks up when the Narrator is taking over the job of running the sewing machine with a needle attached to act like a dental drill. The focus is on his range of emotions as he goes through the process. The experience of attempting to repair the headman’s tooth help the Narrator to realize his own frustrations with re-education revealing that it’s difficult for him to interpret his emotions.

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’

Lou and his best friend, the narrator, attempt to culture the little seamstress through their western novels. They believed that by educating her they could make her less like an innocent country girl and more like them, an educated city dweller. The little seamstress does become educated by the books the way the boys hoped, but her education goes further until it eventually motivates her to leave her home and the boys behind. “That was the payoff of this metamorphosis this feat of Balzacian re-education, was yet to occur to us.…did we overestimate the power of love?…or quite simply had we ourselves failed to grasp the essence of the novels we had read to her?” (Sijie, 180).

     In this paper, I will discuss three different works by Silko (Lullaby, Storyteller, and Yellow Woman). Each of the stories will be discussed according to plot, style, and social significance. After that, I will relate Silko?s work to other literary genies and analyze her work as a

Mao Dun, or rather his true name Shen Dehong, was a 20th century novelist and later the Minister of Culture of the People’s Republic of China from 1949 to 1965. He is considered one of the most well-known and celebrated left-wing realist writers of modern China and is best known for two of his stories, Ziya and Spring Silkworms, the latter which will be referenced throughout this essay. Spring Silkworms tells the story of an elderly man named Old Tong Bao, his family, and his village as they prepare for the coming silk worm season. Throughout the story, we are able to get a sense of the desperation and turmoil that Old Tong Bao’s village is experiencing. From learning about the debt that his family has, how they had to sacrifice food in