preview

The Little Chinese Seamstress Analysis

Decent Essays
Open Document

The Little Chinese Seamstress is a story told through the eyes of a young narrator living in Communist China. Throughout this story the character constantly evolves in his mannerisms and his train of thought. His relationship with his best friend, Lou, constantly changes as well as Lou begins to hang out with the rural seamstress. One particular passage, beginning at 123 and ending through the end of 125. In this passage, the narrator has a dream about the Little Seamstress tumbling over a cliff side. The dream has deeper meaning and speaks volumes on the narrator’s jealousy, as well as fear, of Lou and the Little Seamstresses relationship.

As the passage begins, the narrator has a dream incorporating the Seamstress, himself and Lou. In this first section of the passage, the narrator is frightened by the Seamstress as her relationship with Lou progresses, and that the narrator finds the Seamstress to be soothing. The first way this passage portrays this is by the use of shifting diction. As the dream begins, the narrator's perception of the girl shifts several times before cementing on the Little Seamstress. This diction implies the narrator's true feelings for the Seamstress. It does this by the narrator recognizing the girls before it focusing on the Seamstress. Another way the narrator's fears and feelings for the Seamstress is seen through the details about the pig. At the beginning of the passage when the narrator wakes up from the dream he “was soothed

Get Access