Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress By Dia Sijie

599 Words2 Pages

The book, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written by Dia Sijie, was set during the Chinese Revolution in China around the 1960’s. On pages 92-93, the Narrator, Luo, and the Seamstress are visiting the Seamstress’s ancestor’s grave. The Narrator begins by explaining the setting and introduces the tone, then leads into the dialog between the Narrator and the Seamstress. From there, the Narrator describes all the things he loves about the her. The experience the narrator went through helps reveal his character. The Narrator is more of a passive observer when it comes Luo and the Seamstress’s relationship. He is in love with the Seamstress, but nobody knows because he hasn’t told anyone. In this passage, the Narrator seems lonely and …show more content…

It has a strong tone as well. The tone changes as the dialog begins, he starts explaining how no one understand him and the things he think is important are different than them. He says that neither of them shared his “indignation at the scandalous theft of the old miller's songs.” This selection of detail helps back up the fact that he is misunderstood. He also pointed out that neither of them seemed to care that their friend Four-Eyes was leaving the mountain or “the prospect of of losing Balzac.” All these examples of selection of detail exemplify that he doesn't share the same interests or thoughts as everyone else. He did describe though that they finally paid attention to him when he told them about pretending to be Luo. After this, the tone sort of changes. The narrator is watching the little seamstress and is mesmerized by every move she makes. Her laugh made him want to “marry her there and then.” The selection of detail shows how in love with her he is, despite the fact that she is Luo’s girlfriend. Since she's Luo’s girlfriend, he stays loyal to his best friend and does not act upon his crush. Suddenly, the tone turns around and the seamstress says “about those books of his--what if we stole them?” This is completely out of the blue, and isn't something the seamstress would normally say. This selection of detail turns the passage around and introduces a new topic of conversation as well as brings upon a new side of the Seamstress. Overall, this experience he went through brought out his true feelings and revealed his character through examples of diction, tone, and selection of

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