The novel of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written by Dai Sijie is a story set during the historical period of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. During this time, the civilians are forced to endure the harsh conditions of reeducation. Dai includes very vivid details that exemplify how terrible the situation was for the characters, since they had to carry their waste up a mountain and they were forced to work in dangerous coal mines. The narrator’s friend Luo is even infected with malaria and he is whipped for long durations of time in hope that the disease will leave his body. One other important aspect is that Western literature is strictly banned, but the narrator is successfully able to get a hold of one. Throughout the book, …show more content…
Luo and the narrator make a deal Four-Eyes, to get him the lyrics of the old miller in exchange for more of books. Although the narrator and Luo is able to get the song, Four-Eyes is not impressed : “‘You think I’m crazy or what? All you’ve brought me is useless garbage, which will only get me in trouble!” (78). Eventually, Luo and the narrator become uneasy towards Four-Eyes and the two realize that they must resort to stealing, in order to obtain the books. Luo and the narrator break into Four-Eyes’s house in search of the suitcase filled with books. The theft scene becomes very suspenseful when Four-Eyes and his mother arrive back home. The mother becomes suspicious that the suitcase that is filled with books is untied. Possibly the best thing that could've happened for Luo and the narrator is when Four-Eyes flees outside, presumably due to his diarrhea issues. This gives Luo and the narrator the perfect chance to make their escape with the suitcase. To sum up, their desire to obtain the books puts them at high risk situations. This makes Western literature become more of a negative impact on the boys because the narrator and Luo must realize what trouble they are putting themselves into in order …show more content…
In a chapter written in the Little Seamstress’s perspective, she says “The books Luo read to me always made me want to dive into the cool water of the mountain torrent. Why? It was a gut reaction. Like when you can’t help blurting out what you’re thinking” (143). It almost seems as though the books have such a supernatural, extraordinary effect on the Little Seamstress. Perhaps the reason that the Little Seamstress chooses to play the game with the keys with Luo, is for convincing Luo to read aloud a passage from the Balzac books. At the end of the book, readers observe the final effects of literature on the Little Seamstress. The Little Seamstress leaves the city, which takes Luo and the narrator by surprise. The two finally realize that the Little Seamstress has been affected by the thematic messages that were present in Balzac’s novel. They believe that “... she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price” (184). For the characters in the book, they recognize this as a downside to Western literature because it leaves the impression that the Little Seamstress was perhaps manipulating Luo in order to read the passages aloud to her, since the books were so
“The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in
Out of the three stories told by Luo, the Old Miller and the Chinese Seamstress, I find the Little Chinese Seamstress’s story more appealing than others. From my view, it shows a variety of meanings because overall, the Little Seamstress was not educated, but from this story I could tell that she gained knowledge and was able to use what she was capable of doing and you would not expect to gain feedback from a woman who just had relationship with a man. Luo’s story is also very appealing but it shows only concerns for himself and is own feelings. Whereas the Chinese Seamstress was more appealing and showed improvement of her ability to think independently.
The bitter cold bit against the starved girl’s skeletal body. She was tired. Her parents discussed ways to get to good lands. They told her the only way to have a better life was to sell her into slavery. The girl, only ten years old was silent. She dreamed of fine clothing and good food. The girl went to the House of Hwang. She was too ugly to be in sight; she was kept in the scullery. All dreams of any kind were lashed out of her young mind. Mistreated, beaten, and underestimated, young O-lan learned to work hard and became resigned to her fate. One day, the Old Mistress summoned her and told her that she was to be married to a poor farmer. The other slaves scoffed, but O-lan was grateful for a chance to be free - they married. O-lan vowed to return to the great house one day in fine clothing with a son. Her resolve was strong; no one could say otherwise. Her years of abuse as a slave had made O-lan wise, stoic, and bitter; whether the events of her life strengthened or weakened her is the question.
In the novel Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress by Dai Sijie, I can relate my relationship with Diego, and Lou and the little seamstress's relationship because we have numerous things in common. We both try and keep our sexual relationship a secret. Both of our relationships are open because Diego and I express our feeling's with people we associate with, we are also open by letting other people see our body language. There relationship is intense whereas my relationship if not. There is an equal dynamic in my relationship, what I mean by saying that is we have similarities and differences.
The Dress Lodger, by Sheri Holman, is a novel that express the connection between poverty and illness, and how poverty and illness impacted a 15 years old girl named Gustine and her fragile baby boy. Holman attempts to use different writing styles into developing the novel based on poverty and illness in the old periods of time. As Holman started to do that through out the novel, it allowed me as a reader to see the different writing style that would impact the way of me responding to the novel itself. Yet, the more Intersting part of my journey through the novel was seeing Holman's writing style from my classmates' perspective. When asked, " How does the author's writing style impact your response tot he novel?" Serval different points came to mind right away about Holman's writing style. First of all, I felt that the majority of the novel was unclear about the nature of the narrator. Secondly, the understanding of the characters in the novel impacted my response towards the end of the novel. In particular, my group members and I realized the characters development impacted our understanding towards some characters in the novel. Thirdly, Holman challenged my response to some of the human condition that took place in the novel. The entire novel The Dress Lodger had interesting twists and plot through out the novel.
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
The short story “Famine” by Xu Xi is about her trip to New York from Hong Kong after her parents death with flashbacks to her life with controlling, abusive parents. Throughout the story there is a theme of revolt despite her parents having a strong, strict hold on her. From learning English, going on hunger strikes, to an impulsive trip to New York. From beginning to the end of the story, Xu Xi portrays herself as rebellious throughout her life.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” This is a strong belief Annie Wang incorporates into her novel, Lili. The main character, Lili, struggles to find what to do with herself amidst the communist oppression of China. Many of the experiences that Lili, along with other characters, face throughout the novel are directly related to Wang’s own life experiences. Three of the important values Wang shares with characters in her book are curiosity, independence and rebelliousness.
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...
Wang Lung needs a wife so saves up the little money he has and buys a woman who is a slave named O-lan. O-lan is sold to Wang Lung so she can take care of the home, cooking and bear children. Wang Lung is disappointed when he first sees O-lan because she does not have bound feet which was a desirable quality at that time but he does enjoy when O-lan has the food ready when he comes in a night from the land. Wang Lung is very proud when O-lan makes cakes that no one else in the village knows how to makes and when his family comes to feast for the new year at their house.
Even though the feudal imperial regime has ended years ago, the traditional thoughts and burdens that have ruled Chinese country women for thousands of years remain unchanged. In Young Master Gets His Tonic, Wu Zuxiang presents a first-person narrative story where the young master, guanguan, drinks human milk to get nutrition for making up his previous loss of blood and energy from an accident. Right after the accident, the young master had received shots of blood from a wet nurse’s husband to supplement his loss, and three months later he drinks woman’s milk from the wet nurse. The young master’s description of the wet nurse effectively exhibits the oppressed life of lower class women, that they still lived in poor and unhealthy condition with subordinate status in the society.
These are not the only objects of importance the narrator stores in his beloved briefcase, but they are the most encompassing of his story. In the novel’s final chapter, when the narrator is trapped in the dark sewer and must burn the papers from his briefcase to see his way, everything goes. First his high school diploma, then the Sambo doll, followed by a threatening anonymous note. Everything he burns from the briefcase—the “important papers” the superintendent spoke of in Chapter one—is a symbol of the narrator’s plight as the forces pulling his strings run him around.
The early part of the novel shows women’s place in Chinese culture. Women had no say or position in society. They were viewed as objects, and were used as concubines and treated with disparagement in society. The status of women’s social rank in the 20th century in China is a definite positive change. As the development of Communism continued, women were allowed to be involved in not only protests, but attended universities and more opportunities outside “house” work. Communism established gender equality and legimated free marriage, instead of concunbinage. Mao’s slogan, “Women hold half of the sky”, became extremely popular. Women did almost any job a man performed. Women were victims by being compared to objects and treated as sex slaves. This was compared to the human acts right, because it was an issue of inhumane treatment.
In conclusion the ironic result achieved by Lou is that through his selfish views, and little consideration to The Little Seamstress, he lost her by opening her eyes to the world of individualism painted in her mind by the words of Balzac. Lou had achieved exactly what Chairman Mao feared in the first place (an uprising of individuals) and that was why books were banned. Through out this novel it shows that the human imagination cannot be confined in the small box known as communism, and that is why it doesn't work. People are always going to find a way out, change the rules, to escape, and live as individuals.
The narrator wrestles with conflicting feelings of responsibility to the old man and feelings of ridding his life of the man's "Evil Eye" (34). Although afflicted with overriding fear and derangement, the narrator still acts with quasi-allegiance toward the old man; however, his kindness may stem more from protecting himself from suspicion of watching the old man every night than from genuine compassion for the old man.