Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a very complex book with many hidden and double meanings. The book is based on the Little Seamstress and how she reacts to many aspects of life. Although she was introduced later in the novel, she is one of the main characters. The purpose of the seamstress in the story is that she is the main reason why Luo and the narrator wake up in the morning. Almost everything they do revolves around her and Dai Sijie makes this very apparent throughout the novel.

The story, although set during the Cultural Revolution of China, is not really about the reign of Chairman Mao. It is about the seamstress and how she responds to the many actions of the two boys. The story begins when both Luo and the narrator were taken from their homes in order to be re-educated because everyone that was considered an "intellectual" (anyone that attended high school) must go through the re-education process. It is ironic that they felt they had to re-educate people that already had a high school level education. Neither Luo nor the narrator had completed high school, they explained towards the beginning of the novel that they only had completed three years of lower middle school. The narrator was only seventeen and Luo was eighteen years old at the time they were re-educated.

They were to be re-educated in a village called "The Phoenix of the Sky," with the peasants. They lived in a little house on stilts. The "Phoenix of the Sky" symbolizes something other than just the name of their village. A phoenix is a bird that is reborn from its own ashes after bursting into flames, this could symbolize that there is something more in store for them after thei...

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The Little Seamstress had become a completely different person after she was read all of the books in Four Eyes' secret suitcase. Many of the changes came towards the end of the novel but throughout it you notice many small things, such as the way she talks and dresses. At the end of the book, you see the metamorphosis that the seamstress went through. She had completely changed her accent into the city one. She also made herself a brassier, a jacket that was something that would only be worn in the city, bought a pair of white tennis shoes, and had her hair tied with red ribbon in a small bob. "All that time we spent reading to her had certainly paid off," Luo whispered to the narrator after seeing his girlfriend's new look. It paid off just enough for her to completely leave her mountain girl ways and go to the city where someone with her knowledge belongs.