Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

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Recommended: Importance of literature to humanity

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Throughout his novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie illustrates the powerful influence that books have on their readers. Through his narrative, he establishes his stance on the controversial issue of whether or not storytelling is good. He combines countless events and feelings to create a novel that demonstrates the good of storytelling and the iniquity of book banning and burning. In the end, Sijie portrays storytelling as a means of good entertainment, enlightening experience and positive encouragement.

First and foremost, Sijie displays storytelling as a means for entertainment, and in turn, as something good. He portrays Luo as an incredible storyteller. His creativity and ability to capture his audience sets him apart from the other boys on the mountain. The narrator describes the amazing effect that Luo’s film reenactments have on the village people. The headman is so enthralled that he gives Luo and the narrator the opportunity to view more films so that Luo can reproduce the stories developed in the films to both him and the other villagers (18-20). The headman’s fascination with these films portrays storytelling’s ability to entertain. While some readers may feel that entertainment is not necessarily a positive thing as it gives people new and possibly dangerous thoughts and ideas, Luo’s storytelling allows the people of the mountain village to escape the caged reality in which they live. These people use the stories to experience the excitement and happiness that is absent from their lives. In this way, Sijie establishes storytelling as a form of positive entertainment. Through his own story, Sijie proves to the reade...

... middle of paper ...

...dness found in all stories.

As he follows the lives of three different characters and their experiences with stories, Sijie proves that storytelling plays an important positive role in the lives of many, if not all, people. Through his portrayal of storytelling as a channel of entertainment, enlightenment, and hope, he advocates the goodness of books. By leaving his audience with a sense of wonder, he makes concrete the effect that stories have on the lives of all people as striving intellectual individuals.

Works Cited

Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” The Arlington Reader: Canons and Contexts.

Ed. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith. Boston: Bedford, 2003. 723-26.

Sanders, Scott Russell. The Force of Spirit. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

Sijie, Dai. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. Trans. Ina Rilke. New York:

Anchor-Random, 2002.

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