Little Chinese Seamstress

In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie uses symbolism, setting, imagery, characterization, and irony to express what reeducation was like in Mao’s China, while emphasizing the power of knowledge throughout. Symbolism presented itself from the start with Luo’s violin. It sets up a theme of the power of knowledge to change lives, and represents civilization, hope, and home. On nights when the narrator was feeling depressed or hopeless, he would ask Luo to play for him. This shows that the knowledge needed to play music was more valuable when living in a time where the government controlled cultural influences. The violin represents a hope of escape, since Luo could've been able to travel with the Red Orchestra if he became good enough. It is ironic that an instrument labeled by the village headman as a “bourgeois toy” would offer a future with

She is also represented in the symbol of a raven through the narrator’s dreams and scenes on the mountain. A competitive dynamic between the two boys appeared when Luo developed a relationship with the little seamstress. This dynamic is used to show the power of books when the narrator comforts himself by reading a Balzac novel. The main connection the two boys had during their time on the mountain was a love of stories, and this kept them from turning on each other. They worked together to borrow and steal books from Four-Eyes, because their need for knowledge was greater than personal squabbles. After learning more about personal freedom and the power of beauty, the little seamstress left for the city. This further develops her connection with the imagery of a raven that was set up in the narrator’s dreams. The boys imbued her with the courage to fly, and she escaped from them. While they were trying to make her more appealing to their intellectual standards, they were actually prepping her for her own