Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Analysis

A common impetus for reading fiction is hope that an imaginary adventure in something unknown will provide temporary, but powerful liberation from one’s own life; but, rarely, does reader consider the permanent internal souvenirs reaped from each hour submerged in the fantastical. In the novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie depicts the story of two adolescents from Chinese cities, Luo and an unnamed narrator, exiled to a rural mountain village for reduction during Mao’s cultural revolution. There, they are forced to do hard labor and live as the local people do until all bourgeois and urban tendencies are gone. Although the practice is illegal, through their re-education the boys receive, steal, and read western literature
In Mao’s China, pregnancy in an unmarried woman is illegal and, as a result, had the baby been born the seamstress would not have been able to keep it. Unfortunately, at the time she discovered she was pregnant Luo was away in the city visiting his sick mother. Leaving merely the narrator, to help the Little Seamstress’ with her dilemma by bribing a gynecologist with a Balzac novel to perform the abortion on her. After the producer is over, he suddenly decides to include novel chronicling the life of a talented composer, Jean Christophe, with his gratuity. The narrator explains, “But Jean Christophe, with his fierce individualism utterly untainted by malice, was a salutary revelation. Without him, I would never have understood the splendor of taking free or independent action as an individual ... The deal we had made was that I would give him [the gynecologist] our copy of Ursule MIrouet, but upon reflection, I decided to extend his reward to include the book I treasured most of all -Jean Christophe-, which had been translated by the same Fu
Luo, throughout the novel, reads her an array of his books. She is in awe of all the literature she is exposed to and repeatedly asks Luo and the narrator to tell her more stories. As time goes on, she begins to acquire more urban clothing and cuts her hair in a bob. Initially, both the Luo and the narrator, while pleased, perceive this as simply a result of vanity; however, soon after, the Little Seamstress decides to run away to the city alone. Just before leaving, Luo confronts her and, later, illustrates the conversation to the narrator. He detailed, “‘She wants to go the city,’ he [Luo] said. ‘She mentioned Balzac.’ ‘What about him?’ ‘She said she had learnt one thing Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond prize” (180). Luo’s ultimate intention in sharing his books with the Little Seamstress was to transform her from a “simple” mountain girl to a “refined” intellectual. In this fantastic state, he believes she will be the perfect woman to marry him. Literature does fundamentally change the Little Seamstress, but not the way that Luo hopes. By reading, she uncovers a multitude of different worlds and concepts previously foreign to her. Thus, she able to envision a life different from the constrained one expected of her in the mountain town, in which she would marry a local peasant, and work as a seamstress