Balzac and a Little Hope
Sijie uses the symbol of books by Balzac and other French novelists to symbolize loss inspiring hope. When the narrator and Luo first read the Balzac book lent to them by their friend, their eyes are opened to the experiences they have been deprived of due to the Cultural Revolution in China. They lack the formal education and lively experiences many take for granted. They now have the drive to live; to not die without experiencing love, sex, passion, bravery, and knowledge. This inspires the narrator and Luo to pursue a romantic relationship with the Seamstress and read more books from their friend. Their friend keeps his library of books locked away in a secret suitcase. This suitcase hiding the knowledge of the texts from the narrator and Luo symbolizes how the Cultural Revolution hid so many worldly experiences from them. When they break into the suitcase to read more books, new ideas are revealed to them. This causes them to break free from the intellectual confines of the Cultural Revolution and develop their intellectual liberty.
“Picture, if you will, a boy of nineteen, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, ideology, and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me” (Sijie 57).
“I couldn’t move, and there, stuck in the middle of the ridge, I wondered what my good friend Jean-Christophe would say if I were to turn back. With an impervious wave of his conductor’s baton he would tell me which way to go. He was unlikely to object to my beating a retreat in the face of death, I thought. After all, how could I die now, without having known love or sex, without having taken free individual action against the whole world, as he had?” (Sijie 114).
Not only do I see a connection here about withholding intellectual liberty from the people, I also see how the books connect to the central message of the book: the power that literary education has over people and heir actions. However, I still wonder about how this could be connected back to the Maoist doctrines and the withholding of information from the people.
ReplyDeleteI see that your analysis talks a lot about the ideas that books bring to the characters in the book. It also seems like the books give responsibility to them and help them change from boys to adults. Coming of age is huge in this book. Apart from responsibility and coming of age, what do you think these new ideas mean to Luo and the Main Character? Why do you think they're so important to them?
ReplyDeleteI like the insightful connections to intellectual liberty and how reading these books both changed and inspired the narrator and Luo. I also thought you chose really good quotes to analyze.
ReplyDeleteHow do you think these books will change the Little Seamstress?
I like how you connect hope and loss through symbols like the suitcase and the books.
ReplyDeleteI liked how insightful this was to hope and loss through the symbolism and connections to how the characters have grown.
ReplyDelete