Symbolism - Sheepskin Coat
Quotes
- “‘[Balzac] touched the head of this mountain girl with an invisible finger, and she was transformed, carried away in a dream. [...] She ended up putting on your wretched coat on. She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent.’” (62)
- “Then I was seized with an idea: I would copy out my favourite passages from Ursule Mirouet, word for word. It was the first time in my life that I had felt any desire to copy sentences from a book. I ransacked the room for paper, but all I could find was a few sheets of notepaper intended for letters to our parents." (58)
Analysis
The book describes how the sheepskin coat relates to the idea of intellectual liberty, the freedom to express ideas. The narrator demonstrates his own intellectual liberty when he has the sudden idea to write quotes from the book written by Balzac, Ursule Mirouët, onto the inside of the sheepskin coat. This novel is the first novel he had read in a year, if not a couple years. Furthermore, all western books are banned, yet the narrator wants to express the fact that he appreciates the novels as art, and something he would like to take interest in. These two factors make him want to write this down, as a memory, inside the only resource he has. The quote on page 62 explains how the Little Seamstress is affected by those words of the same novel. The description of how Balzac “touched the head of this mountain girl… she was transformed, carried away in a dream” demonstrates that she was touched by the deeper meaning of the words. This is emphasized by the story’s abundance of adventure, which allowed the story to carry her on an adventure through the story of the book. She also put the coat on because she feels like this will carry her adventure through the novel further than it already has, for her to relate to it and “feel” it. Also, In the quote on page 58, the narrator has a book from Four Eyes’s suitcase, which he is very enthusiastic about. This small sliver of Western culture entices them more than the Chinese propaganda. This quote shows how the Cultural Revolution and the re-education program deprives the urban teens and the rest of the people from valuable culture and literature. The Cultural Revolution forbids all Western arts and influences, and this makes the teens hungry for a more intriguing lifestyle. Knowing that the foreign books are banned, the narrator makes the decision to “copy out my favourite passages” in order to keep the culture close to him. His desperate desire makes him “ransack the room for paper” in order to find a place to write the passages on. This choice gives him intellectual liberty from the strict order of the communist regime.
Image
I like how you guys said "...this makes the teens hungry for a more intriguing lifestyle". I think also this book exposed the narrator to "coming of age". He is reading about love for the first time, and he hasn't even experienced anything for himself. Do you think the Little Red Book and being surrounded by the cultural revolution since they could read affects his reaction to reading this book? I believe it does, since he appreciates it on a different level than he would if he had been exposed to outside sources his whole life.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think the words of Balzac were so important to the Little Seamstress?
ReplyDeleteI can see the connection of this quote to intellectual liberty as the narrator, Luo, and the Little Seamstress all try to find their own way of thinking/philosophy on life and literature, and not let it be controlled by an oppressive government.
Do you think the sheepskin coat itself was his intellectual liberty or the fact that he had access to a forbidden book? I can see how the you have portrayed the coat as his outlet for intellectual liberty but is the real symbol what he writes ON or what he writes?
ReplyDeleteDid the narrator apreciate western literature or did he just want to never forget if he lost the books. From further reading the narrator is established as being greedy however your points are interesting to say the least
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think that the books that were written by various Western authors were so influential to the little seamstress?
ReplyDeleteI can see how the sheepskin coat connects to hope due to the fact that it lightens up the mood of the little seamstress, the narrator, and Luo. It somehow gives them a purpose and entices them to become more positive about their daily life in re-education.