Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Character Analysis

876 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Balzac and the little chinese seamstress essay

Kyra Weaver
Professor Gurnee
English 091 - 11201
25 November 2014
The Influences of the World Around You
“It was a totally new experience for me” (145). Throughout Dai Sijie’s novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the narrator and his companions go through new experiences and opportunities that they had never encountered before. The narrator and his closest friend, Luo, are sent to a village to become more knowledgeable and work. They encounter the tailor’s daughter, or the seamstress; with her, they discover items that were not known as illegal at the time, books. Daj Sijie conveys how influential one’s surrounding environment is through the power of friendship, literature, and happiness. The power of friendship is showed through the relationship between Luo and the Narrator, as well as the unrequited friendship of the seamstress and the narrator. The relationship between the narrator and …show more content…

Even though the narrator was uncomfortable with such a task of protecting Luo’s beloved, seeing as the narrator himself was in love with her, he did so …show more content…

Through the power of friendship, literature, and strive for happiness, Sijie shows how influential the world around you can be. The power of friendship is shown through the relationships between the narrator and his two friends, Luo and the seamstress. The banned books that were discovered exemplify the immense power literature can have on someone. Lastly, the power to find happiness occurs throughout the characters’ entire experiences throughout the novel. Prior to the boys relocating to the village, the characters were unaware of the impact certain aspects of their lives had on them; however, everything changed when they just opened their

Show More
Related

  • The Death Of Woman Wang Summary

    1781 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The Death of Woman Wang”, written by Chinese historian Jonathan Spence, is a book recounting the harsh realities facing citizens of Tancheng country, Shandong Province, Qing controlled China in the late 17th century. Using various primary sources, Spence describes some of the hardships and sorrow that the people of Tancheng faced. From natural disasters, poor leadership, banditry, and invasions, the citizens of Tancheng struggled to survive in a devastated and changing world around them. On its own, “Woman Wang” is an insightful snapshot of one of the worst-off counties in imperial Qing China, however when taking a step back and weaving in an understanding of long held Chinese traditions, there is a greater understanding what happened in

    Read More

  • Theme of Friendship in Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    Friendship is an unbreakable bond between two people and contains loyalty and love. In the story Chains, Isabel finds herself in grand friendships that play throughout the story. She showed how devoted she was towards Lady Lockton, Curzon, and Ruth by being there for them during tough times. In the end, friendship is the light through the darkness, powerful and important.

    Read More

  • Hangzhou Short Story

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    In many scenarios, it is the younger generations who represent new times and challenge old tradition to be left in the past. Considering the reading of “Hangzhou” by Chang, Shitai, the fortune teller exhorts Chanyi, the illustrator grandma, to adapt to the modern generation where their “own ideas of love and power” (Chang 103) will decide the faith of their future. Taken by surprise, Chanyi disagrees, rationalizing and remaining silent on the topic. In similarity, Alice Walker relates to this reaction by echoing the illustrator of “Everyday Use” as she is informed of her daughter’s name change from Dee to Wangero. Asserted by Dee, it was a burden to be named after the people who oppress her” (Walker 318). This proves to the reader that in both families an adaptation is required by the mother. Therefore, both families have been driven to the similar situations regardless of their origin or ethnicity. Modern times request for new changes, a difficulty that families must

    Read More

  • Pride In The Scarlet Pimpernel

    394 Words  | 1 Pages

    “Instinctively, with sudden overmastering passion, at at the sight of her helplessness and her grief, he stretched out his arms, and next, would have seized her and held her to him, protected her from every evil with his very life, his very heart’s blood… But pride

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Ana Cristina Mendes's Exciting Tales Of Exotic Dark India

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    Balram Halwai, the novel’s main protagonist, portrays himself as a modern renaissance man. He begins his narrative by detailing the rewards that have come with his success. He uses the chandelier in his office as an example of his success. He describes the chandelier as “having a personality of its own. It’s a huge thing, full of small diamond-shaped glass pieces, just like the ones they used to show in the films of the 1970s” (Adiga 5). To Balram, the chandelier is reminiscent of commodities of the western world. He bases his opulence on gaudy tangible items, like the items he sees in western media. This highlights how western values have seeped into other countries and cultures. As a result of this globalization, Balram wants to achieve more items that attribute to his status and success.

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Destination By Wang Anyi

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    “It was not easy to live in Shanghai” (Anyi 137). This line, echoed throughout Wang Anyi 's short piece “The Destination” is the glowing heartbeat of the story. A refrain filled with both longing and sadness, it hints at the many struggles faced by thousands upon thousands trying to get by in the city of Shanghai. One of these lost souls, the protagonist, Chen Xin, was one of the many youths taken from his family and sent to live the in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. Ten years after the fact, Chen Xin views the repercussions of the Cultural Revolution internally and externally as he processes the changes that both he, and his hometown have over-gone in the past ten years. Devastatingly, he comes to the conclusion that there is no going back to the time of his childhood, and his fond memories of Shanghai exist solely in memory. This is in large part is due to the changes brought on by the Cultural Revolution. These effects of the Cultural Revolution are a central theme to the story; with repercussions seen on a cultural level, as well as a personal one.

    Read More

  • The Struggles of Liang Heng in Son of the Revolution

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...

    Read More

  • Story of the Stone

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cao Xueqin’s Story of the Stone is a classic in Chinese literature, showcasing the life and exploits of the wealthy Jia clan during the feudal era. Through Cao’s depiction, the reader is afforded a glimpse into the customs and lifestyle of the time. Chinese mode of thought is depicted as it occurred in daily life, with the coexisting beliefs of Confucianism and Taoism. While the positive aspects of both ideologies are presented, Cao ultimately depicts Taoism as the paramount, essential system of belief that guides the character Bao-yu to his eventual enlightenment.

    Read More

  • China's Catastrophic Cultural Revolution

    888 Words  | 2 Pages

    Boucquey, Thierry, gen. ed. “Luo Guanzhong.” Encyclopedia of World Writers, 14th through 18th Centuries. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom’s Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 14 May 2014

    Read More

  • Revealing Families True Unity In Alice Walker's 'Everyday Use'

    748 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Walker lightens the reader with the importance of quilts in “Everyday Use”, she amplifies the significance of it by presenting Maggie, the younger of two sisters. Maggie’s strong attachment to these quilts have carved memories in her heart that she ‘”can’ member Grandma Dee without the quilts”’ (Walker 321). I contrast is Maggie’s sister, Dee, who refers to them as “priceless” (Walker 320). Observing them from an economic view, she tries to posses them. The author implies that although both sisters differ in reasons to value quilts, the legacy that the quilts represent is indeed priceless. In “Hangzhou”, Chang presents the reader with a different legacy. Represented by the legend of the Pagoda, a female trapped spirit, the author reveals it as “a punishment” (Chang 101) for trying to hold a husband using dark sources instead of fathering him with a son. A strong belief handed down for generations. Regardless of their origin, these legacies encourage both families to deeply treasure the traditions that have formed each of

    Read More

  • Friendship in Oroonoko and Gulliver’s Travels

    1291 Words  | 3 Pages

    The word ‘friend’ often carries vague connotations and assumptions that have no real purpose to the meaning of the word that is important here. Within the boundaries of a true friendship, the superiority of one individual over another should never be outward nor should one individual benefit at the other’s expense; also, an individual should not claim ownership over the other within a relationship termed a friendship. A relationship where an individual contains more power over another and asserts this power cannot be defined a friendship regardless of how kind each individual is to the other. Through the account of an unnamed female, Aphra Behn outlines such a relationship within the narrative of Oroonoko and his encounters with other characters as a royal slave. One character in particular, Mr. Trefry, a plantation supervisor, takes a keen liking to Oroonoko and holds him up on a pedestal of excellence for all to see; however, his actions towards Oroonoko suggest that he sees him as a prize possession rather than a man of equal value. Trefry’s unwillingness and eventual failure to free Oroonoko from slavery insinuates that the relationship between the characters is not that of mutual respect and, consequently, cannot be defined as friendship. As Aristotle claims, there is no difference between a good friend and a friend for a “friend is one who will always try… to do what he takes to be good for you” (emphasized), which is a belief that, evidently, is important here (Aristotle Rhetoric I.1.5). In Jonathan Swift’s tale, Gulliver’s Travels, Part 2, Gulliver, again, meets a collective group of individuals who are of unequal size to him, but this time who are larger. Swift takes a satirical and more literal approach to the notion of ...

    Read More

  • A Mother-Daughter Relationship in The Woman Warrior

    1481 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper from the Point of View of a Doctor's Wife

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story, the narrator is forced to tell her story through a secret correspondence with the reader since her husband forbids her to write and would “meet [her] with heavy opposition” should he find her doing so (390). The woman’s secret correspondence with the reader is yet another example of the limited viewpoint, for no one else is ever around to comment or give their thoughts on what is occurring. The limited perspective the reader sees through her narration plays an essential role in helping the reader understand the theme by showing the woman’s place in the world. At ...

    Read More

  • Comparing Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things and Chinua Archebe’s Things Fall Apart

    3022 Words  | 7 Pages

    The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol. 2c seventh edition. Archebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart.

    Read More

  • My Opinion on 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    The characters in this book are very round. They each have their own story and have their own problems in life. Let’s start ...

    Read More

More about Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Character Analysis

Open Document