Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress Essay

In Dai Sijie’s novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, about the impact of China’s Counter Revolution, the Little Seamstress, one of the main characters, processes an idea that will forever change her. We see The Little Seamstress, an uneducated person living in a distant corner of China, developing into someone new, almost being able to touch the image she creates in her mind; as someone transformed with new ideas not looking back into the simple mountain girl she once was. The story is set in a far western corner of China to which two young educated men –Lou and the “unnamed” narrator– are banished and where they fall in love with the Little Seamstress, the beautiful but illiterate daughter of the local tailor. With the author’s use of imagery, diction, syntax, and

tone, one grasps and latches on to the Little Seamstress’ singular aspiration. In this sentence she longs to become someone else: “Actually become that person…a rich lady, for example.” She is essentially foreshadowing this image she creates. She associates being a “rich lady” with knowledge and experience –and sophistication, aspects she is woefully aware that she lacks. A rich lady, in her innocent imagination, is someone who is higher up in society; in this sense, she correlates a high status with a higher education, something Luo and the Narrator, armed with their knowledge of books and storytelling abilities, have to offer. Whether they realize it or not, these two foreigners to the village, who trigger a whole new world of possibilities, become the catalyst for the change created within her.

Additionally, the author’s choice of words and diction –“Completely different…actually become that person still be your own self” juxtaposes the Little Seamstress’s internal conflict between retaining her own sense of self and evolving transformation into becoming a different person. This clash helps create the opposite effect that Mao’s Reeducation wanted to create and instead, affirms that educated people such as Luo and the Narrator raised in the city simply cannot just vanish or be banished. Instead, they, no matter where they go, infect and inspire others, like the Little Seamstress, through books and storytelling, unknowingly sowing seeds of ideas in eager minds yearning for a better life. Furthermore, this parallel structure gives the sentence a sense of balance, acting as a bridge that brings seemingly opposing ideas together and allowing her to reach for the stars –and subsequently catching one. Lastly, the comparative (meaning, the ability to place one’s being on another plane) and impulsive tone set by the author, fosters the Little Seamstress to imagine explore perspectives of life beyond the confines of the plain and single dimension of an isolated girl in a remote mountain

village. Finally, one can perhaps conclude that becoming a different person –eminently possible through influence and learning-- doesn’t change who you are; it doesn’t make you a fake or a bad person. Rather, this intellectual evolution enriches the unchanged soul and infuses it with new perspectives.