What Is The Theme Of Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress

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I. MY QUESTION

To what extent do parents influence their child and do parent-child relationship always have to have a negative image, have to involve a tyrannical parental figure, and have to create a burden to the child? I already knew, that most of the time, the influence of parents on the children depends on how devoted the parent is to their child. The reason why I chose this question is because throughout the novels we read in class, I realized there are many scenes where the main character is often affected by their parent and also how their parent’s influence the main character’s personality. My curiosity of why parents have such an impact on their child led me to research this question and also how it can also be applied to my personal …show more content…

Throughout the novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Luo and the narrator are often given obstacles in their daily lives due to their parent’s circumstances. Luo’s father is a famous dentist who worked on Chairman Mao’s teeth and the narrator’s parents are doctors. Due to their parent’s status as a medical professional, the boys were sent to the rural side for re-education during the Cultural Revolution. During this time, Luo’s father ran into a particular legal trouble after telling his students that he worked on Mao’s teeth. This was considered a serious crime since suggesting that Mao needed dental work was not allowed in the society during the Cultural Revolution. He was then publicly humiliated and this gave Luo the image of “son of a perpetrator”. Later in the novel, the narrator attempts to help out to Little Seamstress as she discovers she is pregnant. This situation is devastating because abortion is illegal. The narrator goes to the Yong Jing Hospital and asks for help. However, the gynecologist recognizes his father’s name and realizes that he does not have a daughter. In this case, if his parents weren’t doctors, it would have been possible for the narrator to help the Little Seamstress get an abortion without trouble. This condition is not as severe as the first two, however, we can see that parent’s can influence their child not only directly but also

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