Summary
The story takes place in 1971 during the Cultural
Revolution in China. There are two teenagers Luo being 18 and the unnamed
narrator being 17. Both of them are being re-educated in a place called the
Phoenix of the Sky. Also, they both have a talent for retelling a
story (Luo being the better one) and the narrator can play the
violin. Their skills in story telling has awarded them with vacations to go to
the nearby town called Yong Jing and watch a film there in order to retell the
story to the village. One day, the two meet the Little Seamstress, which is the
daughter of a famous tailor, and Luo becomes her boyfriend. Books were
treasured but forbidden if it didn't follow strict rules about what it
contains, and a man called Four-Eyes, another teenager, had Western books in a
hidden suitcase. Luo and the narrator finds out and they help Four-Eyes in his
work and eventually gets a book, however Four-Eyes refuses to give them any
more books after the duo had done him another favour. Both of them decide to
steal the suitcase filled with books and Luo wants to read these books,
specifically from Balzac, to the Little Seamstress to educate her about the
city, as she is uncivilized. This plan backfires as the Little Seamstress
leaves everyone, in order to start a new life in the city, leaving the two
heart broken.Writing Style
The writing style is excellent, sometimes the
writing style loses me but as the plot goes on, I realize that the
author, Dai Sijie, has captured me in a moment that seemed like it
actually existed but it was just the narrator’s imagination. The book is mostly
first-person, I say mostly because in some parts of the novel, he refers to
himself in third person for example, when Luo leaves the village for a month,
he trusts the narrator to guard the little Seamstress. So he calls himself an
undercover agent and continues the novel for a page or two in third person
omniscient such as, “Did our undercover agent address the raven, did he offer
it a crust of bread?” This changes the mood and adds humour for a while until
things become more serious. The change in point of view, although random, is a
nice addition to the novels story and draws in the reader on top of the other
features such as writing style, and descriptive images of setting.
The way the novel was organized is kind of strange.
There are breaks to indicate the next section or chapter, but there are three
parts into which the chapters are separated. Also, there is sometimes an image
of a small book separating bodies of text. It seemed to be a way of giving
background information about what is happening, for example, when the narrator
states that it was his and Luo’s first time experiencing re-education, it shows
the image of the mini open book and it discusses about re-education. However,
it goes on until the end of the chapter. It seems like it went from discussing
about re-education back to telling the story again. However, there are times
were it is used to split bodies of text, but the story is continued instead of
giving background information. Where these small images of books are placed is
confusing, but it doesn't take away from the reading experience that Dai Sijie
has created.
Literary Devices
Theme
~The power of literature can be seen through the novel, although only a handful of times are books mentioned. When Luo and the narrator stole th
e suitcase full of western books, they were exposed to Western
culture and has shaped their attitudes, actions, as well as the clothes that
the tailor, the father of the Little Seamstress, makes for the villagers,
because one night, the narrator told the tailor a story which influenced his
designs in clothing. Also, the Little Seamstress has changed her in the way she
looks, the way she acts and the way she speaks. However, the power of
literature is so powerful that it has caused the Little Seamstress to flee the
mountain in order to pursue a city life.
~The power of literature can be seen through the novel, although only a handful of times are books mentioned. When Luo and the narrator stole th
Allusion
~There are many allusions related to books. The novel
references many French authors such as Romain Rolland and his book
Jean-Cristophe amd also the author Honoré de Balzac and his books, Père Goriot,
Eugénie Grandet and Ursule Mirouët. The play Romeo and Juliet is referenced.
Also, Fu Lei, a chinese translator of these books and Sylvester Stallone are
added in there. There are references to musical composers such as Mozart,
Brahms and Beethoven. Also there are some biblical references such as when the
narrator refers to the suitcase filled with forbidden books as the forbidden
fruit, and also when the snake had bitten and prevented the Little Seamstress
from getting Luo’s keys for the keys are his house keys which also reminded him
about home and the hope of getting out re-education. These references are used
within the story to compare a current situation in the novel with a book
reference for example, "There was nowhere for them to go, for there
was no conceivable place where Romeo and his pregnant Juliet might elude
the long arm of the law, nor indeed where they might live the life of Robinson
Crusoe attended by a secret agent turned Man Friday.”
Imagery
~When the location of the story shifted to the place
of the narrators and Luo’s, there is a description of what their place looks
like, such as, “Underneath, in the space between the wooden props supporting
the floor, was a pigsty occupied by a large, pump sow”. This shows how poor the
living conditions of Luo and the narrator was. Not only is there imagery about
setting but it also shows imagery about people’s action such as the old miller’s,
“He took his chopsticks, picked up a pebble from the dish and slowly dipped it
in the sauce as if performing a ritual. Then he raised the pebble to his lips
and sucked it with relish. He kept it in his mouth for a long time...The old
man pursed his lips and spat it out of the corner of his mouth, making it
skitter across the floor.“ also when the narrator tried it, “The sauce was not
too salty and the pebble left a sour-sweet taste in my mouth” This shows how
the old miller enjoyed the pebbles dipped in sauce and how the pebble skitter
across the floor. These types of imagery such as auditory, gustatory gives the
reader a vivid image of what is happening and can play with the senses as mine
was.Symbols
Foreshadowing
~When Luo and the narrator cross a ridge in order to get to the
Little Seamstress’ house, there is a red-beaked raven on the other side. In one
of the narrator’s dreams, he says that he tried to look for the red-beaked
raven but when he, looked back at the ridge where Luo and the Little Seamstress
was, she fell of the ridge and died while Luo was bleeding, holding her in his
arms. This foreshadows the end when the Little Seamstress leaves Luo behind for
a city life and Luo becomes drunk and burns all the books. For Luo, the Little
Seamstress was no longer in his life and is left emotionally scarred as seen in
the narrator's dream.
Evaluating Effectiveness
How the book portrays the characters and the decision making that
Luo and the narrator faces are all believable. For
example, when Luo told the narrator that he has sexual intercourse with the
Little Seamstress and he got jealous. I can see that today where jealousy
about others’ love interest conflicts friendships. Also
when Four-Eyes hides banned things and refuses to share it with others. I see
this when it comes to the competitive academic level, also through all
the stories that teachers have told me about
university such as people would take away books from the library so that other
students won’t get them. When the Little Seamstress
reveals that she is pregnant and wants to go for an abortion is also
relatable here in the west where teenagers are having sexual intercourse before marriage. Throughout the book, smoking seems like a regular thing
for a 17 or 18-year-old. Same thing can be seen in the western world,
specifically the place where people go to smoke in my school community. People see these guys smoke, but disregard them.
Overall, it was engaging because of all these things I can relate
to and as well as the development of the plot and the
behavior of characters made for action throughout the novel. Although there are
book references that many teenagers may not like me, the story is not
hindered by it and it really shows the adventure of what
the two teenagers go through. It also shows me how grateful I am as a teenager
to live a live much more luxurious than they are living on their
house on stilts.
Rating
Although there are references to literature that
the average teenager may not understand, the book still has things
that I like such as the adventure and the conflicts between people as well as
the suspense. Even with references to the French authors, there are
only a few references. All these are why I think this
novel deserves a 5 star rating.
Evaluate Bias
Since I live in Canada, I don’t know what it’s like to experience
labor in a coalmine, but reading the book gave me a
look at a life of a young adult under re-education. There is a moment where I
was biased towards the narrator getting the girl than Luo because they
stated that the narrator and the Little Seamstress
had things in common and also has a skill playing the violin. I also believed
that the narrator should have it going his way because he
does all these favors and gets nothing in return. Other than this, I
have nothing that would affect me reading this book in a normal way.
Author Influences
The author Dai Sijie, author and filmmaker, is also French and
this influenced how he wrote his novel. The major
thing that influenced the making in this novel is that he actually was
re-educated and was 17-years-old at the time, similar to the
narrator. The reason he is also French is that after he was released from re-education,
he went to France to continue studying and encountered the Western literature, which was also included and is a major part of the
novel.
The novel was originally written in French. The stolen suitcase in
the story relates to him getting a suitcase of Sigmund Freud’s work. This novel
was based on Sijie’s life on the mountain his re education.
Connection to the World and Humanity
The Cultural Revolution displayed corruption throughout
the novel. How religion was disregarded and the temples and churches were
ransacked. Also, the books that aren’t the textbooks in school or Mao’s “Little
Red Book” were destroyed. This shows that the people under the Cultural
Revolution suffered and those who were young were moved to do labor. The book
does a great job of displaying how poor the place was under Mao’s control.
This also raises the concern about child labor. There are
advertisements that display children enjoying dresses and toys but cut to a
scene where there are two children doing labor while men with guns are guarding
them. This shows that child labor does still exist in the 21st century.
Bringing up how Mao placed all these laws, ruining the Chinese economy as well
as ruining the lives as many, the theme of political corruption.
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