GCSE English/Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

THE MEISTER HAS BEEN HERE.

O HI I'M IN UR SCHOOL WIKI, EDITING UR PAGE. one of the first hits on google for "gcse balzac seamstress quotes" happens to be this, by the by :> if only our class did something like thisss orz

( Back to GCSE English)

GABRIEL WONG FROM KCCIS HONG KONG WAS HERE.

YEAHHHH FELLOW HONG KONG PERSON though I'm in Singapore lawl

oh yes narrator is actually called Ma. :D

Characters

Luo

• Witty, audacious side of Luo - "Mozart is thinking of Chairman Mao".
• Cunning side of Luo - "Luo had a brainwave: with his little finger he slid the hands of the clock back by one hour. We got back into bed to enjoy our lie-in."

Narrator

- Loyal and Faithful

• • "To serve as a guardian"
  • "My sole preoccupation was to honour the faith he had in me"
    • We learn that the character values friendship more than love.
• The character begins to show signs of 'confidence' (By the power of storytelling)
  • "My sentence became more precise, more concrete, more impact as I went along
• Empathic
  • "I shared his terror of not leaving the place alive" (in the coal mine)
• Modest
  • "Forgive me, comrade" I said, embarrassed "but I'm not that good"
    • denies Luo's claim that he is a "fine musician"

Little Chinese Seamstress

• audacious side of LCS "about those books ... what if we stole them?"
• refered to as "the princess of phoenix mountain"
• Yearns for knowledge & education
  • "very elegant"
  • "About the books what if we stole them?"
  • "touched ... with an invisible finger"
  • "seduced, overwhelmed, spellbound by the mystery of the outside world"
  • "we were beyond ourselves"
  • "... having Balzac's words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent"
• Unique in Phoenix Mountain
  • Beautiful, sophisticated, well-dressed
• physically and emotionally strong
  • "brimming with energy"
• sign of dramatic change/metamorphosis
  • "the long pigtail with a red ribbon had made way for a short bob."
  • "The lovely unsophisticated mountain girl had vanished without a trace."
  • "white tennis shoes"
  • "she has adopted our accent."
  • irony: "Balzacian re-education"

Themes

Many themes are represented in the novel. themes include : love of little seamstress, books, communism, escapism, entrappment and re education A very predominant theme: 'Enlightenment through art and literature.'

Self-discovery

Knowledge

• "We were beside ourselves", about the discovery of the books (pg 93)

"she was so beautiful"

Hope

• "we were determined to stay in the race at all costs" pg 27
• "we knew it was stuck, but nevertheless we hoped it would we could get it out" pg LOL

Endurance

• "Three in a thousand", narrator on the chances of getting out
• "10 seconds! I was beside myself with joy, both Luo and I knew that this was a new record."- P.g 102

Loss of Reason

• "lived in almost perpetual fear" (pg 41)
• "Right now, ignorance is in fashion" (pg 80-81)
• "anyone who bears the title of Count, regardless of his nationality, is by definition reactionary" (pg 119)
• "sent to the countryside to be 'reeducated by the poor peasants'"

Loyalty

• "to serve as the guardian of [LCS]" (pg 137)

Love

Luo and the Narrator love the LIttle Seamstress "princess of phoenix mountain" "her oval face, and the sparkle in her eyes - without a doubt the loveliest pair of eyes in the district of Yong Jing, if not the entire region."

love of books as well , will do anything to have a book !!

Jealousy

"suddenly I felt a stab of jealousy, a bitter wrenching emotion I had never felt before"

Oppression

'the all seeing eye of the dictatorship cast its fine mesh over the region'

Power of storytelling

• "How great Luo's talent was!" (pg 38)
• "a company of great western writers welcomed us with open arms."
• "that would have made her more refined, more cultured, I'm quite sure."
• "She said she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that women's beauty is treasure beyond price." The LCS turns realistic
• "He was able to electrify an audience by means of a perfectly timed voice-over, even when overcome by a violent bout of malaria."

Sexual awakening

• "During the whole month of September following our successful burglary we were seduced, overwhelmed"