Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Reading Questions(5)

p. 80-105
28. Describe the setting of Yong Jing. What elements of city life are there?
According to Luo, “Yong Jing is so small that when the local canteen prepared a dish of beef and onions the smell reached the nose of every single inhabitant.” In addition, the narrator states about the elements of city life, “the town wasn’t much more than a single high street about two hundred metres long; with a post office, town hall, general store, library and school. There was also a restaurant attached to the hotel, which had a dozen rooms. At the far end of the town, halfway up a hill, was the district hospital.”
29. Who is the woman that has come to Phoenix Mountain to claim her son? Why does the narrator tell her his name is Luo? What does she mean when she states, “Right now, ignorance is in fashion, but one day the need for good doctors will be recognized one more.”(86)
Four Eyes mother has come to Phoenix Mountain to claim her son, Four Eyes. In my opinion, when she states the quotation, she means that the social situation right now is not good for Luo’s father who became the class enemy but there would be someday that good doctors are needed. She is trying to comfort Luo, who is in fact the narrator.
30. Whose idea is it to steal Four Eyes’ books? Why is this an interesting development?
To steal Four Eyes’ books was the Little Seamstress’ idea. It is an interesting development because the Little Seamstress was only a girl at the countryside who does not even graduate from elementary school but she is willing to read books and wanting to know more about the western society. She seems like awakening as an influence of both Luo and the narrator.
31. Why was the buffalo for the farewell feast pushed off the side of the mountain?
The headman did it to congulatulate Four Eyes’ release from re-educating because the headman kind of likes Four Eyes’ mother.
32. At the buffalo’s “execution,” Four Eyes and the head master collect the blood in bamboo leaves in order to drink it. It is explained to Luo by a villager that “It(blood) is a remedy against cowardice. To gain courage, you must swallow it when it’s still lukewarm and frothy. Shortly thereafter, the narrator wonders hw Four Eyes’ mother would feel about the blood drinking tradition. Analyze the importance of this moment in relation to Four Eyes’ character and his reeducation. Has reeducation worked?
I think his desire to gain courage leads him to drink the blood. In my opinion, reeducation has worked because he has been changed. If he was not sent to be reeducated, he could not even think of drinking the buffalo’s blood to get courage.
33. Contrast the function of the 5 sorceresses at Four Eyes feast to their appearance at Luo’s bedside at the Little Seamstress. What appears to be their function in the story?
At Four Eyes feast there was not just the one sorceress with a bow and arrow and all of them had it. I think their function is to get rid of bad things by performing their own ceremony.
34. When Luo, the narrator, and the Little Seamstress find the suitcase full of books, the narrator states, “Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me fell as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives”(99). Why would these books have such a profound effect on him? Why does he also express anger at being denied such books?
These books have such a profound effect on him because he really wants to read these books even though they are forbidden. And he expresses anger being denied such books because he got angry at those people who made these western books forbidden.
35. What is the dilemma the boys face in actually taking the books? What are the potential outcomes of the books disappearance?
The narrator does not want to take all of the books because he is worried about that if Four Eyes informs the situation. But Luo wants to read all of them. Eventually, they take the suitcase with all the books in it. If books are disappeared, Four Eyes might inform it and then they would be in trouble because it is the forbidden books.
36. What purpose does Luo see in taking the books?
Luo wants to teach the Little Seamstress, so that he wants her to live not just like a simple mountain girl.
37. With the admittance by Four Eyes that he never considered the narrator and Luo friends, are the boys justified in taking the books?
No. They just do what they want to. There is nothing important than the books to them at that time.
38. What is the irony in the buffalo tail Four Eyes packs in the suitcase?
According to the narrator, “The tail was exceptionally long, and no doubt once belonged to the unfortunate buffalo responsible for breaking Four Eyes’ glasses.