Lam

Robert Lam

ENG 1D7

Wednesday, January 16, 2007

Ms. Bumbaca

Isolation Creates Desire

        “Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire.” (Arab Proverb). Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress explores the way isolation impacts two young men’s desires when Mao’s Cultural Revolution forces them to relocate from the city to a backwoods mountain village. Sijie uses the first person protagonist point of view and the first person witness point of view to describe how Luo and the narrator must adapt to their harsh new environment by changing their meanings, values, and beliefs. In the heart of their harsh new reality, Luo and the narrator discover the importance of love, friendship, and beauty when they meet the Little Chinese Seamstress. The two characters learn that isolation forces people to adapt to their new environment and creates the desire necessary to reflect their changing true selves.

        In order to survive, Luo and the narrator must adapt to their new environment by changing their meanings, values, and beliefs to reflect the importance of recognizing opportunity, focusing on things that are important to them and acting upon their focus. Their new isolation tortures the two city youths who must use any means necessary to maintain their sanity. Luo resorts to trickery in order to maintain the young men’s sanity. When the villagers question the two young men about the violin, Luo claims that the narrator’s violin performance is “Mozart is Thinking of Chairman Mao”. Maintaining their city values, enables Luo and the narrator to outsmart the brutal reality presented by the backwards villagers.  The two main characters’ desire for victory over their brutal new environment fuels their will to love. The desire to live remains the most basic form of animal desire motivating the two friends to continue on with their lives. Luo’s humanity almost unravels as a result of his assimilation into this back woods lifestyle. The villagers encourage Luo’s animal like desires and actions when they force him to work in a coal mine where “…he was naked except for a harness with a leather strap that dug deep into his flesh” (Sijie 29).  The villagers turn Luo into a beast of burden so their form of reeducation drains knowledge and values away from the city youths’ souls. However, Luo and the narrator resist this assimilation when the Little Seamstress teaches the two youths that “…a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price.” (Sijie 184). When the Little Seamstress leaves the Phoenix Mountain to pursue her own dreams, she leaves Luo and the narrator enlightened and free from the jail of isolation.

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Dai Sijie explores the way isolation creates desire. The main characters’ desire forces them “to go to any lengths to earn it (riches), win it, and inherit it…” (Oliver 84). Although the seamstress and Luo have been involved, her beauty wakens the narrator’s own desires and threatens to destroy his friendship with Luo. The Seamstress’ beautiful physical appearance tempts the narrator to break his friendship with Luo when he dreams of having sex with her. The narrator learns to control his desire when he discovers that friendship is more important than temporary pleasure. Luo’s animal instincts, on the other hand, ...

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