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The narrator never suggests that there was any coin toss or "fair" way of deciding who got to read the book first. Luo gets it, which shows that his needs and desires come before those of the narrator and reinforces the narrator's sidekick status. The discussion of Balzac's name in translation hearkens back to the narrator's comment about Tibetan incense and the beauty of language in general. The idea that the novel is so highly relatable even to the narrator continues to develop the idea that art and literature are universal.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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When the narrator finishes the novel, Luo, who had left that morning, still hasn't returned. The narrator says that Luo has certainly gone to see the Little Seamstress and relate Balzac's tale to her. Thinking of this, the narrator suddenly feels jealous for the first time. He tries to play his violin, but it sounds shrill.

Luo's relationship with the Little Seamstress is already causing him to act independently from the narrator, which indicates his growing maturity. The narrator, on the other hand, isn't enjoying his forced independence—he's not ready to make that leap yet.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator decides to copy his favorite passages from Ursule Mirouët. He looks for paper but decides to write it on the inside of his sheepskin coat. Painstakingly, he covers the entire inside of his coat with tiny script and dozes off late at night.

By writing on his coat, the narrator turns his coat into an almost sacred object. Though the particulars are different, this follows the same line of reasoning that gives the tailor his high status on the mountain. Clothing is important, particularly when paired with literature.

ACTIVE THEMES

At 3am, Luo wakes the narrator. Luo says he has something to show and pulls out a white handkerchief. He unfolds it slowly and the narrator realizes it's actually fabric torn from the Little Seamstress's shirt. Inside are beautiful leaves stained with blood. Luo explains that they're ginkgo leaves from a clearing near the Little Seamstress's village. He and the Little Seamstress had sex under the tree, and the blood on the leaves is hers. The narrator can barely think. Luo says the Little Seamstress laughed after they had sex

The narrator and Luo acted loyally by returning the book, while Four-Eyes demonstrates his intense selfishness. Luo evidently puts a lot of stock in the transformative power of literature, though in doing so he reveals how superior his own education makes him feel in comparison to the Little Seamstress.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

The narrator says that one day Luo borrowed the narrator's sheepskin coat with the passage written on the inside and read it to the Little Seamstress. She reread the passage herself, sat still for a while, and finally put the coat on. Luo told the narrator that Balzac touched the Little Seamstress like he was a wizard.

Luo's superiority complex aside, the Little Seamstress's reaction does show that literature is transformative. Even a passage is enough to cause this awe in the Little Seamstress, and not coincidentally, this reaction likely reinforces Luo's sense of superiority.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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One Sunday in early summer, Luo and the narrator go to visit Four-Eyes and find him heating a cauldron of water in the yard. When the water boils, he strips his clothes and puts them in the boiling water. The narrator notices that Four-Eyes' skin is covered in angry, bleeding bumps. Four-Eyes shows his friends his underwear, dotted with lice eggs, and explains that he picked up the lice at the Thousand-Meter Cliff.

The boys' reactions suggest that lice like this is something they haven't encountered before; it's unique to the mountain (or rural life in general). This shows again that life on the mountain is full of these difficulties, and dealing with these events is all part of the boys' re-education.

ACTIVE THEMES

The narrator says that a friend of Four-Eyes' mother had promised to find a position for Four-Eyes at a revolutionary journal. However, to make it look like the friend isn't favoring Four-Eyes, he suggested that Four-Eyes collect from the peasants "sincere, authentic folk songs full of romantic realism" to publish in the journal. Four-Eyes spent a week looking for these songs without success when he finally heard about the old miller who lives on the Thousand-Meter Cliff. The miller knows all the songs of the region.

Pay special attention to the way the man at the journal describes the folk songs. He seems to believe that the folk songs will be fully supportive of the goals of the Revolution by championing the ideal of the romantic, noble peasant. The fact that Four-Eyes struggled to find songs in the first place suggests that the man's idea might be misguided and that the Revolution might not have its roots in the actual thoughts and values of peasants.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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Four-Eyes tells the narrator and Luo that the old man is a drunk and he eats pebbles dipped in saltwater. Four-Eyes declined to join the miller in enjoying this dish, which offended the miller. He refused to sing any of his songs, and Four-Eyes stayed for several days. Luo asks if Four-Eyes would lend him another book by Balzac if he and the narrator are able to get the miller to sing folk songs.

Though the miller is unaware of the particular changes the Chinese government has been through, his change of attitude towards the disguised narrator shows that he still holds the government and its power in high regard. The miller's lack of knowledge illustrates just how remote and isolated the mountain is. It's a place where people can exist for decades without any idea of what's happening in the cities.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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Luo tells the miller that the narrator has traveled from Beijing to collect folk songs from the region. The miller looks suspicious and says that the folk songs aren't "proper songs." Luo assures him that the narrator is hoping to collect "authentic, robustly primitive" songs. The miller tries again to convince Luo that the narrator won't want to hear the songs, but a group of peasants arrive with grain to be milled.

Despite his ignorance, the miller seems very aware of the government's censorship of art and music. His unwillingness adds tension and more evidence for the possibility that his songs aren't at all what Four-Eyes is looking for, and that the Revolution isn't actually rooted in peasant traditions.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator helps the peasants with their heavy loads and the miller tells the peasants proudly about how revolutionary the narrator is. Luo translates the narrator's Mandarin responses and the peasants shake hands with the narrator.

Even in disguise and around people he doesn't know, the narrator behaves in a way that reinforces his helpful nature. Note, too, that even though Luo is disguised as the helper, he still takes charge.

ACTIVE THEMES

When the peasants leave, the miller leads Luo and the narrator upstairs. He offers them liquor and motions for them to sit on the bed. The narrator's skin crawls thinking about the lice, and Luo suggests they sit outside. The miller refuses and the three sit on the bed and drink. The narrator can feel the lice as the miller fetches a platter of rocks with a bowl of saltwater and three sets of chopsticks. Hesitantly, the narrator and Luo join the miller in dipping the rocks in the saltwater, sucking on them, and spitting them across the room.

The lice are indicative of the miller's lack of civilization—he doesn't even wash his bedding. His dish of choice also shows how different he is from Luo and the narrator. Learning to accept people like the miller for who they are and what they know is one positive aspect of the narrator and Luo's re-education, and it also helps them mature and gain a more diverse worldview.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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The miller stops the grindstone and closes the windows to improve the acoustics of the mill. He fetches an instrument with three strings and begins to sing. The narrator and Luo are captivated by the miller's contorting and rolling stomach as he sings a song about lice and nuns. The song is crude and funny, and the narrator and Luo laugh. Luo fills their glasses and raises a toast to the miller's stomach. The miller allows the boys to touch his stomach as it rolls and undulates. They all drink and, breaking character, the narrator asks in the local dialect what the alcohol is made from. Luo, the narrator, and the miller spit out what they drank: lamp oil, not alcohol.

The novel finally confirms that the songs aren't as revolutionary as Four-Eyes thought they'd be. Interestingly, they have more in common with forbidden western literature, given the songs’ sexual nature. This makes them all the more appealing to the narrator and Luo, who want very much to experience these forbidden works. This shows again that such things are universal.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 
 

Four-Eyes confirms that the miller's songs are indeed dangerous (and would be censored or banned by government officials if they found out). Four-Eyes shows how out of touch he is with the peasants he's trying so hard to impress.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator muses that Four-Eyes' glimpse of hope for the future has made him exceptionally arrogant. Four-Eyes tells Luo and the narrator to take the pages and burn them. Luo asks for the promised books, but Four-Eyes feigns ignorance. Suddenly, Four-Eyes grabs the transcribed songs and happily yells that he can just alter them to sound revolutionary.

Despite his poor opinion of the government and re-education, Four-Eyes shows he's willing to do what it takes to gain favor. He looks out only for himself, and continues to behave extremely selfishly.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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Angry, the narrator lunges at Four-Eyes and accidentally punches him in the jaw. The narrator is blind with rage as they scuffle for the papers. He comes to his senses again outside, and Luo remarks that they won't have anymore Balzac for now.

Four-Eyes confirms that the miller's songs are indeed dangerous (and would be censored or banned by government officials if they found out). Four-Eyes shows how out of touch he is with the peasants he's trying so hard to impress.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator muses that Four-Eyes' glimpse of hope for the future has made him exceptionally arrogant. Four-Eyes tells Luo and the narrator to take the pages and burn them. Luo asks for the promised books, but Four-Eyes feigns ignorance. Suddenly, Four-Eyes grabs the transcribed songs and happily yells that he can just alter them to sound revolutionary.

Despite his poor opinion of the government and re-education, Four-Eyes shows he's willing to do what it takes to gain favor. He looks out only for himself, and continues to behave extremely selfishly.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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Angry, the narrator lunges at Four-Eyes and accidentally punches him in the jaw. The narrator is blind with rage as they scuffle for the papers. He comes to his senses again outside, and Luo remarks that they won't have anymore Balzac for now.

This highly emotional reaction shows how unjust the narrator believes censorship is. He sees this as a major betrayal by Four-Eyes of both himself and Luo, as well as a betrayal of the trust that the miller showed them by sharing the songs.

The headman evidently doesn't just love storytelling; he loves power, and specifically the power he gains from the alarm clock. He's willing to take power where he can get it, not necessarily just from "good" sources. Watching the film, it remains obvious that both the narrator and Luo are very much in love with the Little Seamstress. The Little Seamstress's comment likely seems to the narrator to be an affirmation of their friendship, which continues to situate him as a sidekick and an observer.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 
 

The Little Seamstress, Luo, and the narrator stay in Yong Jing's cheap hotel that night. The night watchman tells them that there's a woman staying in the hotel who's heading up to Phoenix mountain the following day to collect her re-educated son. Luo, the Little Seamstress, and the narrator stay up half the night wondering who on the mountain gets to go home. They figure it can't be Four-Eyes, with his three in a thousand chances.

The boys' curiosity suggests that there's some degree of competition and jealousy involved with getting to leave the mountain, which indicates that though the teenagers are supposed to be learning to be a part of a collectivist society, they remain very individualist in this situation.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

The next day, the Little Seamstress and Luo visit the cemetery at the bottom of the mountain while the narrator sits by the path to cook sweet potatoes and wait. After a while he looks up and sees the woman from the hotel being carried up the mountain in a chair tied to a man's back. The man decides to rest close to the narrator and puts the woman's chair down. The woman is knitting and pays no notice to the narrator or her bearer.

Notice here that the narrator doesn't even attempt to be anything but an outside observer to Luo and the Little Seamstress's relationship. He voluntarily hangs behind. The knitting woman is an oddity on the mountain; her knitting and the fact that she ignores those around her mark her as being from the city.

ACTIVE THEMES

The narrator addresses the woman in the local dialect. She barely acknowledges the narrator until he switches to a Chengdu accent. She gets out of her chair and sits next to the narrator, still knitting. The two make small talk and the narrator learns that this is Four-Eyes' mother, the poetess. She explains that he's gotten a job at a literary journal thanks to his "splendid peasant songs." The narrator suggests that Four-Eyes was able to successfully collect the songs thanks to his collection of books. The poetess agrees before quickly becoming suspicious and turning to leave.

Four-Eyes' rewrites were successful, which shows that the government is more interested in hearing what they believe is good and correct than knowing what's actually going on. The poetess suggests that she holds the peasants who live with her son in contempt by refusing to truly acknowledge the narrator until he speaks like a person from the city. This becomes more evidence that she doesn't believe in the Revolution either.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

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The poetess asks the narrator his name, and the narrator tells her he's Luo. At this, the poetess seems interested again and asks about Luo's father. When the narrator says that the dentist is currently in jail, the poetess conspiratorially whispers to him that ignorance is fashionable right now and doctors will soon be revered again. She tells "Luo" to not lose hope and shares that while she knits, she's composing poems in her head.

The poetess's view is one that comes with age; it shows the belief that regimes like Mao's come and go and follow a cycle. She also demonstrates the belief that artists and writers will soon be valued again, as she's not given up her craft just because her poems are now illegal.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

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The poetess tells the narrator that Four-Eyes is very fond of Luo and doesn't like the narrator much. The narrator is thrilled he decided to pretend to be Luo and asks the poetess why Four-Eyes doesn't like the narrator. She explains that the narrator is "sly" and thinks Four-Eyes has a secret suitcase, and Four-Eyes once beat the narrator. The narrator is indignant that Four-Eyes spun their fight in this way, but he only tells the poetess that the narrator will be disappointed that the suitcase will be gone. The poetess wishes "Luo" luck and resumes her ascent.

Four-Eyes isn't above altering anything, story or song, to make it self-serving. This drives home again how selfish he is, as it's even more obvious that he's only looking to improve his own situation by impressing those in power, at the expense of his "friends." This also shows how duplicitous Four-Eyes is, as this is obviously the first the narrator has heard that Four-Eyes doesn't like him.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator makes his way to the graveyard to tell Luo and the Little Seamstress about meeting the poetess. They laugh when the narrator tells them he pretended to be Luo. The narrator thinks again that the Little Seamstress is breathtakingly beautiful and thinks he wants to marry her, even if she is Luo's girlfriend. When she finishes laughing, the Little Seamstress suggests stealing Four-Eyes' books.

The Little Seamstress suggests that the narrator and Luo should behave exactly as Four-Eyes did and betray the trust he put in them. Coming from her, this creates the possibility that she herself won't always be loyal and truthful like Luo and the narrator are.

The narrator explains that he and Luo are considered intellectuals by the government and, because of this, they have been sent to the mountain to undergo re-education by the poor peasants. The boys perform backbreaking work and carry buckets of feces to the fields every day. The mountain is rainy and depressing, and the narrator plays his violin to try to lift his and Luo's spirits. He explains to the reader that because of his musical talent he may someday get to leave the mountain, but Luo's only talent is storytelling. The headman is the only one who appreciates Luo's talent, and he sends Luo and the narrator to the town of Yong Jing to see movies and then relate them back to the village.

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"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.

The Little Seamstress is the "princess" of the mountain. One day, the narrator and Luo run into her father, the tailor, on a narrow mountain path, and the tailor teases the narrator about his violin. Several weeks later, Luo and the narrator stop by the tailor's house to ask the Little Seamstress to lengthen Luo's pants. Luo is obviously taken with the Little Seamstress, but when the narrator asks him about it, Luo says that the Little Seamstress isn't cultured enough for him.

The narrator and Luo are sent to work in the extremely dangerous coal mine for two months. After six weeks, Luo contracts malaria. The miners whip Luo to drive out the infection, and when they instruct the narrator to take over, the narrator discovers a letter from the Little Seamstress, saying that she's arranged for them to come to her village and perform an "oral cinema show." When they arrive and the Little Seamstress sees how ill Luo is, she cancels the show, tucks Luo into her bed, and applies a poultice to his arm. She calls four sorceresses to keep a vigil around Luo. When the sorceresses begin to fall asleep, the Little Seamstress asks the narrator to tell them a story to keep them awake. Luo regains consciousness partway through the narrator's poor recitation and speaks the final heart-wrenching line of the story, sending the sorceresses into tears.

The next morning, Luo feels well enough to head home. He and the narrator stop when they see their friend Four-Eyes struggling with a water buffalo in a muddy field. Four-Eyes suggests that his friends rest at his house. When the narrator is searching for a sweater for Luo under Four-Eyes' bed, he finds a small, heavy suitcase. Four-Eyes won't say anything about it, but he looks panicked when Luo suggests that it contains books.

One snowy day in spring, Luo and the narrator go to see Four-Eyes, who has recently lost his glasses but is still attempting to work. Luo offers to help Four-Eyes finish his work in exchange for a book. Four-Eyes refuses, but is unable to complete his task. Luo and the narrator help him, and he gives them Ursule Mirouët by Balzac. Luo stays up all night reading and leaves in the morning after giving the book to the narrator. The narrator reads all day and when he's done, he copies a passage from the novel onto the inside of his jacket. Luo returns early the next morning and tells the narrator that he and the Little Seamstress had sex for the first time.

Luo and the narrator return the novel to Four-Eyes, but he won't lend them any more books. One day, they find Four-Eyes boiling his clothes, and he tells his friends that he had the opportunity to get off the mountain by collecting folk songs from an old miller. He ruined the opportunity by offending the old man and got lice in the process. Four-Eyes promises the boys a book if they can successfully record the miller's songs. Luo and the narrator disguise themselves as soldiers and visit the miller. They join him in sucking on salty rocks, and the miller sings bawdy songs. When they present their work to Four-Eyes, Four-Eyes deems the songs "smutty rhymes." He decides to alter them, and the narrator punches Four-Eyes.

Luo, the narrator, and the Little Seamstress go to Yong Jing to see a film. At the hotel that night, they learn that a woman is on her way to retrieve her son from his re-education. The next day, while the narrator waits for his friends next to a path, the narrator meets this woman. She's Four-Eyes' mother, the poetess, and she says that Four-Eyes has gotten a job at a revolutionary journal. When she leaves and the narrator tells Luo and the Little Seamstress what he learned, the Little Seamstress suggests they steal the suitcase of books before Four-Eyes leaves.

Luo and the narrator fashion a master key to pick Four-Eyes' lock and plan to steal the books during the village's celebratory banquet. Four-Eyes' village's headman slaughters a buffalo, and he and Four-Eyes drink the animal's blood. Later, Luo and the narrator watch the festivities before breaking into Four-Eyes' house. They find the suitcase, which is full of translated Western novels. When they try to leave through the window they find it locked. They hear Four-Eyes and the poetess returning to the house and hide under the beds. When Four-Eyes and his mother leave, Luo grabs the suitcase and they run away with it.

Four-Eyes never reports his missing books. The headman leaves for a party conference, and Luo and the narrator spend a month reading all the books in the suitcase. The narrator is most taken by the novel Jean-Christophe. Luo spends his days visiting the Little Seamstress and reading to her. When a storm ravages the mountain, it creates a dangerous path along the way that scares even the narrator, who isn't afraid of heights like Luo is.

When the headman returns, he's very angry because he received poor dental care in Yong Jing. He asks Luo to repair his bad tooth, since his father is a dentist, but Luo refuses. The tailor arrives in the village a few days later and decides to stay with Luo and the narrator. Before they go to bed the first night, the tailor asks the boys to tell him a story. The narrator begins to tell The Count of Monte Cristo, and the tailor is hooked. The telling takes nine nights. On the third, the narrator is interrupted by the headman, who accuses him of spreading reactionary trash. The headman threatens to take the narrator to the Public Security Office, but says that he'll leave the narrator alone if Luo can repair the headman's tooth. The tailor fashions a drill out of his sewing machine needle. The headman can't stand the pain of the makeshift drill, so Luo suggests they tie the headman down. The headman agrees, and the narrator works the treadle. He takes revenge on the headman by making the treadle go as slowly as possible.

The novel switches to passages of narration by other characters. The old miller narrates a story of coming upon Luo and the Little Seamstress having sex in a secluded pool. Then Luo narrates, saying he taught the Little Seamstress how to dive, and how she loved to dive for his key ring. He says that he has to leave for a month to sit at his mother's sickbed. The Little Seamstress takes over the narration and tells the narrator that Luo's stories made her want to dive. On the last day she and Luo went to the pool, they acted out a part of The Count of Monte Cristo, and then she dove for Luo's keys. At the bottom of the pool she encountered a snake that bit her, and she left Luo's keys underwater.

Luo asks the narrator to keep an eye on the Little Seamstress while he’s out of town with his sick mother. The narrator envisions himself as a "secret agent" and he mostly enjoys the task. He begins to take on household chores at the Seamstress's house and finds that he's very attracted to her. As he's heading home one night, a band of the Little Seamstress's suitors attacks the narrator. They discover his Balzac novel, but the narrator escapes with only a bruised ear. That night, the narrator dreams about the gang of suitors cutting his ear off and the Little Seamstress rescuing him. He masturbates thinking about her.

The next day, the Little Seamstress tells the narrator she's pregnant. The narrator explains that being an unwed mother is illegal, abortion is illegal, and getting married before age 25 is illegal. The narrator goes to Yong Jing to try to get help from the gynecology department at the hospital. The female patients yell at the narrator and he spends two days trying unsuccessfully to learn how to procure an abortion. On the third day, he decides to try to get help from the Christian preacher, who sweeps the streets. The narrator learns that the preacher is in the hospital. At the hospital, the narrator sits with the preacher and the preacher's family, who try to record the preacher's last words. The narrator catches a glimpse of the gynecologist and follows the doctor into an exam room. He offers the gynecologist a novel by Balzac in exchange for the abortion. The Little Seamstress's abortion is the next Thursday. It's successful, and the narrator gives the gynecologist Ursule Mirouët as well as Jean-Christophe. The Little Seamstress buys tangerines for the preacher, who died days earlier, and puts them on his grave.

The narrator jumps forward to himself and Luo, drunk and laughing, burning the banned novels. He explains that the Little Seamstress left suddenly after deciding to become a city girl. In the time leading up to her departure, she cut her hair into a bob, asked the tailor to buy her white shoes, and altered a jacket for herself. The result was modern and stylish, and Luo decided that reading to her had paid off. The narrator says that he and Luo didn't realize then that the final aspect of the Little Seamstress's transformation hadn't happened yet. A month later, the narrator and Luo are working in the fields when they hear a commotion in the village. The tailor is in the village, and he tells the boys that the Little Seamstress left for the city. Luo and the narrator run down the mountain in pursuit of the Little Seamstress. After two hours, the narrator spots the Little Seamstress sitting by the graveyard. He stops and watches Luo reunite with her. The narrator watches as the two begin talking and he hears Balzac's name. He feels betrayed that the Little Seamstress didn't tell him she was leaving. The seamstress gets up and resumes her march down the mountain. The narrator calls after her, but she keeps running. Luo tells the narrator that the Little Seamstress said that she learned from Balzac that her beauty is a treasure, and she's going to the city to try her luck.

Four-Eyes continues his betrayal of his friends by not inviting them to the event. For the villagers, the event is surely a celebration of their success in re-educating Four-Eyes, which is ironic given that all it seems he's learned on the mountain is how to look out for himself and keep secrets.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

Several days before the theft, the narrator dreams that he's put in charge of stealing the books. In his dream, he approaches Four-Eyes' house and struggles to pick the lock. When it finally gives way, the narrator enters the house to find the poetess calmly knitting inside, smiling. The narrator makes some excuse to the poetess and leaves the house, locking it behind him.

The unsuccessful theft in the dream indicates that the narrator has a guilty conscience; stealing and betrayal aren't things that come easily to him. Notice too that he's alone and unsuccessful. This reinforces his role as sidekick.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The day before the celebration, the narrator and Luo hear a buffalo bellowing in a ravine: as it's illegal to kill an animal used for farm work, Four-Eyes' headman caused the buffalo to "slip" off the edge of a cliff. A few hours later, Luo and the narrator go to see the buffalo. It's finally dead, and Four-Eyes and his village headman are crouched next to it, collecting the blood in a bamboo vessel. Someone explains to Luo and the narrator that they'll wait for the blood to congeal so they can drink it as a remedy against cowardice. The narrator and Luo watch the headman slice the blood pudding in half. Four-Eyes slurps his half of the blood.

Even those with power under the Communist system (like Four-Eyes' headman) must lie and omit information or risk punishment. The rule about farm animals' deaths shows that the government values the "peasants" being able to perform their duties as farmers. What the narrator has learned about Four-Eyes makes it seem as though he's probably not fully on board with the blood-drinking ritual; Four-Eyes is probably doing it to earn his headman's favor.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

Luo and the narrator watch as villagers add ingredients to the huge stew pot in the center of Four-Eyes' village. Luo points out five old crones coming to join the festivities as guests of honor. The poetess pays the crones, and one of them reads Four-Eyes' palm. It seems to be a grim prediction, as the villagers fall silent and then talk uneasily. The crones begin a dance around the fire and act out exorcising demons. Luo and the narrator leave their vantage point as the dance reaches its climax.

The narrator and Luo watch a picture-perfect example of a collectivist society as the villagers work together to make the stew. The crones harness a more rural version of storytelling when they read Four-Eyes' palm; the power of their form of storytelling is evidenced by the villagers' uneasy reactions.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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The narrator and Luo walk through the deserted village to Four-Eyes' house. Luo picks the lock, they enter the house, and they shut and lock the door behind them. Luo lights his torch and they're stunned to see that the suitcase is perched right on top of Four-Eyes' assembled luggage. They remove the rope around the suitcase and lift the lid to find a pile of books by French, Russian, and some English authors. The narrator touches the books and feels as though he's touching human lives.

The literature is already so powerful—even at this point when the narrator and Luo haven't read any of it yet—that the books become almost human. These books are a physical representation of the boys' coming of age, since the books will be what they use to learn about themselves and the world around them.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

RELATED QUOTES WITH EXPLANATIONS

Luo says the situation reminds him of a film scene in which characters find a suitcase full of money. The narrator asks if Luo is "weeping tears of joy," but Luo says he only feels loathing. The narrator agrees and says that he loathes everyone who wanted to ban the books. He's scared to hear himself say that, as saying such a thing could lead to years in prison.

The narrator and Luo are angry with the government for forbidding art and literature like this, as well as with Four-Eyes for refusing to share. The narrator recognizes the difficulty of this thought, as he's not supposed to feel that way about Mao or those in charge of his re-education.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

RELATED QUOTES WITH EXPLANATIONS

Luo declares that they need to go. The narrator reminds him that if Four-Eyes says anything, they'll all be at the mercy of the government, but Luo says that the poetess won't allow Four-Eyes to squander his chance to get off the mountain. Luo shuts the suitcase and says that he'll use the books to transform the Little Seamstress.

Luo again asserts his superiority over the Little Seamstress, even though he himself hasn't read any of these novels either. Notice that he sees that the books will be transformative for the Little Seamstress; he doesn't acknowledge that they might be transformative for him, as well.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

Luo carries the suitcase and they move into the other room, where they find the window they'd planned to escape through secured with a nail. As they head back into the main room, Luo hears someone outside. The narrator kills the torch, and they hear the sounds of the poetess and Four-Eyes coming back to the house. Four-Eyes is complaining of an upset stomach after drinking the buffalo blood. As the chain on the door rattles, Luo and the narrator dive under the beds. The narrator finds himself next to a full chamber pot.

The indigestion Four-Eyes experiences makes the traditional peasant life seem far less idyllic and romantic. This mirrors his thoughts about the peasant songs: he believes at first that these things will be revolutionary and fulfilling, but upon actually experiencing them, he finds that they're either unpleasant or in direct opposition to his goals.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The poetess finds Four-Eyes medicine for indigestion, and they notice that the rope is no longer around the suitcase. They uneasily discuss whether someone could've broken in, and the poetess tells Four-Eyes that the narrator and Luo are sly. Four-Eyes tells his mother that he stayed friends with them so that Luo's father could someday attend to her teeth.

Four-Eyes confirms that his friendship with Luo and the narrator was only one of convenience; he only gave them what loyalty he did so that he could use their relationship for his own gain later. Essentially, he preyed on Luo and the narrator's loyalty, as they've demonstrated throughout the novel that they believe in returning favors.

ACTIVE THEMES

Four-Eyes puts the buffalo tail in the suitcase and suddenly starts yelling that he has diarrhea. He runs outside to relieve himself in the cornfield, and the poetess runs after him with toilet paper. Once Four-Eyes and the poetess are gone, Luo and the narrator grab the suitcase and run from the house. They stop to rest after an hour and open the suitcase. The buffalo tail appears to be from the buffalo that broke Four-Eyes' glasses.

The "quiet anarchy" suggests that the headman is the only person in the village who truly believes in the Revolution, and even that is thrown into question given the headman's love of power. The villagers seem as though they're undergoing their own form of re-education, as they're forced to change from opium farmers to peasants.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

RELATED QUOTES WITH EXPLANATIONS

Luo devours every novel by Balzac, while the narrator is very taken with Romain Rolland's novel Jean-Christophe. The novel shows the narrator the value of individual action and standing up to the whole world. The narrator is so passionate about the ideas he encounters in Jean-Christophe that, for the first time ever, he wants to own something that's his own, not shared with Luo. The narrator writes a note in the book as though Luo were gifting it to him for his birthday, and Luo signs it. The narrator then writes in three of Balzac's novels, dedicating them to Luo.

The idea of individual action and taking on the world alone is an idea that, importantly, goes directly against the Communist project of creating a collectivist society. The narrator, then, is learning the exact opposite of what he's supposed to be learning during his re-education. This also becomes an indicator that the narrator is growing up, as he finally begins to ask for his independence from Luo.

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Several weeks later, the mountain experiences a terrible storm. The morning after the storm, Luo loads a hod with vegetables and a Balzac novel and sets off to read to the Little Seamstress. Upon his return that night, he tells the narrator that the storm caused a landslide, and part of the path is now very narrow and dangerous. The narrator explains that Luo is terrified of heights and he relates a childhood experience in which Luo was too scared to climb a water tower.

The fact that Luo is willing to face his fears to see the Little Seamstress shows how much he cares, both about her and his project of civilizing her. The narrator also suggests that when it comes to heights, he's actually capable of taking charge of his own desires and achieving those desires independently of Luo.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

The next day, the narrator decides to go with Luo to see the Little Seamstress. When the boys reach the dangerous part of the path, even the narrator is nervous about it: the narrow ridge has drops of unknown depths on either side. The narrator notices a raven with a red beak sitting at the end of the narrow part, and he offers to take Luo's hod. As he lifts the hod, the wind blows and the narrator begins to feel dizzy. He starts to walk the ridge like a tightrope walker, but he stops halfway when the dizziness gets worse. The narrator wonders what Jean-Christophe would think of turning back and decides that he wouldn't mind, since the narrator hasn't yet had the opportunity to have sex, fall in love, or take individual action against the world.

Jean-Christophe has evidently had the effect of providing the narrator with an individual worldview. This again shows that the narrator is maturing and developing, as the worldview isn't just one that champions individualism; it's also something the narrator found on his own. The narrator's discomfort with the ridge indicates that the ridge is probably more dangerous than originally thought, which creates the sense that Luo is risking a lot to visit the Little Seamstress. He, too, is maturing and developing.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

Get the entire Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress LitChart as a printable PDF.

"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.

The narrator turns around and crawls to Luo, then points to the red-beaked raven and asks if it's there every day when Luo crosses this ridge. Luo says it's always there in the morning, but not in the evening. The narrator tells Luo to go on alone and watches him hesitantly cross the ridge. He feels unsure of how Luo's "adventure" reading Balzac to the Little Seamstress will turn out.

Watching Luo tackle the dangerous ridge leads the narrator to wonder what other changes Luo's project of civilizing the Little Seamstress might bring. The narrator isn't ready yet to tackle his fears like Luo is, hence deciding to stay behind.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

The next night, the narrator wakes from a nightmare in which he watched Luo and a nondescript girl walk along a ridge that dropped off sharply on either side. The girl turned into the Little Seamstress and pranced along the path, while Luo struggled to follow her. The narrator looked away to see if a red-beaked raven was there, but when he looked back he saw that the Little Seamstress was gone. The narrator and Luo slid down the nearly vertical mountainside to find the Little Seamstress's body, broken and bleeding. Luo took her in his arms and also started bleeding. When the narrator tells Luo about the nightmare, Luo isn't worried and he refuses to tell the Little Seamstress not to take the narrow path to come visit them. Luo does agree to not share the narrator's dream with her.

The headman's fate recalls the poetess's belief that soon doctors will be revered again, as the headman's pain seems a direct result of removing good doctors from their posts. Despite his dislike of the headman, Luo's refusal to fill his tooth is a kind decision, and one that would save the headman from excruciating pain.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

Several days later, the tailor arrives in the village. Though everyone offers to house the tailor, he insists on staying with Luo and the narrator. The boys are perplexed, but they figure the tailor believes that Luo will become his son-in-law and wants to get to know him.

Luo and the narrator seem perfectly content with their assessment of the tailor's motives, which indicates that Luo believes that the Little Seamstress is indeed his future wife. He's beginning to gain control over his future.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator and Luo's house is transformed into a tailor's workshop, and the boys get to see up close how much the village women and girls care about clothes. The narrator remarks that poverty and political regimes will never stop women from wanting to be well dressed. As night falls, men come to join the crowd of women at the house, and the gathering becomes boisterous. Finally, the tailor orders everyone out of the house.

Here, the narrator ascribes the same kind of universality to women's dress as he does to literature. Further, the Cultural Revolution can't touch and alter this desire, just as it can't truly eliminate citizens' desire for forbidden literature.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

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Luo, the tailor, and the narrator eat dinner and the narrator offers to play his violin before they go to bed. The tailor asks for a story instead, saying that the Little Seamstress has been telling him about Luo and the narrator's wonderful stories. Luo insists that the narrator tell the story, which the narrator thinks is because Luo doesn't want the tailor, as his future father-in-law, to think he's too forward.

Though the narrator is put in control of the evening's entertainment, it's Luo who puts him in power, so the narrator still isn’t exactly seizing control of his own life. The narrator believes that Luo is trying to shape his own future by not telling the story himself.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

Get the entire Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress LitChart as a printable PDF.

"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.

The narrator asks the tailor and Luo to wash their feet and get in bed before beginning. Rather than tell the story of a North Korean or Chinese film, the narrator decides to tell The Count of Monte Cristo. He deliberates over the first line, which provides the date and setting (1815, Marseilles). When the tailor asks why the story takes place so far away, the narrator suggests that if the tailor doesn't find the story interesting, they can all rest instead. A few minutes later, the tailor asks the main character's name, and the narrator begins the story.

The tailor's interest in the French tale again illustrates that literature can be enjoyed by anyone, and stories are universal. Notice how painstakingly the narrator chooses his words to begin the story. Though he didn't necessarily want this power in the first place, his power over the trajectory and style of the story allows him to come into himself and find a sense of maturity and purpose.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The narrator talks for hours and begins to enjoy the process of storytelling. When the narrator gets tired and has to stop, Luo whispers that the narrator should've been a writer. The narrator falls asleep but is quickly woken by the tailor asking why he stopped. The narrator resumes the tale, but pauses every half hour or so to keep the tailor engaged. The tailor finally allows the narrator to stop close to dawn, and the tailor pays the headman so that he, the narrator, and Luo can get some sleep.

Luo has a point, and it ties together the novel as a whole, since the narrator is the one telling the reader the story: he did become a writer. Because of that, the narrator's recitation at this point in his life becomes the point at which the narrator began to truly come into his mature, adult self through storytelling.

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It takes the narrator nine nights to tell the entire story. The story begins to influence the clothes the tailor makes during the day, and the narrator explains that the five-pointed anchor motif was exceptionally popular on Phoenix mountain for years after this.

The popularity of the anchor is particularly satisfying, as it reinforces the universality of literature and motifs. The villagers likely aren't even aware of its origins, which only reinforces its universality.

ACTIVE THEMES

On the third night, the village headman interrupts the narrator's storytelling. Though the tailor offers pleasantries to the headman, the headman ignores them and instructs the narrator to come with him to the Public Security Office. The narrator is terrified, especially when the headman accuses him of spreading "reactionary trash." Luo tries to explain that The Count of Monte Cristo isn't Chinese and is actually about a poor sailor and therefore a "revolutionary worker," but the headman won't hear of it. The narrator gets out of bed and dresses as though he'll be gone for a long time.

Luo has had enough education and re-education to be able to pinpoint and articulate the universal threads of a western story. The narrator's fear is a fear that he won't be able to actually complete his coming of age process, specifically because he received education from banned sources. The power of the government is evident here; the narrator doesn't believe he'll return.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

Luo offers to go with the narrator and the headman, but the narrator refuses. The narrator trembles as he approaches the headman, but the headman doesn't move. Finally, the headman looks at Luo and says that he still has the piece of tin. Luo is confused, but the headman says that if Luo can fix his bad tooth, he'll leave the narrator alone.

The narrator describes the headman's terrible dental situation. The bad tooth is all the way at the back of the headman's mouth. Luo inserts a makeshift drill made from the tailor's sewing machine into the headman's mouth as the tailor works the treadle of the machine and begins to drill into the tooth. The headman screams in pain and accuses Luo of nearly killing him. Luo explains that a real drill spins much faster, and the slower the drill spins the more painful it will be. The headman instructs Luo to try again, but the pain is again too much for the headman to hold still.

This horrific situation illustrates one of the worst-case scenarios of repressing knowledge and education. Further, it shows that the repression harms the peasants, the very people that the government claims to revere. The fact that Luo agreed to fill the headman's tooth is a demonstration of loyalty to the narrator.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

Luo asks the headman to rinse his mouth and then suggests that in order for the dental work to progress, the headman will need to allow them to strap him down to the bed. The narrator is dumbfounded, but the headman agrees. The tailor is tasked with keeping the headman's head still, while the narrator takes over working the treadle of the sewing machine. Luo attacks the tooth with the needle. The narrator feels suddenly sadistic and slows down the treadle. Luo appears complicit as the needle slows down to one or two rotations per second and chisels into the tooth.

By bringing in another person's first-person perspective, the narrator reasserts the importance of storytelling. It's implied that the narrator is listening or transcribing the miller's story, and the narrator specifically is confronted with a downside of growing up: no longer being virile. Because of this, this passage shows the beginning, middle, and end of maturity.

ACTIVE THEMES

Luo and the Little Seamstress swam out of the water, and the Seamstress fashioned a loincloth of leaves. Luo lounged in the sun while the Little Seamstress climbed the rocks around the pool. She climbed up to a tall rock and the miller secretly admired her body. The ravens returned and settled around her, but she brushed them aside and dove into the pool. The miller thought that he recognized Luo, and he finally realized later that he was the interpreter who accompanied the narrator to visit the mill.

The miller's tale shows that even when Luo and the Little Seamstress are together, the Little Seamstress is beginning to also seek independence, as she dives without Luo. The diving hearkens back to Jean-Christophe, as it seems to be something she does for herself to fulfill her own needs and desires.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

The miller tells the narrator that it's lucky for Luo that it was he who saw Luo and the Little Seamstress, as the miller has never reported anyone to the Public Security Office. He insists that if anyone else had seen them, they'd be in major trouble.

This is a somewhat unsettling end to the miller's tale, despite his assurance that he won't report the Little Seamstress and Luo. The discovery that the two are doing something wrong in the eyes of the law creates a sense of foreboding.

In his own words, Luo continues to express disdain for the peasants, their way of life, and even the young woman he claims to love. However, the diving does force him to recognize the Little Seamstress's independence to an extent.

ACTIVE THEMES

 

Luo describes his key ring, which holds the keys to his family's home in Chengdu, the master key that he and the narrator used to get into Four-Eyes' house, and several others. One afternoon, Luo read the Little Seamstress a chapter of Balzac's Lost Illusions. The Little Seamstress caught a tortoise, and Luo carved the novel's protagonists into its shell. When he released it, he wondered who would release him from the mountain and felt a wave of depression. Figuring he'd never use his keys again, Luo flung them into the pool.

Like the buffalo tail Four-Eyes tried to take home with him, Luo also collects trophies. Having the trophies and the memory of his city life in front of him in the form of the keys, however, only makes it seem less likely that Luo will ever make it home. This heightens his sense of limbo and purposelessness.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

The Little Seamstress dove into the pool and was gone for a long time. Luo became agitated and finally swam down after her. He saw her rising from the bottom, his keys in her mouth. He tells the narrator that she was the only person who believed he'd be released from re-education and would need his keys again. He says they played this game of fetching the key ring from the bottom of the pool every time they met and he loved it, because he got to watch the Little Seamstress swim naked.

The way that Luo discusses the Little Seamstress here shows that, in many ways, he considers her relationship to him to be very similar to his relationship to the narrator. She's a supporting and supportive character, and Luo only thinks of his own fate. He never considers what her fate will be, regardless of their romantic relationship.

ACTIVE THEMES

 
 

Luo tells the narrator that today, he and the Little Seamstress lost the key ring in the pool. It was dangerous and he says he doesn't want to go back to the pool ever again. He continues and says that when he got back to the village, he found a telegram saying that his mother is in the hospital. The headman is allowing Luo to take a month to sit with his mother. Luo remarks on the irony of returning home without his keys.

The headman's decision to allow Luo to go be with his mother suggests that the headman on some level values Luo's happiness. Notice that Luo doesn't mention any particulars about why he doesn't want to return to the pool. This is indicative of Luo's self-centered nature, as we'll learn soon that the "danger" is only danger to the Little Seamstress, not Luo.