Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Essay

Why do you think the author chose to end the novel this way? (Please don't say " to make it more interesting and keep us guessing.")

Pages burning. A girl leaving. Hearts broken. Life moves on. Dai Sijie ended Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress with a bang. No other ending would have sufficed because of the theme of change and imagination, acceptance of reality, Lao's determination, and Balzac's brilliance.

The narrator and the Little Seamstress changed the most throughout the novel. The Little Seamstress going from an uneducated, impecunious country girl to a literate city woman thirsting for knowledge. The narrator's transformation became that of a magnificent storyteller who is unafraid to break the rules in order to obtain what he wants. Consequently, both the narrator and the Little Seamstress made their shift because of the books stolen from Four-Eyes. What the reader does not understand until the very end is exactly how much the Little Seamstress has embraced her change.

By far the most predominant theme in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is the use of imagination in Lao and the narrator's life. On several occasions, Lao and the narrator pretend to be someone else. They were the official Communist Party leader and his translator when they first met the old miller. They were thieves on their first mission during Four-Eyes's going away celebration. The narrator pretended to be Lao when he met Four-Eyes's mother, and he immersed himself in the illusion of a bodyguard/ soldier for the Little Seamstress while Lao was away. Both Lao and the narrator lived an imaginary life in order to stay away from the awful re-education the Chinese Revolution have brought upon them. By the end when Little Seamstress leaves, the boys have grown enough from the books to accept their position in life.

While Lao and the narrator enjoyed their time in a dream world, the two could not avoid reality forever. The stolen books and Little Seamstress taught them about life, love, and adventure. Count of Monte Cristo, swimming in the secret pond, and Pere Goriot set up a life of adventure and passion tinted with the cruel reality of dungeons, snakes, and danger. As the Chinese world caught up with them, the narrator and Lao realize that sooner or later they must give up Little Seamstress and move on with their lives. This acceptance is partly why they burn the books after she flees. The books and Little Seamstress are what helped them through their months of re-education. By the end, they have learned everything necessary for them to live, so when one leaves, the others become useless.

The other reason for Sijie to end the novel in this fashion is because of Lao's drive to educate Little Seamstress and the impact Balzac has on her. Lao once told the narrator, "She's not civilised, at least not enough for me (27!)" The whole point for Lao to read to her was so that Little Seamstress would become literate and civil in his eyes. Ironically, Lao's plan backfired. As Little Seamstress learned to love reading, she became more aware of the messages Balzac put in his books. The most important thing Lao's reading taught her was "...that a woman's beauty is a treasure beyond price (184)." At this revelation, Little Seamstress also realized that the boys treasured her beauty more than anything and did, in fact, place a price on it. They loved her for her beauty, which is the one thing that drove her away.

Sijie created the perfect ending. There is no other way he could have intertwined the major themes, Balzac's lesson, growth in the characters, and Lao's satisfaction of a perfectly executed transformation of Little Seamstress without having her abandon them and the books set on fire.