Reviw_of_the_7_Habits_of_Successful_People

Pablo Clark Professor Smith English 215 03 December 2010 “The Transformation of Montag and The Little Chinese Seamstress” Part 1, Question 1 In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Dai Sijie’s Balzaz and the Little Chinese Seamstress the reader is presented with examples of radical transformations of some of their characters. In Dai Sijie’s book as early on as the introduction of his character the little seamstress, we are presented with the template of her life’s situations. She is introduced as the “princess of Phoenix Mountain”, and we are given the additional imagery that she is sporting quite an elaborate pigtail which reaches the small of her back (Sijie 21). We are taken through the story without much more thought as to her personal appearance then surprisingly, the seamstress dons a tailored Mao jacket and a makeover which strikes us as the attire of a City lady and a Chinese mainstreamer . Sijie’s character Dai paints this picture clearly in; “I rubbed my eyes in disbelief as the scene froze into a still image: the girl with the mannish jacket, bobbed hair, and white shoes...” (182). This, had occurred shortly before the girl that had been the princess of Phoenix Mountain would run off to experience life in the city. Thus, she goes through the physical transformational change of her personal appearance and the physical change of her location in that she was no longer the pigtailed mountain girl but had morphed into an independent city girl. The story set in rural China during Chairman Mao’s rule and takes place in a small mountain village where the youths of reactionary individuals (as labeled by the government), were sent for re-education. Our seamstress enchanted two of these youths and proclaimed to them early on in their meeting, that they not need think that she was a fool and that she liked talking to people that could read and write (25). Luo reveals to us in; “We made love there against the trunk. Standing. She was a virgin and her blood dripped onto the leaves scattered underneath.” (60), that the seamstress had been a virgin. This is one example of a transformation she goes through in the story by being transformed from virgin to lover. The seamstress is transformed in the direction of a woman of experience by having to abort her child. “I’m in trouble”, (158) proclaims the seamstress to Dai when she tells him that she is pregnant with Luo’s baby. Dai saves her from this plight by coercing a doctor to carry out an illegal abortion for them. Ironically Dai not luo, becomes the hero. How unexpected to the reader when Dai the “filthy panty-washer”, (154), the servant of his “beloved commander” (147), would provide the seamstress with the answer to her unwanted pregnancy and remove the chains thus enabling her to free herself from Phoenix Mountain. Being free to leave Phoenix Mountain is something that ironically, neither, Dai or Luo seem able to accomplish. Due to these aforementioned circumstances the little seamstress freed herself from the mountain life. The little girl that Luo had said was “not civilized” enough for him (27), via her exposure to the boys and the culture, ideals, and themes of the stories in the books that were read to her, was transformed into an educated, opinionated woman on the way to the city. The reader is left wondering......now that she knows what she wants from life, will she be able to figure out how to get it. Her transformation helps us understand and stay involved with the story. Some of the works of literature mentioned in Sijie’s work are ones that relate to love and or transformation of their characters as well. Don Quixote (51), is a story in which the lead character uses his own imagination to transform a country girl into his idealized lover Dulcinea. Quixote also has a sidekick akin to Luo’s Dai, Sancho who helps him as a servant might help his “beloved commander” (147). Additionally, the Dumas tale of The Count of Monte Cristo is mentioned as the tale that took 9 days to tell to the father of the little seamstress (124). This story is like Sijie’s in that it is an adventure in which love is lost. Furthermore, Madame Bovary is mentioned by Sijie as its being dealt with by the “sixth match” (177). In this story Emma yearns for a higher class of life (much like the seamstress), and determines to run away from her love for a better life. An experienced reader would know these stories listed above and would be looking and perhaps hoping for some type of dramatic transformation to occur in the seamstress as they are reading Sijie’s tale. A final comment to other works impacting knowledgeable readers is that in the film about Fahrenheit 451 that was watched for the English course this essay accompanies, we were given visual imagery of Madame Bovary going up in flames. Perhaps we readers might come to some agreement on that Sijie’s best lines to impact us with the transformation of our little seamstress were: “All that time we spent reading to her has certainly paid off,...That the ultimate pay-off of this metamorphosis, this feat of Balzacian re-education, was yet to come did not occur to us...did we overestimate the power of love' Or, quite simply, had we ourselves failed to grasp the essence of the novels we had read to her'” Yes we can believe that those that have read the novels talked of in this tale were fully aware of what possible outcomes were likely on the way while little Dai and Luo were as lost as the seamstress was on the day they first met her. Those works of literature were the fuel for the fire that created the phoenix of Phoenix Mountain, our little Chinese seamstress. In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 Montag’s character goes through a transformation of being a cog in the machine of the government, doing the governments bidding without question to being a self-aware and in possession of his own ideas of right, wrong and justice. In this story he is a fireman who has the task of to burn books due to the government has placed a ban on them. In this futuristic novel books are seen as causing flawed thinking. In this society everything is rushed along at a frantic pace. Which caused books to be made shorter and shorter from books to short stories and anthologies and then into short commercials. As Guy Montag goes through the process of burning books and people’s homes that had books in them he becomes guilt laden and decides to keep a few books and read them. He seeks out the help of an ex-professor from Columbia University to help him re-learn how to think for himself. Like in Sijie’s story Bradbury uses books as the fuel for a transformation which involves a drastic level of self discovery. Bradbury’s use of Alexander Pope and other literary allusions provide readers with moral questions as to does government have the right to do the thinking for its citizens. Perhaps some readers might chose to answer this by considering if society would be a better place if there were thousands of Montag firemen roaming about keeping order or would it serve a society better if there were thousands of Montags roaming about reciting books. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress and its’ ironic incidents impact on Dai, Luo, and us. Part 2 Question 3. In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie uses irony to portray how knowledge can be dangerous. To begin with he uses the beauty of discovering love a thing so beautiful and forever remembered as a warning that even coming to know love can prove quite dangerous. When the little seamstress loses her virginity to Luo and ensues on a relationship with him this love will have ironic outcomes. Two such occasions of this are: One, in that the beauty of love transformed itself into the necessity for the seamstress to abort her unborn daughter. Another ironic outcome of her love for Luo occurs in that as a result of that abortion the seamstress is renewed with independence again and leaves Phoenix Mountain severing hr relationship with Luo in the process. As Luo burned the books it was ironic in several ways: One, is that he would burn them after having gone to such great lengths to obtain them from four eyes. A second example is that they for a good time had meant so much to him for he had used them to gain the love and trust of the little seamstress. It is in this burning of the books that it is relayed to us how knowledge and how it relates to love was ironic and dangerous to Luo. Above is exampled how his burning the books was ironic, the knowledge the books contained proved dangerous to him in that it was the learning the seamstress experienced from them that caused Dai and Luo their anguish and caused the books to get burned. The possession of a little knowledge became dangerous for Luo and Dai in that even though a mountain girl saw them as worldly and educated they were in all actuality just young inexperienced middle school boys that could read and had a few books. What did these boys know of love and a woman’s desires and intellectual needs' As a result of this dangerous playing around Luo and Dai’s feelings were scalded, scorched and singed when the seamstress leaving the mountain, akin to how they scalded, scorched and singed the books. We are left wondering if the seamstress with her limited knowledge of the world might end up broken like Madame Bovary or end up pursued by a crazed man like Don Quixote, or end up trapped with a man who manipulates and objectifies women. We are left without answers to these questions, however are well aware that even with her knew knowledge it is ironic that there are volumes of more things she should really know before leaving her father and Phoenix Mountain. Some readers might find a piece of ironic comedy for their funny bones in Luo saying “with these books I shall transform the little seamstress. She’ll never be a simple mountain girl again,” the irony is that he has no clue as to exactly how right he is about what he said in the moment that he proclaimed it! “MONTAG...to B urn or not to B urn..'” Part 2 Question, 5. One of the main themes in Ray Bradbuy’s, Fahrenheit 451 is that having independent thought and possessing the ability to use it are of paramount importance in a person’s life and to society as a whole. The symbolic use of hands and fire are used to demonstrate to readers that a person’s having the ability to posses and use independent thought is important in society. Early on we are given the example of Guy Montag’s level of power and control in relationship to his hands. One example is how he “broke his fall by grasping the golden pole.” The authority that is placed in his hands is exampled to readers in: “he put his hand into the glove hole of his front door and let it know his touch. The front door slid open,” (10). This details that in this highly mechanized world, that Guy Montag “fireman’s” biometric signature makes things happen. An example of foreshadowing involving his hands occurs when he touches the muzzle of the mechanical hound (25). The hound growling at him is an indication that everything is not working perfectly in the mechanical world. Montag escapes this uncomfortable moment by grasping the pole and being swept to the upstairs room of the fire house. When Montag hides away a book at the scene of a fire his hands are described as having had “done it” (37). Guy Montag at this point does not know exactly why and apparently according to the action of his hands, how he came to the point of stealing books. When “Montag’s hands picked up the Bible” we are shown his inability to act on his own conscious ability and ideas but rather he acts on some type of spark from his subconscious as it relates to the events unfolding around him. Bradbury writes that Montag felt the guilt of his hands and “he hid his hands under the table” (105), during a poker game at the fire house. This alerts the reader that Montag is beginning to have more conscious types of thought in regard to his recent actions of civil disobedience. During these events fire has been evolving as a symbol just as hands have. First, in the matter of fact way that the story’s title page tells the reader that 451 fahrenheit, is the temperature at which book paper catches fire. Later fire and its all consuming nature make us feel sorry for the woman that set her books, her house and herself on fire. Montag also feels this sorrow as well and begins to evolve into thinking about things and if what the firemen do is right and just. Fire and hands roles in contributing to presenting the theme of the importance of independent thought are relayed to us in telling us that fire’s “real beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences” (115). It is ironic that Montag being a fireman and involved with the mechanical processes at the firehouse along with his occupational expectations is not doing right and just things for the government but rather stopping himself from being a free thinker. Bradbury masterfully brings the reader and Montag together with the understanding that Montag cannot continue to be a fireman and at the same time be able to think for himself. Hands and fire come together when Montag finally “burns right” (119), and has another moment of self awareness that he is now acting and thinking on his own which is confirmed by the actions his hands take while holding the flame thrower when he burned Captain Beatty. Montag experiences his final epiphany when he sees hands and fire together in harmony when the fire is “warming” and that “hands without arms, hidden in the darkness” were being protected from the cold by the fires soothing warmth. Works Cited Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451. New York: Del Rey Book, 1991. Print Dai, Sijie and Ina, Rilke. Balzac, and the Little Chinese Seamstress. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. Print