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In the novel Balzac and the Little Seamstress, Dai Sijie vividly presents the theme of the power of story-telling by exploiting the development of relationships between friends or lovers and the development of individual characters throughout the book.
To begin, Dai Sijie conveys the power of storytelling by showing the development of Mai’s storytelling abilities. The two main characters Luo and Ma travel from city to city in the countryside telling well-renowned stories or shows to the people for their re-education. Between the two boys, Luo is the superior one at telling and describing tales and this pushes Ma to develop on his own to become better with the help and motivation of his childhood friend by his side. For instance when Ma was telling a story on his own, “ I got along on my own as best I could… the magic was not the same as when Luo took the lead. I was not a born storyteller.” He knows he is not the best and shows his insecurity about his skills and how he struggled without Luo beside him but when he mentions that he was not a born storyteller. This gives the hint that he is trying his best and that he won’t give up on this passion of his. This carries throughout the book with his confidence developing along and at the end Luo says, “‘Right now,’ Luo whispered to me, ‘You’re doing better than me. You should have been a writer.’” In this, Luo admits that Ma has grown in confidence and his work. With the huge amount of stories he had stored in his knowledge, towards the end Ma started referring to himself as another one of those characters in his books to try to imagine another, better world. He fell in love with all of the characters that he had created for himself. “My look was steely and my pace brisk, as befitting a secret agent with a mission.” This character of his is nothing that has been heard of all through the story and where the ‘Balzac and the Little Seamstress’ was set.
Secondly, the story of Balzac was extremely involved and based on the books and how they impacted the boys. Luo and Ma were both very emotionally attached to the books and they shared these thoughts, devotion, and teamwork towards obtaining these books because of what the books had to offer. The books for the boys were a way to sort of escape their lives in the mines and imagine a different life somewhere else in the world. As the boys grew older, the books helped teach them how to act and the boys stayed educated by these books. The stories of France and other beautiful sites introduced an imaginative setting in the story for Ma and Luo. “There was nowhere for them to go, for there was no conceivable place where a Romeo and his pregnant Juliet might elude the long arm of the law, nor indeed where they might live the life of Robinson Crusoe attended by a secret agent turned Man Friday.” The high romantic style of this passage shows how the narrator’s aesthetic has changed through his exposure to reading. At the beginning of the novel, he describes events concisely and rarely launches into flights of fancy. Here, he allows his imagination to take over and pictures himself, Luo, and the Seamstress in a variety of situations inspired by literature. The stories read spread the boy’s range of imagination which helped the boys feel more confident in nerve-racking situations.
Thirdly, “(Balzac) touched the head of the mountain girl with an invisible finger, and she was transformed, carried away in a dream.” This quote describes how the seamstress changed within the novel and how she transformed into her person. The seamstress had an amazing companion (Luo) who went through the struggle to educate her day by day and this expanded from a little Fraggle seamstress, into an intelligently, independent woman. Just like Ma, the Seamstress used the stories as a connection and developed her knowledge of the outer world by listening to the stories. “…having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent.” With the more novels and adventures she is informed from the books, the little seamstress pretends she is someone else, someone who she believes she is. In the beginning, the Little Seamstress is “not civilized enough” but throughout the novel and under the influence of Luo’s storytelling with the books we see a sudden change which then results in a completely changed person. “Before, (Seamstress) had no idea that you could take the role of a completely different person…” Her imaginative moments of being in a completely different life develop her confidence and independence until the end of the book when she leaves for the city for a new life.
Throughout the book, Dai Sijie supports the power of storytelling by showing the development of Luo and the Seamstress. Luo visits the seamstress and reads her a new story every day. These stories slowly have an impact on the seamstress helping develop the seamstress into a young woman but also progressively developing their relationship. Time passes and more stories are implanted into the seamstress’s head, making her fall in love with not only Luo but also the books. Luo was very special to her and he had done things nobody had ever done to show their affection to her. This uniquely attracts the two closer to one another because they are so different. She is an uneducated seamstress who lives mainly on her own whilst her father works, and Luo is an educated young man who was sent off to be re-educated he escapes this life to help educate the seamstress which doesn’t entirely develop the seamstress its own but also continuously adds a piece to a map to each other’s hearts.
In conclusion, the stories within the story have not only developed the characters and the relationships between the characters but also helped readers relate to the story by creating an alter-universe to allow them to leave their lives and imagine themselves as one of these non-stereotypical characters.
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