The author uses the symbol of the sheepskin coat to signify the time the narrator felt a desire for literature. When the narrator decided to copy passages of a book onto the inside of his coat, it was the first time he made a decision truly for himself, not under the influence of his family, friends, or even Chairman Mao. To start making your own decisions is to genuinely come of age.
“Picture, if you will, a boy of nineteen, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, Communism, ideology, and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, all of the subjects that had, until then, been hidden from me”(p57).
Once the narrator caught his first glimpse of true literature, he was deeply affected by the new ideas he absorbed from his reading, and it caused an immediate change in the narrator, he felt the need to keep a record somehow, of the messages he learned, and the feelings he was feeling from these words of Balzac: ”It was the first time in my life that I had felt any desire to copy sentences from a book. … I decided I would write directly onto the inside of my sheepskin coat”(58). The narrator’s decision to copy passages onto the inside of his coat was the first time that he kept something secret, and hidden from society, his community, and even his best friend Luo for the time being. Keeping this for himself was the first time he made a decision for himself: a true marker of his coming of age.
- by: Cassie, Max, Kate, and Amy
Do you think that when the narrator wears the coat, it is because the author is trying to allude to the book that is inscribed on the inside of it? Do you think wearing the coat comforts the narrator?
ReplyDeleteThe making of the decision is a really good tie to coming of age with your symbol, because during this time if he was found out, bad things could happen to him. If this had taken place today, writing the book on the inside of your jacket wouldn't be as momentous a decision as it was in that time and place.
Could keeping the passages to himself also show he was starting to doubt his friend and society? I think that the narrator was understanding that he was coming of age when he was keeping his passages to himself.
ReplyDeleteI like how you guys connect the passage to the coming age with the reference of the narrator keeping a true secret for the first time in his life. You also mention that he even keeps it from his best friend, Luo, which makes it the first time that he's really made a decision for himself.
ReplyDeleteWhat book have you read that made you want to copy down passages and always hold them close to you? Great job connecting this passage to how coming of age is making decisions for yourself.
ReplyDeleteCould you say that the Narrator was being influenced by Balzac to write down the passages from the book? He has obviously read before, but nothing has motivated him in the same way. Was it Chairman Mao's influence that stopped him before, or Balzac's influence that made him go so much further than simply reading?
ReplyDeleteWhat was special about the fact that the coat was made of sheepskin? The literature is a great symbol of the thirst for knowledge. It depicts the power that knowledge has on a mind and what knowledge sticks to one.
ReplyDeleteI like how you described what the coat meant to the narrator I never saw it that way. Good job on your analysis. Do you think that the narrator should have kept the sheepskin coat to himself and never shown it to Luo?
ReplyDeleteCould the coat therefore be a reminder of the moment the narrator first established an internal independence for himself, as he wears it in day-to-day life in the village? I like your idea that that was the moment he first came of age.
ReplyDelete