Sijie uses the symbol of the Little Chinese Seamstress' pale pink shoes to illustrate the personality of the Little Chinese Seamstress, namely her openness, determination, and her purity of mind. The shoes, described as homemade and simple yet sturdy and eye catching directly reflects upon the character of the Little Chinese Seamstress. As she grows and matures, she will grow out of both her shoes and the values and beliefs attached to them.
"The princess of Phoenix mountain wore pale pink canvas shoes, which were both sturdy and supple"(21).
"There was nothing out of the ordinary about the cheap, homemade shoes, and yet, in a place where nearly everyone went barefoot, they caught the eye, seeming delicate and sophisticated" (21).
Now that you've read the end of the book, the shoes become an even more important symbol, right?!! These shoes were made for walking... literally and figuratively.
ReplyDelete1. Do these shoes able to capture her change over the course of the book, or does she simply outgrow them?
ReplyDelete2. This connects to coming of age because it really shows how the seamstress is at the beginning of the book. She matures throughout the story, so this really serves a basis for her character development.
If you were to pick another symbol to describe the Little Seamstress at the end, what would you pick? The shoes represent how the Little Seamstress grew out of her unsophisticated character. This demonstrates how we change as we grow up.
ReplyDeletea) Does she end up leaving the shoes behind when she runs away?
ReplyDeleteb) This connects to coming of age because it shows how much the seamstress had changed throughout the book, and how Balzac's books opened her eyes.
The Little Chinese Seamstress's shoes show quite clearly her coming of age. In the beginning, when she was just a mountain girl, her shoes reflected her innocence and somewhat simple character. However, at the end of the book, she transforms into a "city girl" and wears a brand new pair of white sneakers, which were extremely impractical in the countryside and represented the new urban facade she had taken up.
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ReplyDeleteWould you say these shoes is relevant to the Little Chinese Seamstress's coming of age? Now that we've read till the end of the book, her new sense of fashion includes tennis shoes "white as chalk" to fit in with the country side. Is it valid to say that the shoes represents her past? Her immaturity, or simplicity of just being a mountain girl?
ReplyDeleteI like how you said that she will grow out of the shoes and so will her maturity, values, and beliefs, this connection helps me understand that the little seamstress will not stay the same, that there will be more things about her.
ReplyDelete1. Why do you think the author didn't focus on her shoes after Page 21, but it was still on the cover of the book? Is there any connection between the vibrant color of the shoes and the vibrant concepts of the Western culture?
ReplyDelete2. I believe that the shoes symbolize the Coming of Age because the shoes were the personality of the Little Seamstress and it showed how she was always a little different and less hypnotized and brainwashed by Mao's regime than the rest of the village and it when she disappeared, the shoes guided her to the city. The shoes guiding her shows how her changed personality motivated her to leave and to pursue the value and ideas taught by the Balzac books.
How does the fact that she grew out of the shoes reflect on what happens to her later on in the story? This could connect to coming of age because the little, innocent pink shoes that she wore before she met the boys no longer fit her mature lifestyle anymore. It represents how much she has grown up both physically through the shoes, and mentally.
ReplyDeleteWould you say these shoes is relevant to the Little Chinese Seamstress's coming of age? Now that we've read till the end of the book, her new sense of fashion includes tennis shoes "white as chalk" to fit in with the country side. Is it valid to say that the shoes represents her past? Her immaturity, or simplicity of just being a mountain girl?
ReplyDelete1. What beliefs were attached to her old shoes and how did they represent them?
ReplyDelete2. This connects to coming of age because of how the shoes can represent her change in character over the duration of the book. Her old shoes, plain and simple can show how at the beginning of the book we don't know very much about the Seamstress. However, later she gets new shoes that could represent how there's something new about her that she has discovered (a phase of growing up).