Balzac and the Little Seamstress follows two boys that have to be re-educated during the Maoist Revolution up in a small village. They meet a Seamstress and find banned books with Western ideas to read to each other. Grass on the Rooftop is a story of a boy that is being re-educated that is believed to have saved a picture of Mao and becomes famous and travels around. Both stories have to do with re-education and how people from this time feel and background information to Maoism and China at that time.
During the Maoist revolution if you disagreed openly with Mao or Maoism you would be punished by being denounced. Even though Maoism people are supposed to be able to have open conversations they are unable because of the way they view Mao as …show more content…
Some Issues of gender that were discussed in the reading include Four-Eyes’ mother, the Seamstress, and the girlfriend. Four-Eyes’ mother was strong and got what she wanted and she used her connections to do it. The Seamstress at first could be seen as a weak character she was un-educated and Luo saw her as a fixer upper. She was submissive and did what the boys wanted. When Luo would through his keys in the water for her to catch he was asserting his dominance over her. The day she was bite by the snake and unable to get the keys was when she really started to change and understand her options. The Seamstress realized she did not need him and that with all the knowledge she was taught by the boys she could leave the village and try to build a new life. In the short story the girlfriend is weak and relied on the boyfriends to do her biding. This could be because of the way she was raised to believe that girls were not supposed to do that kind of stuff. When it comes to the little Seamstress having the child it would have been out of wedlock because they could not marry before 25. Having a child out of wedlock was looked down on and since people only really had one or two children that could become inconvenient to have one if not the your only child looked down on. In Non-Western societies women seem to only really be good if they can have children. While in Western societies it can be looked at as a hassle because of all the lost time and the burden of raising a
During the Maoist revolution if you disagreed openly with Mao or Maoism you would be punished by being denounced. Even though Maoism people are supposed to be able to have open conversations they are unable because of the way they view Mao as …show more content…
Some Issues of gender that were discussed in the reading include Four-Eyes’ mother, the Seamstress, and the girlfriend. Four-Eyes’ mother was strong and got what she wanted and she used her connections to do it. The Seamstress at first could be seen as a weak character she was un-educated and Luo saw her as a fixer upper. She was submissive and did what the boys wanted. When Luo would through his keys in the water for her to catch he was asserting his dominance over her. The day she was bite by the snake and unable to get the keys was when she really started to change and understand her options. The Seamstress realized she did not need him and that with all the knowledge she was taught by the boys she could leave the village and try to build a new life. In the short story the girlfriend is weak and relied on the boyfriends to do her biding. This could be because of the way she was raised to believe that girls were not supposed to do that kind of stuff. When it comes to the little Seamstress having the child it would have been out of wedlock because they could not marry before 25. Having a child out of wedlock was looked down on and since people only really had one or two children that could become inconvenient to have one if not the your only child looked down on. In Non-Western societies women seem to only really be good if they can have children. While in Western societies it can be looked at as a hassle because of all the lost time and the burden of raising a