What makes us human in the darkest of times? Time after time people from all around the world go through tough times and for some it changes their morals and ideals. How do these events change people? Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden tells the story of two Cree boys that face the terrors of war. Similarly, Dai Sijie’s Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is about two young men in China experiencing re-education in the time of the Cultural Revolution. These stories both convey a message that the darkest of times brings out the worst in men, but the best of humanity continues to persevere and take a stand against it.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was set in the time of Communist China, back when the Cultural Revolution was in full effect. It was a time when foreign culture, especially Western Culture with its bourgeois elements such as education and arts were strictly forbidden. This was represented by the narrator’s violin. The novel starts by describing this violin as “the sole item that exuded an air of foreigners, of civilization, and therefore aroused suspicion” (Sijie, pg. 4). The violin symbolizes the Western Culture that the narrator and Luo persevered to hold on to. Their desire to teach the Little Seamstress about Western Culture reminds them of a better time and inspires them to move forward through dark times. After all the dark times and horrors of the war, Xavier and to some extent Elijah in the story Three Day Road held onto their identity and Cree culture until the end. …show more content…
Before they left for the war, Xavier and Elijah received a medicine bag from Niska as a parting gift. The medicine bag represents their native culture and identity. In the end Xavier takes Elijah’s medicine bag because of how the war changed Elijah into someone Xavier does not recognize anymore. In both stories the characters have something they hold onto that represents a deeper purpose. Persevering to hold on to the things we hold dear determines how the world impacts our morals and humanity A strong theme in both novels is the prevalence of fear and how it can consume people. In Dai Sijie’s novel the two boys, Luo and the narrator had a friend nicknamed Four-Eyes, the son of a poet also in the process of re-education similar to their situation. Four-Eye’s books were of great desire to Luo and the narrator, but in order to get them they had to steal them from Four-Eyes. This is because giving the books or just finding out that he has them …show more content…
In Joseph Boyden’s novel, fear is a driving factor in most people at their time in the war. As of the main protagonist, Elijah demonstrates how fear can change a person. His fear of dying in the war and thirst for blood lust consumes him as he continues to become less and less of a human. This was exhibited when Elijah “(lets) a strange spark of warmth accumulate deep in his gut each time he does it” (Boyden, pg. 200). Elijah’s transformation exemplifies how a person changes and loses his humanity because of the desire to be the best and the desperation for survival. Fear can overcome people and turn them into something worse, but as human beings we can overcome fear instead of letting it consume
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress was set in the time of Communist China, back when the Cultural Revolution was in full effect. It was a time when foreign culture, especially Western Culture with its bourgeois elements such as education and arts were strictly forbidden. This was represented by the narrator’s violin. The novel starts by describing this violin as “the sole item that exuded an air of foreigners, of civilization, and therefore aroused suspicion” (Sijie, pg. 4). The violin symbolizes the Western Culture that the narrator and Luo persevered to hold on to. Their desire to teach the Little Seamstress about Western Culture reminds them of a better time and inspires them to move forward through dark times. After all the dark times and horrors of the war, Xavier and to some extent Elijah in the story Three Day Road held onto their identity and Cree culture until the end. …show more content…
Before they left for the war, Xavier and Elijah received a medicine bag from Niska as a parting gift. The medicine bag represents their native culture and identity. In the end Xavier takes Elijah’s medicine bag because of how the war changed Elijah into someone Xavier does not recognize anymore. In both stories the characters have something they hold onto that represents a deeper purpose. Persevering to hold on to the things we hold dear determines how the world impacts our morals and humanity A strong theme in both novels is the prevalence of fear and how it can consume people. In Dai Sijie’s novel the two boys, Luo and the narrator had a friend nicknamed Four-Eyes, the son of a poet also in the process of re-education similar to their situation. Four-Eye’s books were of great desire to Luo and the narrator, but in order to get them they had to steal them from Four-Eyes. This is because giving the books or just finding out that he has them …show more content…
In Joseph Boyden’s novel, fear is a driving factor in most people at their time in the war. As of the main protagonist, Elijah demonstrates how fear can change a person. His fear of dying in the war and thirst for blood lust consumes him as he continues to become less and less of a human. This was exhibited when Elijah “(lets) a strange spark of warmth accumulate deep in his gut each time he does it” (Boyden, pg. 200). Elijah’s transformation exemplifies how a person changes and loses his humanity because of the desire to be the best and the desperation for survival. Fear can overcome people and turn them into something worse, but as human beings we can overcome fear instead of letting it consume