Luo and Ma: Basic Facts
- Luo is 18 and Ma is 17 when they first experience re-education
- They have only three years of lower middle school, but are considered intellectuals and therefore enemies of Mao.
- Luo's father is a famous dentist who once fixed Mao's teeth
- Luo's father is persecuted and imprisoned for admitting he once fixed Mao's teeth
- Ma's parents are both doctors
- Both Luo and Ma's parents are enemies of Mao (deemed reactionaries)
- Luo and Ma grew up together
- Luo and Ma's new home is a village on the mountain Phoenix of the Sky, a two day walk from civilization (any town)
- pg. 11 "The name.....profoundly solitary"
- pg. 11 quote: foreshadowing? symbolism? contrast?
Setting
- pg 12 "the pehoesxi...gloomy valleys"
- What do these words suggest about their new home? how would you describe the atmosphere?
Alarm Clock
- Luo's alarm clock fascinates the simple peasant who have never seen an alarm clock before
- Notice that the alarm clock has a rooster on it (another bird reference)
- The alarm clock allows Luo and Ma to manipulate the village headman by changing the time one hour ahead or behind in order to suit their desires
- Therefore, technology and education overpower and trick the ignorant peasants
The Little Seamstress
- She is deemed elegant and sophisticated in comparison to the rest of the villagers
- Her pale pink shoes are symbolic: classic and feminine
- pg 21 "In a place.....white nylon socks"
- pg 24 "When she laughed....of unpolished metal"
- She is wild and uncivilized, according to the boys
- She is full of great potential!
- "A steep valley divided her village from ours" pg 21
- She is separated from the boys by a very dangerous path - symbolic?
- Luo: "When she finished.....of the pious (62)
Tailor
- The tailor lives like a king
- He says he is well travelled but he has only travelled 200 km away! (ironic)
- His daughter has never seen the world
Malaria
- Luo gets malaria
- Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites such as mosquitoes, often found in tropical regions of the world
- The ignorant peasants try to beat the disease out of Luo by using sticks - where are the doctors?
The Power of Stories
- Luo and Ma are forced to re-tell films that the headman lets them leave the village to see
- "The whole audience wept, even the village headman, who, for all his harshness,couldn't hold back the tears pouring hotly from his left eye, marked as ever by three spots of blood"
- Red = communism!
- Ma: "Picture......hidden from me (57)
- Ma: "I did not...turned the last page" (57)
- Ma decides to copy a passage from Balzac's novel into his old, simple, sheepskin coat (symbolic of education and sophistication meeting ignorance and simplicity)
- Luo: "I could have read.....i'm quite sure" pg 61
- Literature and knowledge = refinement and sophistication
- Luo: "This fellow...intelligent." (62)
Four-Eyes
- Four-Eyes is a teenager
- His mother is a famous poet
- His mother gave him a suitcase full of banned books (literature from around the world)
- Classic Literature = Four Olds!
Four-Eyes' Glasses
- When his glasses are broken by the buffalo tail, it is very symbolic of how he is helpless without his education and how communism works to destroy education
- Glasses = education and intelligence
- No glasses - blindness (literal and metaphorical) and ignorance (lack of knowledge)
- Text-to-text connection: Lord of the Flies (Piggy's glasses break and the boys are doomed!)
Balzac
- A famous French writer of novels (in real life!)
- The book Luo and Ma read is Ursule Mirouet by balzac
- They are instantly fascinated by its romance and exotic location (France)
The Old Miller
- Miller = someone who grinds grains for a living
- The old miller is known for singing simple, peasant folk songs
- His filth, lice, and crumbling home =
- Four eyes wants Luo and aMa top copy down the miller's songs so that he can claim them as his own, and then leave re-e
- Luo and Ma pretenc to be Communist officials who have been given orders to collect his folk songs
Interesting Facts
- Notice it is the Seam stess' idea to steal the suitcase of books
- A buffalo is slautereded for the goig-away ritual that Four Eyes will undergo (this proves his "manhood" and readiness for leaving the village)
Predictions?
- Assuming the boys manage to steal the suitcase, how do you predict it will change all of their lives?
- What does this suitcase mean to Luo, Ma, and the Little Seamstress?
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