Topic > "Balzac and the Little Chinese Dressmaker" Psychoanalytic-Marxist Analysis of Luo

In Balzac and the Little Chinese Dressmaker by Dai Sijie, Luo's attempt to re-educate the little dressmaker is indicative of his own participation in the class struggle. This The protagonist projects his own desire to be a member of the more sophisticated "upper class" into his upbringing of the Little Seamstress. However, the end results of Luo's efforts reveal the approach somewhat paradoxical to the issues of class and action that is central to the film. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essayLuo is the son of a victim of the oppressive class Chinese leader under Mao, a famous dentist who repaired the seemingly perfect Chairman Mao's teeth, despite being upper class in China's pre-Mao era, Luo's father was labeled a reactionary and publicly humiliated: “A large concrete slab hung around his neck by a thread so deeply embedded in the skin that it was visible… .I could make out a dark stain on the ground…” (Sijie 9). forced to falsely confess to sleeping with a nurse as his crime. Luo is enraged that his father suffered this, fixating on the fact that the oppressive regime brought down his father. This is made clear by Luo punching the narrator in the face after he cried out of sympathy for Luo's father, causing Luo to burst into anger, the only time there was conflict between the two friends. Luo promises: “We will register all those who report my father or beat him. So we can take revenge when we are older.”(9). The ruling class putting Luo's father in prison ignites Luo's desire to seek reconciliation for this wrong by becoming a sophisticated and upper class man like his father was to undermine and overthrow Mao's ruling regime as revenge. Once confined to the mountain, Luo transfers his class struggle through his desire for the seamstress to be recognized as sophisticated, since “…Luo nor I were college graduates. We had not had the privilege of studying in an institution of advanced learning...as young intellectuals we had only the legal three years of junior high school. (7). This inferiority complex and the need to become cultured and therefore upper class manifests itself in the way Luo wants the seamstress to be. Naturally, Luo chooses the daughter of the village member highest in the social hierarchy, Taylor. “The Tailor lived like a king…he served the most delicious food…you could even slaughter a pig” (22). If Luo was able to turn such a man's daughter into a sophisticate, it must mean that Luo was the most learned himself. When the narrator asks Luo what his feelings are towards the seamstress, Luo replies “She's not civil, at least not civil enough for me!” (27). Luo is very proud of teaching the seamstress of Western literature. “With these books I will transform the Little Dressmaker. She will never be a simple mountain girl again." (100). Luo wants the seamstress to embody the same aspects she strives for: educated, refined, powerful, and to have influence on others. Luo projects his aspirations onto her by seeking to mold her into something he himself strives to be. Keep in mind: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay In Luo's teaching on the seamstress who wants another enlightened ally to contribute to overthrow the bourgeois and oppressive dictatorship of China, in a world where “Every corner of the country was under the all-seeing eye of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had cast its gigantic fine-meshed net over all.