Up from the Ashes

"...in that famous valley of ever-peeling plaster and muddy black gutters, that valley where suffering is always real and joy very often false, and the everyday turmoil so grim that it is difficult to imagine any catastrophe producing more than a momentary sensation there... A Parisian losing his way here would see nothing but lodging houses and institutions, penury or boredom, old age declining into death, bright youth pressed into drudgery."

In what ways does Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress relate to this passage from Pere Goriot?


The little Chinese seamstress is the phoenix of Phoenix Mountain. Because of her un-re-educating, she is the only one to rise out up out of the ashes of a cultural revolution into a "civilized" girl of Balzac's stories. The "...famous valley of ever-peeling plaster and muddy black gutters, that valley where suffering is always real and joy very often false..." is of course the narrator's and Luo's very own Phoenix Mountain. The "everyday turmoil" is of course the disgusting, arduous, and dangerous work the headman gives the boys on a regular basis. The "joy very often false" comes from reading the already forbidden then stolen books from Four Eyes. A "catastrophe producing more than a momentary sensation" would be one of anything that is Western; the peasants and villagers are used to seeing the occasional alarm clock. The last part of Goriot's passage is practically a scene straight from Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. "A Parisian" is anyone still "civilized" or even Western, and the houses in the villages are, in fact "institutions" of re-education. "Penury and boredom" are clearly evident in the peasants, as well as "old age declining into death", evident in the Latin speaking preacher at the hospital and the ripple-bellied folk singer. Last but not least are the "bright youth pressed into drudgery." The little Chinese seamstress is a perfect example of this; she is confined to the life of a tailor, but longs for the adventure in Balzac's and other's novels. The narrator's talent for the violin is misused to sing songs of Chairman Mao's cultural revolution. Luo is forced to use his dentistry skills to operate on one of the local communists. Unlike the boys, however, the little Chinese seamstress manages to be reborn out of the ashes and takes flight for the first time.