In the book Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie, there were two forms of reeducation introduced: Communism Reeducation and Western Literature Reeducation. These two ways of reeducation differentiated extremely, bringing up two contradicting ways to achieve this: one by following the rules, the other cheating the rules. Communism reeducation does not have the intended effect on the boys, as it unsuccessfully changes the mindset of the boys due to the influence of Western Literature, causing them to take dangerous risks, feel jealous of others, and involve others with the ideas of Western Literature, which goes against Communism reeducation.
One way how Communism reeducation unsuccessfully changes the mindset of the boys is acts of taking dangerous risks. One example of a dangerous risk the narrator and Lou took …show more content…
One example how the boys act jealous is stealing Four-Eyes suitcase. The boys suspected the suitcase was filled with illegal books, and since they craved forbidden knowledge so they trick Four-Eye’s mother into believing he had forbidden books, and stole them during his farewell banquet. Four-Eyes and the boys were once friends (45), and to see a friendship end like this because of the books show how truly dangerous they are. Another example of how the boys act jealous is when the narrator fell in love with the Little Seamstress. Although he knew that she loved Lou and not him, he still attempted to woo her by washing her clothes (153), flirting, reading her stories, etc. without Lou knowing. The books by Balzac he read to her while Lou was gone gave the Little Seamstress the reason to leave with the quote “A woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price” (184), which causes Lou to be heartbroken and burns the books. Jealousy in both of these examples drives the narrator and Lou to steal and betray others, even against each other as