The Importance of Dreams in Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress
Poppy Main
The dreams featured in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
significantly influence the decisions, thoughts, and emotions of Luo and
Ma. These dreams range from the dreams that Ma experiences in his
sleep, to dreams such as the boys’ wishes and hopes.
The first examples of dreams in the book is when Lou and Ma create
their rather precarious plan to steal Four-Eyes’s suitcase of illegal
Western Literature. Both boys, although slightly worried are still intent
on carrying out the plan, however, before the robbery, Ma has a dream
that rattles his nerves. In Ma’s dream, he breaks into Four-Eyes’s house
with a pick lock, only to find Four-Eyes’s mother sitting in front of him,
calmly knitting. Stumbling upon her shocks Ma so much that he
immediately runs away. When Ma tells Luo of his dream, Luo reassures Ma
and tells him that they will manage to carry out the robbery as planned,
although Luo too is now even more anxious, and consequently makes some
adjustments to the plan. During the robbery, Ma asks Luo, “Shall I keep a
lookout?”, to which Luo replies, “No, we’re not in your dream”. This shows
the reader that, even though a dream is just a series of thoughts, images,
and sensations occurring in the mind during sleep, Luo and Ma still are
affected by the dreams almost as if they are a sort of premonition of
what is to come.
However, Luo’s reactions to Ma’s dream of the failed robbery contrast
with his reactions to Ma’s dream of the Little Seamstress’ death. Ma
dreams that Luo and the Little Seamstress are crossing the treacherous
ridge nearby the boys’ village. Luo crawls along the ridge, following the
Little Seamstress who is carefree, prancing along the ridge with no fear,
before she topples over the edge. Ma describes her dead body with
gruesome detail, particularly her beautiful face, “Her mouth was twisted,
the lips retracted to expose pink gums and clenched teeth, as if she was
screaming, but there was no sound, only the smell of blood”. This vivid
image of death illustrates Ma’s fear of the ridge, and how worried he is
of the lives of his friends. Yet after Ma tells Luo of his nightmare, Luo is
unimpressed as he also has been experiencing similar dreams. Ma then
says to Luo, “Don’t tell her my dream, will you?”, showing that Ma does not
want the Little Seamstress to think that Ma is in any way cowardly or
irrational. To the reader this conveys the idea that dreams affect Luo
and Ma’s emotions.
A different type of dream evident in Balzac and the Little Chinese
Seamstress is more of a wish or a hope. An example of this is when Ma is
thinking of the incident where he was attacked by a gang of local boys,
jealous of his closeness with the Little Seamstress. He imagines it
happening differently, he imagines the gang tie him to a tree and torture
him, before the character referred to as the “cripple”, cuts off his left
ear, “My ear dropped to the ground and bounced, while the assailant
wiped the blood off the long blade”. Then he imagines the gang fleeing at
the sight of the weeping Little Seamstress, before she unties him then
lets him suck on her fingers. He describes his fantasy in detail, “The
thick balsam juice coating her glossy nails gave off a musky fragrance,
which roused my carnal instincts”. Ma is ashamed of his sensual fantasy,
and does not tell anyone unsurprisingly. The shame following this
imaginary fantasy shows the reader Ma’s guilt at loving his best friend’s
girlfriend, and reflects the concept that dreams and wishes throughout
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress display and alter Luo and Ma’s
emotions and thoughts.
Another dream that both Luo and Ma share is the hope to finish reeducation and return home. However, the chance of this happening is very
small, Ma describes it like this: “for the sons and daughters of families
classed as enemies of the people, the chances of returning home were
infinitesimal: three in a thousand”. He then explains that Luo, his best
friend, has an even smaller chance of leaving, Ma says: “He couldn’t even
dream of it”.
To conclude, dreams play a very important part in Balzac and the Little
Chinese Seamstress, whether they are in the form of literal dreams,
hopes, or fantasies. They illustrate the desires and fears of Luo and Ma,
from the fear of their illegal deeds, to their wistful desire for freedom.