Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress

3) There are many ironies present in the story. Choose one major irony and explain how/why the irony shapes the meaning of the story.

Dai Sijie's book is full of ironies, especially at the end of the book. One of the major ironies is hat at the end of the book, Luo and the Little Seamstress "switched" places. By the time Luo had started to see the world differently because of the re-education, the Little Seamstress wanted to go back to where Luo came from. Sijie set up this irony because it was unexpected and this made the book have more meaning. By showing that what Luo expereinced during those months on the mountain had changed him, and by showing that reading from a Western book about the city which the Little Seamstress had never seen before changed her, Sijie underlines the idea that a smalll amount of exposure to something can change the way one percieves life completely.

Another irony similar is that the books that we illegal and forbidden were thought to have brought beter things as an escape from the strict society, and at first theyt did. But after a while the books turned out to be he cause of many problems, particularly between the Little Seamstress and Luo. The book swere suppoesed to be a way that Luo and the Little Seamstress could free their minds from the confines of the society, but instead the books forced the Little Seamstress to leave in an ironic, unexpected way.

Irony is the major factor that makes te book what it is and Sijie uses it perfectly in a slightly subtle way that keeps the reader intrigued and gives the feeling that is intended.

Tree of Othello

The tragic vision in the play Othello is what the entire play is about. The tragedy of the play is what makes it great. Frye's metaphor about the tragic hero of the play being the great tree that is struck by lightening is perfect in the case of Othello. Because Othello is the tragic hero, he is the tree and is therefore struck by the lightening. Iago is the lightening that strikes Othello's life so suddenly and so forcefully. In the tragedy of the play, once one fire is set, it spreads to all of the other clumps of grass, which are the characters in the play who are not Othello. In fact, the characters other than Othello who get affected by Iago's lightening are, in some cases, affected more than Othello is.

Emilia is affected by Iago trying to make Othello suffer becasue she will obe and hang onto her husband through anything and do whatever she needs to do to make him happy. And in her blindness to the truth, while doing what Iago asks, she actually helps him to complete his evil plans to destroy Othello. This sets fire to Emilia because without knowing it she is doing evil and is betraying her friend Desdemona and Othello. Emilia's obsession with pleasing Iago blinded her from what he was doing and what she was doing to help him.

Roderigo and Cassio are also characters that are affected by the fires that started with Iasgo and spread through his plans to destroy Othello. Iago uses Cassio as an excuse for Roderigo to feel the jealousy that Iago feels. Through his manipulations, Iago gets Roderigo to attack Cassio because Iago is jealous of him. Roderigo is Iago's puppet that he uses to corrupt the lives of the other people in the play. Iago is also the lightening that strikes the tree because he tells Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with Cassio and that sets Othello off on him. This is where the lightening strike spreads through the smaller clumps of grass.

All that Iago does to affect the lives of the different characters is all chaneled through Iago hatred and jealousy of Othello most of all. All that Iago tells people ad makes people do, he does so that he can get something that Othello has that he doesn't; Desdemona is one of these things. Iago is jealous of the love that Othello has for Desdemona and so he wants to destroy Othello because of it. Eventually, Iago attacks Othello's life and reputation so much that it leads Othello to commit suicide.

The tree of trgic vision in the play Othello is Othello himself. The lightening that strikes that tree is Iago and his actions. And in striking the tree with eil, Iago causes many more tragedies in the lives of not only Othello, but of all people that had any relation to him or Iago. Even though the lighening hit the tree dead on, the effect was felt by the grass around it as well.