Concealed

The Suitcase

“We crept up to the suitcase.  It was tied with a thick rope of plaited straw, knotted crosswise.  We removed the rope and raised the lid in silence.  Inside, piles of books shone in the light of our torch: a company of great Western writers welcomed us with open arms.  On top was our old friend Balzac, with five or six novels, then came Victor Hugo, Stendahl, Dumas, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Romain Rolland, Rousseau, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, and some English writers, too: Dickens, Kipling, Emily Brontë…” (99).    

“The magic of translation! The ponderousness of the two syllables as wells the belligerent, somewhat old fashioned ring of the name were quite gone, now that the four characters- very elegant, each composed of just a few strokes-banded together to create and unusual beauty, redolent with exotic fragrance as sensual as the perfume wreathing a wine stored for centuries in a cellar,”(58).

The author uses the suitcase to emphasize freedom. These forbidden Western novels refer back to Old China, where Western ideas thrived and independence penetrated through Chinese society. The books inside the suitcase capture their mind into a non-revolutionary roller coaster where they can be free to think whatever they wish.

Coming of age is about learning and expanding your mindset to different ideas and concepts. it is being able to choose what you believe in based on different ideas you gather. The Cultural Revolution is pounding certain limited ideas into the minds of the people, and they are forced to believe in these ideas or they will be punished. The books offer more though, it offers new ideas and emotions that interest Luo and the narrator. The boys are being exposed to different things, a new world. Each book they read broadens their knowledge and gives them the option to chose, to chose what they believe in and what they want to learn.

The Movies

“We welcomed the challenge, and to be on the safe side we sat through two screenings in succession. The basketball court of the town’s high school had been converted into a makeshift open-air cinema.  The local girls were gorgeous, but we forced ourselves to concentrate on the screen, paying close attention to the dialogue, to the actor’s costumes and gestures, to the setting of every scene, even to the music,”(19).

“Phoenix mountain was so remote from civilization that most of the inhabitants had never had the opportunity of seeing a film, let alone visit a cinema. [...] By the time we, or rather he, reached the end of the story, in the allotted time, our audience was ecstatic,” (19-20).

Since the start of Luo and the narrator’s re-education, the two boys have led very serious lives. Being forced into such laborious work at such a young age while they are so far from home takes a toll on the spirits of the boys at times. Going to the movies represents an escape. An escape from the hard work they are forced to do, an escape from their troubles and an escape from their new lives they are forced to lead.

The movies connect to coming of age because every day of Luo and the narrator’s lives in re-education they are forced to grow up and mature in some way. Whether it be learning how to navigate without anyone looking out for them, or hard work that forces them to take on new responsibilities Luo and the narrator mature and come of age every day. The movies offer an escape from this forced coming of age and help the boys relax and just for a little while shirk their responsibilities. In a way, however, it also gives the boys even more responsibilities whether or not they realize it. By being given the duty of reporting back the movie to everyone in the village and giving them all an enjoyable experience, the boys are in a way being burdened with even more responsibility and further accelerating their coming of age when they don’t even realize it.