Impeding Success

Impeding Success

by Sean, Uma, Jaclyn, and Simardeep

Thesis: Dai Sijie uses the symbols of Four Eyes’ glasses and the buffalo to illustrate how one’s success is impeded by external forces.

Four Eyes’s Glasses:

“For all his efforts to dodge the relentless lashes, one split second of inattention was enough for Four-Eyes to receive a blow to the face from the buffalo’s tail, which sent his spectacles hurtling through the air. He swore and dropped the reins from his right hand and the plough from his left. Clapping his hands over his eyes, he let out a stream of abuse, as if he had been blinded” (47).

“I was sure, however, that he wouldn’t allow this mishap to interfere with his work, in case his myopia was taken as a sign of physical deficiency by the revolutionary peasants and they thought he was a slacker” (52-53).

Analysis: In this community, buffalos are used for hard labor tasks and to help the proletariat people to farm and harvest their food. Buffalos are looked upon as generally peaceful and helpful creatures, and the fact that it is constantly whipping Four-Eyes in the face describes how Four-Eyes does not give it respect, so it will not give Four-Eyes respect either. Four-Eyes is not a very genuine person, and will simply do whatever he can to leave the Phoenix Mountain. This signifies the buffalos distrust in what Four-Eyes plans to do in the future, and is trying to impede Four-Eyes from continuing. When his glasses are knocked out, it is shown how helpless he is without it. His lack of sight and how the buffalo is trying to knock them out signifies how he will not garner success in the future, and that he will not get far without them. Even though he didn’t have have his glasses and was making a journey up the mountain he was determined to do anything to get out the phoenix mountain.  

Buffalo:

“The buffalo was of medium size, but boasted an exceptionally long tail, which it swung vigorously from side to side, as though determined to splatter its timid, inexperienced master with as much filth as possible” (47).

“On top of the neatly stacked books lay the buffalo tail black, with a tufted end, and stained with dark blood. It was exceptionally long, and no doubt once belonged to the unfortunate buffalo responsible for breaking Four-Eye’s glasses” (105).

Analysis: The significance of the buffalo is that it represents the agricultural life that is trying to be promoted by Chairman Mao and the Communist Party in China. The buffalo is trying to impede the progress of Four-Eyes while he is trying to complete tilling the soil, representing that the agricultural life and people who are in charge of it are doing everything that they can to stop the intellectual youths from escaping re-education and getting back to where they came from.