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Close Reading: Part II
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, Stendhal, Dumas, Flaubert, Baudelaire, Romain Rolland, Rousseau, Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoyevsky, and some English writers, too: Dickens, Kipling, Emily Brontë…
We were beside ourselves. My head reeled, as if I’d had too much to drink. I took the novels out of the suitcase one by one, opened them, studied the portraits of the authors, and passed them on to Luo. Brushing them with the tips of my fingers made me feel as if my pale hands were in touch with human lives.
“It reminds me of a scene in a film,” said Luo. “You know, when a stolen suitcase turns out to be stuffed with money…”
“So, are you weeping tears of joy?” I said.
“No. All I feel is loathing.”
“Me too. Loathing for everyone who kept these books from us.”
Hearing myself utter this last sentence frightened me, as if there might be an eavesdropper hidden somewhere in the room. Such a remark, casually dropped, could cost several years in prison.
“Let’s go!” Luo said, shutting the suitcase.
“Wait!”
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m not sure…Let’s have another think: Four-Eyes is bound to suspect us when he finds his suitcase gone. If he denounces us we’ll be finished. Our parents aren’t like the others, remember.”
“I told you before, his mother would never allow it, or the whole world would find out that her son’s been harbouring forbidden books. And that would ruin his chances of leaving the Phoenix of the Sky.”
After a few moments’ silence I reopened the suitcase: “What if we just take a few? He won’t notice.”
“But I want to read all of them,” Luo said resolutely.
He shut the suitcase again and, resting one hand on the lid like a Christian taking a solemn oath, he declared: “With these books I shall transform the Little Seamstress. She’ll never be a simple mountain girl again” (Sijie 99—100).
Prompt: What does the passage suggest about censorship? What are its effects? Write one paragraph with specific examples from the above excerpt to support your position.