The Light in a Room of Darkness
“Luo started reading the book the very same night that Four-Eyes lent it to us, and reached the end at dawn when he put out the oil lamp and passed the book to me” (57).
“In that remote village tucked into a cleft in the mountain where my friend had fallen into a sort of stupor, I sat in the flickering light of an oil lamp and related the North Korean film for the benefit of a pretty girl and four ancient sorceresses” (39).
Sijie uses the symbol of lamp oil to emphasize the idea of hope in locating an opportunity to escape the village and furthering the boys’ learning. Although lamp oil might seem like an insignificant object the effect that it has on the lives of the main characters proves that it has a greater motif within the story. Relighting the lamp represents how the main characters are constantly having to find new hope when the old is extinguished. At the beginning of the book, lamp oil seems like an insignificant symbol, however, as the story progresses and the boys gain further access to Western culture through the forbidden literature, they have to relight the lamp more and more, symbolizing how their hope is positively surging.
When you say they have to relight their lamp over and over again, does that have literal meaning because they have to light it up in order to read their books? This definitely relates to the topic of hope. With their books, they have more hope for their future.
ReplyDeleteIt's really interesting how the lamp oil, that I hadn't really thought of before, can be such a key symbol of hope. Was having to relight the lamp meaning that they had to seek out to find that hope?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about the lamp oil being a symbol in the book until now. It's a really good point that they did start relighting the lamp more and more when they would stay up at night reading books or telling stories. I definitely see the connection between lamp oil and hope now, even though I originally thought the connection was a little forced. Wouldn't the books themselves be a greater symbol of hope for the boys than the lamp oil, though?
ReplyDeleteI was not sure what the lamp oil represented while I was reading, but this is a great interpretation! It makes sense now thinking back to the less hopeful moments of the story when the lamp went dark.
ReplyDeleteI thought the lamp oil and its ignition/re-ignition of hope was a very outside-the-box connection, but the way it was explained really makes sense. However, is there an overall trend for the boys and hope? Lamp oil constantly re-sparks the lamp, but do the boys follow that uniform trend?
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