The Mystery of the Three Blood Spots

Sophie, Neil, Noora, Allan

P2

“His small eyes, one of them marked as always by three blood spots, fixed me in a savage state. For a moment I thought he was going to grab me by the collar and hurl me down the ladder. But he just stood there, rooted to the spot.” (129)
“The headman held the violin upright and peered into the black interior of the body, like an officious customs officer searching for drugs. I noticed three blood spots in his left eye, one large and two small, all the same shade of red” (3)
Sijie uses the symbol of the blood in the headman’s eye to convey a sense of hostility due to his fidelity towards Mao as well as a tone of mystery in Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. There are three bright red blood spots on the headman's left eye, and in both of these quotes, it is associated with the headman’s duty to propagate the ideas of communism and the Cultural Revolution. The other aspect touched on is a sense of mystery as no one knows the headman's background. The three blood spots can help the reader infer what his life has been like. Additionally, a sense of fear is also associated with the blood spots as the boys seem to become tense when in his presence.