The Ray of Hope
A. “But it was not a shoe, it was a suitcase. A ray of light bounced off the glossy lid. It was an elegant suitcase, a little worn but made of fine leather, and it gave off a whiff of civilization” (48-49).
B. “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” (99).
Sijie uses Four-Eyes’s suitcase to represent the gateway to intellectual liberty for the two re-educated boys. The suitcase, which the narrator accidentally stumbles upon in Four-Eyes’s room, is an object of mystery and wonder throughout much of the book. Ironically, the suitcase itself is never described in much detail; it’s what’s inside that the narrator and Luo really care about. The suitcase with its trove of Western literature gives the two boys hope that there is more to their situation as they’re now enabled to explore new and foreign ideas which they were never exposed to. Furthermore, the suitcase embodies the narrator and Luo’s hope for the freedom to think as independent entities, separate from the ideals of the Communist Party. Once Luo and the narrator read Ursule Mirouet by Balzac, they are unable to resist the intellectual liberty brought by the literature and therefore steal the suitcase. The suitcase, being a symbol of their aspiration for intellectual liberty shines a ray of hope into the well of their reeducation.
