Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress: Part 3, Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, the narrator and the Little Seamstress are in her kitchen cooking. She tells the narrator that she has a problem. The narrator asks if it's with the gang or with Luo, and she finally says that she's been throwing up and has missed two periods. The Little Seamstress starts to cry, which startles the narrator. Soon, he also starts to cry, though he tries to hide it from the Little Seamstress. He feels as though he's responsible for her pregnancy, and thinks he'd marry her himself if the law allowed it. He tries to get a glimpse of her stomach and is afraid.

The narrator explains to the reader that he forgot to ask the Little Seamstress if she wanted to be a teenage mother, although it wasn't even a valid question given that no medical professional would care for her: it's illegal to help an unmarried woman in labor. Further, she can't just marry Luo, as individuals must be 25 to get married. The narrator says that there's no way to help a "Romeo and his pregnant Juliet," as the Chinese dictatorship extends over the entire country.

The Little Seamstress and the narrator discuss how to procure an abortion that saves her and Luo from political punishment, particularly since the law prohibits abortion. The narrator dissuades the Little Seamstress from attempting to induce a miscarriage herself with herbs or bodily harm and finally agrees to travel to Yong Jing to find help at the hospital.

The narrator describes the hospital, which consists of two buildings. He sneaks into the building that houses the gynecology department and takes a seat in a hallway with a number of pregnant women. He tries to sneak a glance at the gynecologist when the consulting room door opens to admit a new patient. The patients shoot the narrator disapproving glances, and he realizes that they believe he has no business in the gynecology department.

One of the patients rudely asks the narrator why he's there, and he feigns deafness. Another woman points to the narrator's still swollen ear, and the women argue amongst themselves about where the narrator needs to go. The gynecologist's door opens and the narrator gets another glimpse of the man, who looks about 40. He seems very tired and he is smoking.

The narrator leaves the hospital and walks up and down the main street of Yong Jing. He thinks that perhaps if the gynecologist has met the narrator’s father, who is a doctor, it could help his cause. The narrator thinks that if his father were in the gynecologist's shoes, he'd disown the narrator without even allowing him to explain that he's not the father of the child. The narrator remarks that the "bourgeois intellectuals" were just as morally strict as the communist regime.

The narrator finds a meal at a restaurant, hoping to get the opportunity to speak to someone about how to find someone willing to perform an abortion. This yields no results. He tries to speak with the night watchman at the hospital, but the watchman refuses to speak about abortions for fear of imprisonment.

On the third day, the narrator decides to try to speak to the old preacher, who isn't allowed to practice his Christian faith and must sweep Yong Jing's streets as punishment. The narrator realizes that he hasn't seen the preacher and asks a street vendor about him. The vendor says the man has cancer and is at the hospital.

The narrator races to the hospital, where he's shocked to find the patients busy cooking their own lunches. He finally finds the preacher, surrounded by his two sons, who are trying desperately to get a tape recorder to work, and his wife, who's busy trying to make soup. The sons finally get the recorder to work. They beg the preacher to say something, even though the preacher seems to be in a great deal of pain. The preacher whispers something and then falls into a coma. The sons rewind the tape recorder and declare that the preacher's final words were a Latin prayer.

The narrator catches sight of the gynecologist outside the door and gets up to chase after him. A patient points the narrator to the emergency ward, where the gynecologist is attending to a man who lost all his fingers in a factory accident. The narrator enters the room and lights a cigarette for the gynecologist, who is methodically wrapping gauze around the man's hand. The narrator offers the patient a cigarette and helps the gynecologist wrap the man's hand. The man passes out from the anesthetic.

The gynecologist asks the narrator who he is. The narrator tells the gynecologist who his father is and says that his sister is having problems with her periods. The gynecologist coldly says that the narrator's father has no daughters, and tells the narrator to leave. As the narrator reaches the door, he turns around and offers the gynecologist a novel by Balzac if he can perform the abortion for the Little Seamstress. The gynecologist doubts that the narrator has a book by Balzac.

The narrator removes his sheepskin coat and offers it to the gynecologist. The gynecologist lights cigarettes for both of them as he reads, and explains to the narrator that the translator, Fu Lei, has also been labeled a class enemy. The narrator starts to cry, and explains to the reader that he was crying for Fu Lei, not for the Little Seamstress's predicament.

The next Thursday, the narrator and the Little Seamstress return to Yong Jing, the Little Seamstress disguised as a 30-year-old woman. The narrator waits in the hallway for three hours until he's called to a recovery ward. The abortion was a success, and the gynecologist tells the narrator that the fetus was female. The narrator gives the gynecologist both Ursule Mirouët and his beloved Jean-Christophe. The Little Seamstress is groggy, but doesn't want to rest before heading home.

The Little Seamstress insists on purchasing a kilo of tangerines to place on the preacher's grave to thank him for being the reason the narrator went back to the hospital and ended up meeting the gynecologist. The Little Seamstress and the narrator vow that someday they'll return to the preacher's grave and erect a carved portrait of the preacher as Jesus, but holding a broom. The Little Seamstress wants to give money to the Buddhist temple as well, but the building is locked and looks empty, and she has no more money.