The Cover Up Coat

The Cover Up Coat

Quotes:

      "I decided I would write directly on the inside of my sheepskin coat. The short coat, a gift from the villagers when I arrived, was made of skins with wool of varying lengths and textures on the outside and bare hide on the inside. It was hard to find suitable passages in the book, as the limited space afforded by my coat was further reduces by areas where the leather was too cracked to be of use" (58).

      "She took your coat and reread the whole thing, in silence. The only sounds were the leaves rustling overhead and the faint rush of a distant waterfall... When she'd finished reading she sat there quite still, open-mouthed. Your coat was resting on the flat of her hands, the way a sacred object lies in the palms of the pious" (62).

Visual:

Thesis:

Sijie uses the symbol of writing on the sheepskin coat to illustrate how one culture can cover up the other, because the villagers gave the narrator the coat, symbolizing their way of life, and then he preceded to right on it with excerpts from a novel, therefore covering their peasant culture with his intellectual one. This shows coming of age because as he ages he experiences more cultures.