The irony of a clock

The characters of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress experience a great shift in their lives when they embark on a journey to Phoenix mountain. The villagers and the main characters' lives become moved deeply by simple things such as clocks and books. Everyday objects ironically transform to become of great importance and in turn transform the characters.
The villagers on Phoenix mountain experience their own "cultural revolution" when they meet Luo and the narrator. Ironically, everyday objects to two city boys become idols of worship for remote villagers. "The alarm clock seized the imagination of the peasants. It became an object of veneration, almost. Everyone came to consult the clock, as though our house on stilts were a temple." The villagers become so fixated on a clock that they don't notice that its masters tell it to lie to the villagers. They also become entranced with another common city activity: the cinema. "Phoenix mountain was so remote from civilisation that most of the inhabitants had never had the opportunity of seeing a film, let alone visit a cinema." The cinema also becomes another "forbidden palace" for the villagers; they send Luo and the narrator to see films in place of the village headman. The villagers show the irony of the restrictions in China. The villagers are not allowed to be religious, but they worship common trinkets with a zeal much like religion . The cultural revolution, which was meant to suppress educated children like Luo and the narrator, instead gave the villagers a sweet taste of the city: like "a dish of beef and onions."
The western books transform the two city boys and the Little Chinese Seamstress as they absorb the limitless information of the western books. The boys become "seduced, overwhelmed, spellbound by the mystery of the outside world, especially the world of women, love, and sex as revealed to them by these Western writers day after day, page after page, book after book." They become enlightened to western thinking; they "find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined." The books initiate a different metamorphosis in the Little Chinese Seamstress, however. She begins "not civilised, at least not enough for [Luo]." The simple books mixed with the urban passion of Luo drives the Little Chinese seamstress to become a city girl. By the end of the book, "the lovely, unsophisticated mountain girl had vanished without a trace. Studying her new look, Luo was filled with the happiness of an artist contemplating his finished creation."
The Cultural Revolution was a time of much cultural turmoil, and people became encumbered with the weight of Mao's new country. Common items such as books were not what they were; they became entire worlds within a few hundred pages. Balzac and the Chinese Seamstress shows the irony behind these objects; they became worth much more than face value. The everyday items ironically had an immense impact on the characters; they learned to appreciate the "small things" in life.