Xiuxiu Eating The First Apple example essay topic

Gifts In The Sent Down Girl In Joan Chen's movie "The Sent Down Girl", there are two gifts, one is a kaleidoscope and the other is an apple, received by the central character: XiuXiu. These two different gifts play totally opposite role in XiuXiu's life. The kaleidoscope represents intangible beauty and wont last long, and the apple is a sign of evil desire. The kaleidoscope is a gift from XiuXiu's first lover: a boy and also the narrator. This gift appears three times in the movie and it is symbolized as beauty, on the other hand because of the kaleidoscope's feature, we can also know that the beautiful time won't last long.

The first time, it comes out in the night before XiuXiu leaves her hometown. Same as the other lovers, the boy wants to give her the most beautiful thing in his mind, something can make the girl remember him, something can symbolize his love: a kaleidoscope which can show millions of beautiful patterns. The boy is totally falling love with XiuXiu. As long as she in his sights, he can feel the love coming up from the bottom of his heart. This love starts so beautiful, but at the moment XiuXiu climes up the truck, this pure innocent love reaches its end. The second time, XiuXiu is learning how to herding horses from Laojing, during the brake, she takes the kaleidoscope out from her bag and lies down on the beautiful lawn with wild flowers all around her.

Meanwhile LaoJing is building a bathtub for her on the hillock. She looks at these colorful patterns in the kaleidoscope and asks Laojing to take a look at it. Laojing obviously has never seen a kaleidoscope before, and he grabs it up without thinking. XiuXiu is a bit angry: "Now you " ve ruined it, the pattern's gone". The pattern is so easy to be changed even a little shaking can ruin it. So when we enjoy the gorgeous summer view of the prairie, and appreciate for the innocent father-like love from Laojing to Xiuxiu, we are also worry about the beauty will be replaced by something horrible.

Xiuxiu's peaceful life will be ruined. The third time, Xiuxiu broke the kaleidoscope in front of Laojing's face after Laojing blamed her as a whore. Instead of beautiful patterns, there is fragment of glass falling all over the floor. Xiuxiu destroyed her only memory of her virginity right in front of Laojing. She wants to show that the simple lovely girl is dead, and her pure innocent love which hiding in the deep corner of her heart is also gone. Apples are another gifts in this movie.

Like the roll they play in the Garden of Eden, apples here are symbolized as the evil temptation. The first time, the peddler hands an apple to XiuXiu before he leaves the tent, XiuXiu is surprised She hasn't seen an apple since she left her hometown. Apples are very cheap and plentiful in our life, but it's very rare on the prairie. In our eyes, this red sweet apple is a temptation, but in XiuXiu's eyes, it is an important part of beautiful life. XiuXiu wants to take it but she hesitates a little bit, but finally she holds it in her hands tightly, and puts it against her cheek. She totally believes in the peddler's words, and she has some feeling about him.

Depends on the trust, the peddler takes XiuXiu's virginity and disappears in her life. The second time, another man comes into XiuXiu's tent, he uses the words prepared by the peddler to make XiuXiu believe that he can send her back to Chengdu, and also, he has an apple. XiuXiu's dream is broken, and she realized that sleeping with these important men is the only way to go back home. So she accepts the bitter apple and let the man takes sexual advantage from her. Differ from the last time, the director shows us how XiuXiu eating the apple. She pours water over the apple cautiously, try to wash it back as an original apple, and when she makes her first bite, she is still so careful, but as she realize she is already has no choice, she bites the apple without any hesitance.

She finally makes up her mind to jump in the swamp made by those officers. The purpose that director didn't show us how XiuXiu eating the first apple because it is still covered by some sorts of love, and Joan Chen also wants the audiences to emphasize the internal change of XiuXiu when she eating the second apple. Right after this, the apple comes out the third time. XiuXiu is biting an apple while she playing around one of the officers. The apple is almost finished, and we can't find any shame in XiuXiu's eyes. She is sloppily dressed and laughing loudly, just likes a whore.

The pure innocent girl is gone, what we have is a woman, with only one hope: go back home, and we know, she would never achieve that. XiuXiu is dead inside. Through these two gifts, we can see the evil invaded the beauty step by step, and finally the death took XiuXiu away. Maybe it's the only way for her to come back home. Maybe she can lives in the beauty in another world forever.