Session 14

Base and on the reading, write a one-page summary that also  includes answers to these questions

1.How do we see the following key themes in Eileen Chang’s story? Choose specific passages from the text and analyze them closely. • Trust / Betrayal • Love and Sex • Passivity / Action • Truth vs. Illusion • Performance vs. Self-Knowledge • Materialism • Repression

 2. Analyze the scene of buying the ring (p.39-46). Why is this scene so important to the overall story? Is Wang Chia-Chih self-deluded? Is she true to herself? Why did she do it? How does Eileen Chang explore the nature of ”what is real” here? 

3. How does the film Lust, Caution further enhance – in a visual, cinematic way – the power of Eileen Chang’s story and the “theater of cruelty” Ang Lee perceives in her text? How do the visual techniques in the film in some ways mirror the literary devices Eileen Chang uses in her story (such as, for example, the close focus on an abundance of small details)?