Character Analysis: Miss Saigon

History often influences one to convey a message artistically through music, plays, books, and paintings. The composer and playwright of “Miss Saigon”, Claude-Michel Schӧnberg and Alain Boublil took the opera “Madame Butterfly” and transformed it into modern day musical depicting the Vietnam War. “Miss Saigon” is about an American soldier and a Vietnamese woman falling in love, but when the North Vietnamese Army descends on Saigon, the American soldiers were forced to evacuate; leaving all the Vietnamese citizens behind including the children who were conceived by the American soldiers and the Vietnamese women. The musical, “Miss Saigon”, accurately portrays the Vietnam War through the diverse relationships of the Vietnamese women and the

In “Miss Saigon”, there was a young lady named Kim who had just started working at the brothel. She caught the attention of Chris who was an American soldier; the two ended up alone together. While their relationship was started off of pleasure, it evolved into a loving and intimate connection. Although it appears that many of the relationships were paid flings, some of them truly cared and loved one another, “But according to the Amerasian mothers, many children were born from passionate couplings. The father of Cao Thi My Kieu was so smitten with her mother, a bar girl, that he put her into a rented apartment and promised she’d never have to sell her body again” (Winn). In the musical, Chris refuses to leave his girlfriend Kim, but it is not his choice. Since they were not married, she was not able to evacuate with him when the soldiers departed from Vietnam. Chris did not know that Kim was pregnant and that he was the father of the baby, so when he contacted saying that he had a son, he came back to Vietnam with his American wife in search to find him. A situation very similar to the musical was with an American soldier that fell in love with a Vietnamese woman who got pregnant while they were together. The soldier did not want to get married, but he ended up getting married when he got back to the State to an American woman. Realizing that he still loved the Vietnamese woman,

When Chris found out he had a child back in Vietnam, he rushed back to the Country in search for his son, “Thousands of children were fathered by American service men during the Vietnam war. Now in their 60s and 70s, some veterans are desperate to find the sons and daughters they have never known” (Roberts). Many children grew up without a father in their life; wondering why they have not come back to save them from the horrendous condition they live in. However, many soldiers were not aware about having a child from Vietnam; having never reconnected with the people who they served with and the friends they made in the Country. Thankfully, some of the soldiers wanted a relationship with their children and many of the Amerasian children were able to be united with their family, “The American visa was created in 1987, when Congress relented to the outcry over urchins with American faces abandoned in the Vietnamese slums. No one knows exactly how many were born in Vietnam, but the U.S. has vetted and resettled nearly 30,000 children of the U.S. troops and employees along with nearly 80,000 Vietnamese relatives”