Paradise Of The Blind Literary Analysis

In Duong Thu Huong’s Paradise of the Blind, Hang has been placed on a path of self-sacrifice and duty by her family. Her life unfolds in stages- childhood, young adulthood, and her eventual role as an exported worker in Russia. With each of these shifts in her life comes a shift in setting and a shift in her emotional state. Hang’s changing emotional state depicts her “coming of age” and her growth as a character. Setting is important to creation of shift in the novel, and is often described in detail. Color imagery is often prominent in Hang’s description. Between settings, there are significant shifts in color imagery. In Paradise of the Blind, setting and the colors with which it is associated reflect Hang’s emotional state and create shift

Describing a childhood walk to the river, Hang brings up her surroundings, such as “trees, heavy with purplish flowers” (43), emphasizing the lush nature of the foliage and the vibrant color of the flowers. Her surroundings are vivid and alive, reflecting the fact that she still has her own life at the moment. She and Thu, her neighbor, are catching insects by the river and even these insects are associated with color imagery, as Hang mentions the “dusty gold wings of the june bugs” (44). The color gold is associated with this golden age for Hang in which she still feels hopeful. On the trip Hang and her mother take back to their village, they pass through a market. The vendors sell many colorful wares, such as silks of many colors- the “startling, iridescent white of lotus flowers” and “blue-black, sienna, mahogany” (52). A vendor sells “rainbow-colored” (53) statuettes, which children gather around wonderingly, all wanting the toys. Hang’s mother buys her several statuettes. These bright colors surrounding her and the rainbow-colored toys reflect her childlike wonder and excitement at