Parody Style In Vietgone By Qui Nguyen

Contemporary literature changed in a large part to accommodate the decrease in attention span. This sort of filtering came at the cost of descriptive writing and long form storytelling. Writers adapted by foreshadowing story elements, learning how to show not tell the reader, and using other methods in order to introduce nuance into their writing. With nuance, writers can use slightly different words to produce context to actions and characters. In the book Vietgone by Qui Nguyen, the author Nguyen produced a script that demonstrated exaggerated nuance in order to create a true to life story in a parody style. Nguyen writes characters as a sort of parody to his parents’ struggles to present an easy to digest story with sharp cultural themes.

This sets up a sort of symbolism that persists throughout the play in order to demonstrate societal conflict in the form of characters. The hipster represents the outsiders that endangered the southern Vietnamese because counter culture at the time believed fighting the Vietcong is harmful to society. Quang specifically described the redneck biker as an anti-Vietnamese character in his first appearance. Nguyen implies in the second encounter that Nhan ended up losing the fight and Quang de-escalated the situation in a way that reflects the reality that native Vietnamese refugees often suffered and the lucky few tried to protect others. In this way, we can view Nhan as not just a person but a representation of his need to let go of his family. In this extended metaphor of the recount, Nhan represents Quang’s desire to let go and Nhan leaves whenever Tong appears. This use of almost exclusively two people dialogue brought out the elements of social distress that Quang