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Reflective Statement Paradise Of The Blind

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Reflective Statement: Paradise of the Blind Before the Interactive Oral, I did not fully understand Vietnamese culture and familial roles. I did not know why women in Duong Thu Huong’s novel, Paradise of the Blind, would bend to the will of the men in their lives. This understanding is key to comprehending and relating to a novel that encompasses foreign countries and cultures. In their presentation, my classmates taught about the culture of the Vietnamese people and the family structure. I learned that the father of a family is the one who is supposed to provide everything for his family. Also, the women and girls of a family should obey their brothers and father. Traditionally, an elder sister must do what pleases her younger brother. Men in Vietnam are more important to the Vietnamese people because the men are the ones who provide everything and carry on the family name. Just like in America, when a Vietnamese woman marries, she takes up her husband’s last name. Family is the most important aspect of Vietnamese people. In any situation, the individual is supposed to do what is best for the family; not just him/herself. The father of the family has all importance and authority as a component of the family. If a father happened to pass away, his eldest son would assume all responsibilities that the father had. According to Vietnamese beliefs, men naturally have authority over women, similar to a ruler has over his subjects. As I learned in the Interactive …show more content…

In order to differentiate social classes, Huong uses food to compare and contrast her characters by creating vast differences between food eaten by “poor” and “rich” people, describing the amount of food being served in great detail at Hang’s party and during the time of financial downfall that Que experiences, and by making food sales the main source of income for

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