Summary Of The Exile By Thahn Nguyen

In “The Refugees”, Viet Thahn Nguyen utilizes the concept of time to illustrate how the past, present, and future collide to shape one’s identity. Each character experiences a great identity transition that is based on reflection of their past, confusion in the present, and aspirations for their future. Thahn Nguyen employs this concept through the illustration of memories and feelings of nostalgia, flashbacks and shifting of timelines, and foreshadowing/visions into the future.

Thahn Nguyen incorporates the past through imagery and visual creations to provide background as well as perspective. In the short story “Black-Eyed Women”, Thahn Nguyen creates life and meaning to the past through ghosts. These ghosts represent the past and memories

‘Why did I live and you die?’ He regarded me with eyes that would not dry out no matter how long they stayed open. Mother was wrong. He had changed, the proof being those eyes, preserved in brine for so long they would remain forever open. ‘You died too,’ he said. ‘You just don’t know it.’” (Thahn Nguyen, 17). In this quote, the main character is speaking to the ghost of her brother who died at sea on their family's journey to asylum in America from Vietnam. She is now 38 years old and her brother has come to visit her, yet he has remained unchanged from the time of his death. The ghost of her brother serves as a catalyst in the process of acceptance of her past and the death of her brother. In the line “Why did I live and you die”, we are able to observe the guilt she experiences, a phenomenon known as survivors guilt. In the lines “you died too” and “you just don’t know it”, her brother is revealing this idea that she stopped living when he died. Even if she is still physically present on earth, her soul and sense of meaning were forgotten. The creation of this memory allows us to better understand the main character and how her past shaped her

He does this through creating flashbacks, which help with understanding what happened to the characters in the past that has shaped their identity in the present. In the story “The Other Man”, Liem is an 18 year old who has just fled from Vietnam to America. Liem often experiences flashbacks that provide perspective into his current struggle with identity. “In the darkness, he heard the rustle of mosquito netting as the others masterbated also,” (Thahn Nguyen). In this quote, the author illustrates a picture, reviving a memory of Liem’s past. This serves as an important part of the storyline as being something Liem wants to forget, as well as representing his struggle with sexual identity. Through the juxtaposition of different time periods, Thahn Nguyen is demonstrating how the past and our memories still affect each character's present self of