“The Sacred Willow” portrays four generations of a Vietnamese family that stretches from the traditional mandarin culture of northern Vietnam, the French occupation, the Vietnamese war, to life in the US. A main portion of this book is centered around the narrator Mai’s father Duong Thieu Chi and his struggle of working in the government while raising a family during the time of French Occupation. Throughout Mai’s accounts, her father’s internal conflict between good and bad as well as modern and traditional are highlighted to symbolize the 20th century Vietnamese sentiments towards their country and their call for independence. The books begins by Mai retelling her great grandfather and grandfathers’ lives which are important because it gives reasoning to explain how the French occupation drastically changed her father, Duong Thieu Chi’s life, career, and decisions.
He does not speak perfect Vietnamese and many Vietnamese people say that he is not Vietnamese because of this but he feels much differently. He feels so many other ties to Vietnam, speaking Vietnamese does not seem like a requirement for him to be Vietnamese to him. When he hears someone speaking Vietnamese he feels a strong tie to Vietnam regardless of whether is speaks the language perfectly. His example for America is that he does not feel a strong bond to America when he sees an American flag or hears the national anthem. He feels as though the stars and stripes divide as much as they unify.
In the midst of evil, you want to be a good man. You want decency. You want justice and courtesy and human concord, things you never knew you wanted.” (p.77) The author also suggests that the characters in this story had to choose a way of living or a cultural identity instead of taking elements from the Vietnamese culture and blending them in a comfortable way to live in. Most notably, the two chapters differ in the themes explored and in the position that the author assumes.
For the Hmong in The Latehomecomer, language has both positive and negative effects on the Hmong people. Through Yang’s story, readers can see that verbal stories play a crucial role in the Hmong culture. The Hmong have a high value for stories and storytelling. Yang shows this when she says, “Like so many other children, in other parts of the world, in a time of nothing, we heard stories of what was before.
”(Lai,1). Ha is also a very rebellious person when she is living in Vietnam because in Vietnam she directly defies her mother. Also when she defies Mother it isn’t one little disobedience it is Ha defining her religion and her culture because it is something her culture does. And finally Ha in Vietnam is comertable as show when she regularly goes to the market alone and how at her school she feels very compatible, because she bullies the other girl who had her desk. “I used to like making the
In A Viet Cong Memoir, we receive excellent first hands accounts of events that unfolded in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from the author of this autobiography: Truong Nhu Tang. Truong was Vietnamese at heart, growing up in Saigon, but he studied in Paris for a time where he met and learned from the future leader Ho Chi Minh. Truong was able to learn from Ho Chi Minh’s revolutionary ideas and gain a great political perspective of the conflicts arising in Vietnam during the war. His autobiography shows the readers the perspective of the average Vietnamese citizen (especially those involved with the NLF) and the attitudes towards war with the United States. In the book, Truong exclaims that although many people may say the Americans never lost on the battlefield in Vietnam — it is irrelevant.
Fowler’s description of Vietnam depicts different examples of his view of the country. He describes the beauty of “The gold of the rice-fields under the flat late sun ... the gold and the young green and the bright dresses of the south,” along with the darkness of the war: “in the north the deep browns and the black clothes and the circle of enemy mountains and the drone of planes. ”(Greene, 1955, p.17). Fowler sees both the positive and the negative in the country of Vietnam and presents his knowledge of both.
Tan expresses the life experiences of Chinese immigrants to the United States and attempts to depict the relationship of a mother and daughter through her significant piece of writing ‘The Joy Club’. Therefore, all these authors somehow portrayed their early struggles and their view point towards life from their literary
Having to leave your loved home is hard for everyone. In Thanhha Lai’s Inside Out and Back Again, For 10-year-old Kim Ha flees Saigon she feels the same emotions. War forced her family to flee to America to find a loving and strange new place. Kim finds a new family to guide her through a new journey despite new struggles and hardships. Thesis:
“Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” Nam Le’s “Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice” is categorized in “ethnic story” narrated his Vietnamese life in order to meet an upcoming deadline even though finally he can’t submit his story because his father burns his work. Throughout the story, Nam the narrator talks about “the past” which he experiences when he was young including the recent experience that he has got from his father reunion. Not only does the story tell us about the past which, but it also shows a connection of time between past, present, and future. Likewise, the story shows the relationship between son and father which is the main theme of this story; and shows how the past is important and affect to them differently. Also, the story of the past could lead to the end of the story that can be interpreted like a prediction of the direction of their relationship in the future.
Its influence derives from characters who depend on materialistic values to display prosperity, maintain power and stay healthy. Huong uses the characters’ meals to emphasize the conditions in which different echelons of society are forced to live and to portray the contrast in the character 's’ life styles. The authors first use of this representation is directed towards families who are at the bottom of the hierarchy and the characters financial struggles are illustrated through the quality of their food. For instance, when Chinh becomes ill with diabetes, Que makes great sacrifices in order to provide him with food and medicine throughout his illness. Huong’s oddly detailed description about their rapidly declining food supply provides insight into the harsh living conditions.
Duong Thu Huong’s thematic use of the Cripple to reflect physical and emotion unfulfillment in Paradise of the Blind Huong’s description of the cripple portrays the concept of living a life unfulfilled. The character’s disabilities result in not only a physical handicap but they also ‘cripple’ his ability to attain the type of fulfillment that he desires, due to this he is one of the most evident characters with unreached potential. As the cripple embodies unfulfilment both physically and emotionally, Duong uses his presence to play a pronounced role in reinforcing this thematic idea. From the description Duong provides, the reader is able to gain understanding of the regret and failure of this broken man.
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.
Analysis of themes throughout Duong Thu Huong's Paradise of The Blind Within Duong Thu Huong's novel Paradise of The Blind Huong demonstrates the complexity of the land reform and the challenges it has posed on a Vietnamese woman by the name of Hang. Although being banned in Vietnam, Huong illustrated Hang's story by attacking the harsh policies by the government and the cruel impact on the rural Vietnamese culture. Throughout Hang's life the reader sees her struggles and tribulations as her life was torn to shambles due to the land reform. The main themes Huong uses to symbolize this idea are: saviors, death, and quests as these troubles not only reflect her life, but those of the people in general. Huong introduces the theme of death within
I am a 13 year-old student at Old Donation School, and during class, I have been studying Vietnamese culture and different short stories from that culture. I am writing this letter to you so that you would consider my original composition. The original composition, which is called Sự công bằng or The Fair, is a fable that is based on the archetypal concepts of the Vietnamese culture. It is about a young boy named Dinh, who really wants to get this dragon lantern from the fair, but there are some trials before he could get to it.
