In 2013 when Viet Thanh Nguyen began to write The Sympathizer, it had been 40 years since the Vietnam War. It had been 40 years since French and American military involvement ravaged a once beautiful countryside and littered lush forests with napalm. It had been 40 years since 2 million people were displaced from their country and left to die in the Pacific Ocean. In those 40 years, many works were published about the Vietnam War. These stories came from many, contrasting, perspectives. Young or old, male or female, the war was told differently by every person who was involved in the battle, no matter how small their role. Despite the cacophony of standpoints vying to tell the definitive tale of what happened in Vietnam, the perspective of …show more content…
Much like the Narrator, his parents were born in North Vietnam and immigrated to the south in 1958. This was because catholic priests convinced them that the Viet Cong would commit atrocities when they took over. When the communist reach spread to the south, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s mother fled alongside him and his brother, leaving his father and sister behind in Saigon. This was unintentional, as the author describes; “My mother can’t communicate with my father, so she takes our lives into her hands and decides to flee the town on foot”. Luckily, his father had the same idea and through happenstance, they ended up leaving on the same barge. Though he didn 't suffer the same trauma as the Narrator on pages 48-50, when an errant gunman kills his godson and best friends wife, Viet experienced much misery during his journey. In an interview with Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air, he remembers guards aboard his ship shooting smaller rafts for fear of them being Viet Cong. Upon further research into this event, Viet found that most of these boats were homemade rafts which housed the poor of …show more content…
The plight of the Vietnamese immigrant in America was a necessary one to tell. It is a story which Viet Thanh Nguyen has lived his entire life, all that he needed was a catalyst to write it. One came in 2011, when, as a part of the Arab Spring, Syrian rebels attempted to overthrow the Assad regime. Their attempt lead to a bloody conflict, which still rages to this day, as well as the displacement of over 11 million people, as of the most recent statistics. While it may not have been the worldwide migrant crisis it is today, by 2013 enough people were forced out of Syria that the world took notice. It also caused many to draw parallels to the migrant crisis which the Vietnamese faced 40 years prior. Among these people was Viet Thanh Nguyen, who was given a secondary reason to write his novel, to prevent what happened to the Vietnamese from happening to Syrians. His primary reason would forever be to give these lost migrants a voice. An important issue remained, however, how could this novel capture the attention of a mainstream audience. The previous year, spy film Skyfall earned 1 billion dollars at the box office. A fan of the genre all his life, Viet Thanh Nguyen understood that if so much of the public was willing to watch a spy movie that same public would read a spy book. One spy, in particular, would make a good protagonist. In his interview with NPR radio, Viet Thanh Nguyen revealed his inspiration was; “a very famous spy named Pham Xuan An who was so important that
In the book “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’Brien writes about his experience before and during the Vietnamese War, tells stories about his troop, and their lives before and after the war. He illustrates about how his life changed because of the war, and emphasizes on how the war is so cruel and has no moral at all. His stories involve a lot about Vietnamese War. If people read his story superficially, they will say it is definitely a war story, but he argues that his book is actually about love (81). Although his story looks like a war story, it is actually a loved story because his stories are either about his loved ones or dedicated to his loved ones.
Bertrand Russell once said, “War doesn’t determine who’s right, only who’s left.” The Vietnam War was one in particular where soldiers often struggled with who the enemy was. War is too often thought of as something to be won, but this novel reveals it is simply something to be survived, and the shell of a person that is left will not be the same one that walked into battle. That is a jarring reality very prominent in Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. It is a lesson soldier Richard Perry learns all too well on his journey from innocent young boy to Vietnam veteran.
With unforgiving terrain and the seemingly never ending destruction, the environment of war can be the biggest challenge faced. The constant presence of death and the savage actions of men, the jungle and villages of Vietnam that was home to many families can become a nightmare within days. The book says, “I walked away. People were not supposed to be made like that. People were not supposed to be twisted bone and tubes that popped out at crazy kid’s-toys angles.
He was a citizen and a soldier.” This quotation demonstrates to the reader how O’Brien personified the young vietnamese man. O’Brien humanizes the soldier by giving him an innocent background; one that could be compared to his own life stories. The reader can see how it is apparent that O’Brien knew nothing about the young man, other than his physical features. O’Brien let his guilt and pity
Philip Caputo, a former American Lieutenant, wrote the influential memoir, A Rumor of War, recapping his memories and perspectives serving during the Vietnam War. A Rumor of War was published in 1977, shortly after the US withdrew from Vietnam, and reflects the cultural and political context of that time period. The Vietnam War was one of the most disputed conflicts in United States history due to its extreme controversy and execution during its span. Throughout the story, Caputo’s memoir offers a thoughtful and introspective recollection of his experiences in Vietnam, and addresses instances of good and evil, justice and injustice, and the devastating consequences that come from war.
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.
“I thought the Vietnam war was an utter, unmitigated disaster, so it was very hard for me to say anything good about it” - George McGovern. There are numerous controversial topics dispersed among the subject of American history due to the amount of unethical decisions that have been made in order to improve the lives of the people or keep America out of the clutches of war. Throughout American history, historians have debated the ethical impact that the Vietnam war had on the United States. Although some people may believe that the Vietnam War achieved the goal of avoiding communism and protecting the people, the overarching idea is that it was an unjust war because of the countless lives that were lost from the participating countries, the
Social Issue-Vietnam War Cost of Vietnam The Vietnam War that took place between the dates of 1959-1975 changed Americans culture. 58, 000 Americans died America spent 111 billion dollars on the war, according to the Department of Defense. Mr. Frenchy watched his brother, cousins, and acquaintances join the war efforts against communism. Likewise, he participated by joining the army. Not only did this give Mr. Frenchy a reason for leaving New York, but this also posed as an opportunity to stop selling and using drugs.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be vietnamese during the vietnam war. Well I will tell you about the perseverance that one of them faces, her name is Ha. Ha is a ten year old vietnamese girl during the vietnam war. She has to go through a lot, has to preserver through a lot, and has to change a lot to be able to live. One part I find disgusting is when one of her brothers keeps a dead baby chick in his pocket because it is one of the only things he has left from home.
Men went through so many tasks during the Vietnam War physically and mentally. The beginning chapters focus on training for war and being prepared for the worst. For example, when there is a sergeant in a room with the marines. The sergeant walks to the chalk board and writes “AMBUSHES ARE MURDER AND MURDER IS FUN” (36-37). The
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.
Regret is a powerful emotion that has the ability to scar someone for the rest of their life. Moments of regret can come from relationships, self-made decisions and life changing events. The idea of regret also applies to “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh and “On the Rainy River” by Tim O’Brien. Although these two literary pieces are very different in many ways, both authors describe the experience of the Vietnam War as a time of regretful decisions that negatively impacted people of both the American side and the Vietnamese side. Both authors tell a story about a character that recalls of flashbacks of the war, where they grieve over the past decisions that have affected them for the rest of their life.
In his memoir, Where the Wind Leads, Vinh Chung demonstrates the theme that times of despair and hardship will eventually pass, but it is the motivation to succeed which will make that time fruitful. While relaying the story of his family’s past, Chung gives an overall theme of success and prosperity which accompanies the distress and conflict brought about by the encompassing Vietnam War. As Chung stated, “[W]hat I do know is that the same pressure that can crush coal into dust can also turn carbon into diamond . . . Tough times produce tough people” (14). Though this theme of success can be grounded in one’s desire to prosper, Chung shows a deeper desire from which this success stems.
The Vietnam War is going on in the background of the novel and affects a character called Jeffrey. Jeffrey is a young Vietnamese boy. His family is not welcome in the small town of Corrigan and are abused and bullied. In the novel Jeffrey’s mother gets hot water spilt on her because the ladies husband died in the
By 1975 the Vietnam war had claimed over 5 million lives, many of which were civilians. This has made it a war that Americans have been ashamed of and tried to forget. W. S. Merwin was outspoken on how he felt about war, which he shows in “The Asians Dying.” He makes a statement on the inhumane way the Vietnam war took human lives. ” The Asians Dying” will shock readers with its gruesome imagery and force them to look at what war does.