2430 Lines On The Wall Analysis

2430 Lines on the Wall is a made-up story that followed my paternal grandfather’s imprisonment in reeducation camp after the communists take over Vietnam. I chose this event, because it has brought a drastic impact to my grandfather’s life, my father’s life, and even my life. Without this event, I most definitely wouldn’t be typing this right now. In retrospect, the hardest part about writing this story was making up the plot. My dad knew little about the exact experiences my grandfather had to overcome, therefore I had to invent characters, dialogues, and mini events in an exaggerating yet believable manner. The mandatory reeducation camps for all South Vietnamese men started the chain reactions that I owe my existence to. If the reeducation

Since my grandfather passed away years ago, I could only turn to my dad. My dad was only six years old when my grandfather got arrested and thirteen years old when he came back. My dad only told me specific setting details such as the years my grandfather got arrested and how many months he was detained. The most helpful thing my dad told me was, “Your grandfather was mentally tortured and physically abused for six years and eight months.” I had to write about a piece of memory, yet I did not get any specific details about what exactly happened to my grandfather during those years. I wanted concrete answers to my questions such as what happened to him, what did they make him do, what were the living conditions like, and did he make any friends or enemies. I only had one choice left - make up everything that I don’t know. I needed a reference so I researched about reeducation camps and came across real life accounts. From one account in particular, I learned how horrible the communist Viet Cong treated the prisoners. At last, I got a pretty good idea about what happened during that time so now all I have left to add is my own imagination. I invented dialogues and characters such as Uncle Quang and Minh to make the story more realistic and helped deliver the emoticons. I made up mini-events such as the midnight arrest, Minh’s assault, and marking lines on the wall, because I needed some forces to help drive the plot. I had to make up lies in a believable way so I used the real life account as a limit to my exaggeration. My version of the story is an amalgamation of a real life account from a man who has lived through that era and my own