portrayed in the most unattractive of all light. Until only a few years ago, the Vietnamese were portrayed by the media as a faceless people with no identity; entities not worth caring about. The turning point came with the publication, in Dutch, of Duong Thu Huong's Blind Paradise in 1994. This landmark book was followed by Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War. War novels deal, superficially, with war. But underneath all the blood and horror and carnage lie far deeper social and human issues. The best novels of
Duong Thu Huong’s novel, ‘Paradise of the Blind’ creates a reflective, often bittersweet atmosphere through the narrator Hang’s expressive descriptions of the landscapes she remembers through her life. Huong’s protagonist emphasises the emotional effects these landscapes have on her, acknowledging, “many landscapes have left their mark on me.” The contrast Huong provides between the reality of Hang’s impoverished life and the beauty of the scenery that she experiences, emphasise the powerful effect
ethnicity, and identity in Vietnam. Each source depicted the aforementioned differently, thus also making readers privy to each source's strengths and weaknesses when covering a certain aspect of Vietnam. In the novella Novel Without a Name, by Duong Thu Huong, the novel is told from the North Vietnamese viewpoint. Already, there is a contrast between the content of this novel, than perhaps, the content of a textbook. Novel Without a Name uses the rhetorical strategy of appeal to emotion. A central theme
Duong Thu Huong’s 1988 novel Paradise of the Blind, is placed in two of the most tumultuous times in Vietnamese history. Flashbacks are used to discuss pre-war Vietnam during the Land Reform campaign, a movement which sought to give land to peasants and punish the “land owners”. The contemporary period is set after the Vietnam War, when the communist party was trying to consolidate its power, as well the bleak landscape of the Soviet countryside. It seeks to expose the blinding ideology of the communists
one more step into circumstances to interpret them to what they really are in nature for a reader. What we merely see white is provable to be absolute black and what is black to our understanding may in fact be a morally white happy ending. Duong Thu Huongs’ Novel without a Name is another attempt to open the same window to the same view, by a pair of different hands. She makes another effort to illustrate what has been lost in Vietnam during the years of war. To transfer the message of war to her
female characters simultaneously enact and subvert Vietnamese gender roles. In the novel Paradise of the Blind, Doung Thu Huong explores the effect the Communist regime has had upon Vietnamese cultural gender roles. During the rule of the Communist Viet Minh, a paradigm shift occurred within which many of the old Vietnamese traditions were dismantled or altered. Dounh Thu Huong uses the three prominent female characters – Hang, Que and Aunt Tam – to represent the changing responsibilities of women
the author 's use of style, technique, and structure create a greater meaning in the novel. In Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, the use of style, technique, and structure work in tandem to emphasize Hang’s journey to find her own individual purpose. By using circular writing, symbols, and setting, Huong establishes the theme that one must find one’s own purpose. Huong uses a circular writing style to portray the characterization of Hang. As the novel flows from Hang’s past memories to the
Reflective Statement: Paradise of the Blind In Duong Thu Huong’s compelling novel Paradise of the Blind, a young woman named Hang is surrounded by an unusual family structure. She has very few family members which include, and are ultimately limited to, her mom and aunt. There is a very distinct flaw in Hang’s family: she has no father figure or even a strong male figure within her life. Keeping this in mind, I became addled by the diversity of emotions that Hang received from her family members
The novel Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong is set in North Vietnam during the Communist revolution in 1980's and is translated into English by Phan Huy Duong and Nina McPherson. The traditional Vietnamese society of time set in the novel is illustrated through Hang, the protagonist. The author conveys the underlying message of pursued hope to the readers via constructing the correlation between the constantly changing natural environment and Hang. This correlation gives in turn a microscopic
watches her mother, Que, be treated unfairly by her uncle, Chinh. As the elder sibling and last surviving member of the family, Que showers Chinh with love and affection, actions he does not reciprocate. In the novel, Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, Huong uses the motif of food to establish the obligations Que has to Uncle Chinh, revealing that family obligations deriving from Confucianism are detrimental
This novel Paradise of the Blind, written by Duong Thu Huong, is set in the 1980’s. The novel narrates the life of a twenty year old Vietnamese lady, who has been through a great deal of things in her life. While she is on a train to Moscow, Russia, she reflects on her childhood in Vietnam during the time of communism. Throughout the confusing yet great novel, Huong writes the story in the perspective of a main character, Hang, by using many different motifs. No doubt, one main motif is the use and
A strong maternal bond is crucial in one’s life; however in both Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, the authors portray the distant relationship between the mother and the daughter as a tool to critique the ‘inhuman’ traditions imposed upon the family members in their respective societies. Though Houng’s and Esquivel’s novels are set in Vietnam and Mexico respectively, they assert that family traditions are unjust and forbid family members to
Fiction enables us to gain a different insight into how we view the world around us and develop our sense of who we are in the world. Now banned in Vietnam because of its political views, Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong is the first Vietnamese novel published in America about Vietnamese women fighting to survive in a society where compliance to men and Communist corruption suppresses any kind of independence. The Bride Price by Buchi Emecheta is a novel that tells the story about a Nigerian
outlines a part of the readers own emotional perception of their own self-awareness. This represents a bridge between the book itself and the reader for the stimulating connection amongst the two. It is seen throughout Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong, Hang’s coming of age represents her development as a woman, her changing process of thinking, and her ability to connect to the reader on a personal level. As Hang embarks on a thought filled journey of her past her recognition of particular situations
years apart and halfway across the world, exemplify the universality of certain stories through writing. They demonstrate how people worldwide have similar experiences. “Paradise of the Blind” is set in post-war Vietnam and was written by Duong Thu Huong, a Vietnamese woman who crafted a pseudo-autobiography based on her own experiences. The narrative follows the fictional character, Hang. The novel “Paradise of The Blind” is banned in Vietnam due to its anti-communist messaging. “Black Boy,” an
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES MASTER OF TESOL 2016B Advanced Teaching Methodology REFLECTION Instructor:Nguyễn Thu Hương, PhD. Student : Phan Thị Kim Yến After six weeks I’ve learnt a lot of things from this subject. In the first part I’ll summarize the main points of the lessons and in the second part I will go into detail some extents I find interesting. There are a lot of things need to be covered in this summary so I will