Paradise Of The Blind Literary Analysis

Words: 1754
Pages: 8
Open Document
In Paradise of the Blind, author Duong Thu Houng expresses the symbolism of children in the novel, exploring their significance while challenging the ideals of childhood throughout. As the protagonist Hang reflects on her childhood, the reader gains a sense of Vietnamese culture. The land reform campaign, the war, and rituals of Vietnamese culture have already predefined and changed the lives of the children in the novel. In short, children seem to have no say within their development through their childhood and society, the upper generation, has predetermined it. However, Hang is able to refute this view, and not return home to her ancestral house, but to go live her life. Although it is the development of Hang that verifies that the future …show more content…
She displays how children express the ways of the past in Vietnam and how they are believed to be the ones to continue the culture. One recurrent theme of the novel is food, which Hang introduces, showing its significance. She is often asked to gather food for her mother, and later in the novel for her cousins. Majority of her recollection of the past is based on food, allowing us to see the rituals of Vietnam. It is of specific significance as Hang recounts it very vividly, especially for distinctive meals and the food that was given to her cousins from her mother. It is a symbol which shows the traditional dynamics of Hang’s childhood while illustrating her fixated love for her home, Vietnam. The use of food throughout their society was also not lost through the communist regime, but held onto stubbornly to induce their rituals and culture. Hence, it provides a leeway into how the Vietnamese culture are very futuristic based. All of Hang’s family are focused on such, and have “these worries ” for her future. Uncle Chinh specifically wants Que to work in a factory to allow Hang, of the new society, to have “advantages.” As he is of high authority, he wants the best for his family, as he did for himself at the time. Likewise, he does not want his reputation ruined, as so connecting the idea of ancestral ties. Children are thus idolized, that Hang herself, when a man preceded to sexually harass her asked herself that perhaps she “shouldn’t have resisted,” in order to have raise a child, better than she had been raised herself it seems. Children throughout the novel, through the use of Hang as a motif, show that they symbolize both the future, and how Hang experiences the ways of Vietnam. Not only is the recount based on her childhood, the stories told of a revolution that divided her family and shattered the lives of
Show More

Related Documents: Paradise Of The Blind Literary Analysis

Examples Of Marxism In The God Of Small Things

Jeffrey Shelton C LIT 300 12/5/02 Paper #3 - The God of Small Things Each reader interprets and analyzes a literary work based upon personal values and an association to a specific critical approach. I personally associate myself closely to Marxist criticism but also place importance on the function of individual words in a literary text. The incorporation of the caste system and love laws within The God of Small Thing and incestuous and murderous action of Oedipus are easily critiqued by Marxist…

Words 1450 - Pages 6

F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night

This impression has endured nearly one-hundred years since 1920, when he first professionally published stories describing an era which he titled “the Jazz Age” (“F. Scott Fitzgerald” 920). Most readers know him for his novels, such as This Side of Paradise or The Great Gatsby, yet few realize that some of his most notable and profitable works were his short stories, such as “Head and Shoulders” or “The Curious…

Words 1906 - Pages 8

Understanding Islamic Intellectual Patterns In Africa

and detailed method of criticism. It is widely acknowledged that debate and discussion, argument and counter-argument, literary textual criticism as well as scientific criticism were hallmarks of the classical Muslim civilisation2. Roger Allen traces the Islamic tradition of criticism right back to Abu Tammam (d.846) and ibn Abd Rabbihi (d.940), two poets who also excelled in literary criticism3. Islamic philosophical theology is littered with critical works, such as those of Ibn Hazm (994-–1064) ,…

Words 4030 - Pages 17

Modernist Elements in the Hollow Men Essay

for thoughtful readers. T.S. Eliot, who always believed that in his end is his beginning, died and left his verse full of hidden messages to be understood, and codes to be deciphered. It is this complexity, which is at the heart of modernism as a literary movement, that makes of Eliot’s poetry very typically modernist. As Ezra Pound once famously stated, Eliot truly did “modernize himself”. Although his poetry was subject to important transformations over the course of his…

Words 7030 - Pages 29

LITERATURE REVISION BOOKLET 1 Essay

English Literature Revision Booklet on the Texts Contents Pg 3 – 20 Of Mice and Men (Unit 1 Section A) Pg 21 – 29 A Christmas Carol (Unit 2b Section B) Pg 30 – 40 Blood Brothers (Unit 2b Section A) Pg 41 – Final Revision Tips *IMPORTANT NOTE!* This revision booklet has been designed to help you learn as much about the books you’ve read as possible. You should use it: complete the tasks and do the extensions tasks because that is revision – not just reading a booklet! **IMPORTANTERER NOTE**…

Words 6597 - Pages 27