Dualism And Duality In The Mind Of Two Manners
1548 Words
7 Pages
Mind of Two Manners A man with a split mind, a split task, and even a split heritage. The captain was a half-breed, born directly into the duality that he struggles with throughout the novel. In the beginning, the Narrator is plagued by a task of dual manner in itself, he is assigned to live and learn the American way of life so that he may disguise himself among the ranks of the Republic to work closely with the General himself, while covertly reporting any important information to his fellow communist conspirator. While searching for independence and freedom, working for both the Americans and the Vietcong, the Captain embarks on a journey that ultimately leads to the fracturing of his own identity perception.
The Narrator, having a strong …show more content…
“I could say I was contaminated by the West but I could not inscribe that on paper. It seemed as much of a crime to commit a cliché to paper as to kill a man” (Nguyen 318). Unable to confess in a manner that would satisfy the Commandant, the Narrator is then restrained and brought into a room where he is tortured and “re-educated” on the ideas of communism. During the Captain’s re-education, he begins to refer to himself in third person as “the prisoner”, and as “the pupil”. This reference to himself in third person really provides imagery to the idea of his fractured identity perception because now he speaks and thinks of himself in third person illustrating the idea that he is man of two minds. “all we can do is help the patient see his own mind by keeping him awake, until he can observe himself as someone else. This is most crucial, for we are the ones most able to know ourselves and yet the most unable to know ourselves” (Nguyen 342). Tortured to the point of near physical identity separation the Narrator is able to see the true nature of his duality. “I am one but I am also two, made from egg and a sperm, and if I screamed, it must be because of those blue genes gleaned from my father. I saw it now, that moment of my origin, the Chinese acrobat of time bent impossibly back on itself so that I could see the invasion of my mother’s womb by my father’s dumb, masculine horde” (Nguyen 367). Seeing himself from another perspective the Narrator realizes and accepts that he is a man of both dual nature and dual
The Narrator, having a strong …show more content…
“I could say I was contaminated by the West but I could not inscribe that on paper. It seemed as much of a crime to commit a cliché to paper as to kill a man” (Nguyen 318). Unable to confess in a manner that would satisfy the Commandant, the Narrator is then restrained and brought into a room where he is tortured and “re-educated” on the ideas of communism. During the Captain’s re-education, he begins to refer to himself in third person as “the prisoner”, and as “the pupil”. This reference to himself in third person really provides imagery to the idea of his fractured identity perception because now he speaks and thinks of himself in third person illustrating the idea that he is man of two minds. “all we can do is help the patient see his own mind by keeping him awake, until he can observe himself as someone else. This is most crucial, for we are the ones most able to know ourselves and yet the most unable to know ourselves” (Nguyen 342). Tortured to the point of near physical identity separation the Narrator is able to see the true nature of his duality. “I am one but I am also two, made from egg and a sperm, and if I screamed, it must be because of those blue genes gleaned from my father. I saw it now, that moment of my origin, the Chinese acrobat of time bent impossibly back on itself so that I could see the invasion of my mother’s womb by my father’s dumb, masculine horde” (Nguyen 367). Seeing himself from another perspective the Narrator realizes and accepts that he is a man of both dual nature and dual