The Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Sympathizer challenges many constructs of modern society through a narrator who is “… a man of two minds” (Nguyen 1). The half French, half Vietnamese narrator operates as a communist spy among the Southern Vietnamese troops. The narrator chronicles his life in the form of a confession to another communist within a reeducation camp. This unique stylistic technique allows Nguyen to delve into and dissect issues that remain culturally relevant, including representation, American disillusionment, and duality. The underlying themes of The Sympathizer analyze and ridicule the issue of unequal representation. The narrator dedicates a large portion of the narrative to his time spent working on The Hamlet, a movie depicting the Vietnam War. This movie epitomizes Hollywood, the quintessential American owned form of representation, and how misrepresentation can distort the truth. The
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In actuality, Americans often fight for their own benefit and not the supposed benevolent liberation of others. America betrayed the South Vietnamese twice. They promised to liberate South Vietnam, and then they abandoned their cause. The Americans then brought many refugees to America to suffer in abysmal conditions. The small apartment that Bon and the narrator share represents the less than ideal conditions of refugees around the world. The narrator also addresses a situation wherein an American platoon “pacified” a village of supposed Viet Cong soldiers, but they found very few weapons among them. It was evident that the Americans raped and murdered civilians. The narrator claims, “…nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else’s freedom and independence” (218). This illuminates the general American hypocrisy and the narrator’s abhorrence of
In actuality, Americans often fight for their own benefit and not the supposed benevolent liberation of others. America betrayed the South Vietnamese twice. They promised to liberate South Vietnam, and then they abandoned their cause. The Americans then brought many refugees to America to suffer in abysmal conditions. The small apartment that Bon and the narrator share represents the less than ideal conditions of refugees around the world. The narrator also addresses a situation wherein an American platoon “pacified” a village of supposed Viet Cong soldiers, but they found very few weapons among them. It was evident that the Americans raped and murdered civilians. The narrator claims, “…nothing was more American than wielding a gun and committing oneself to die for freedom and independence, unless it was wielding that gun to take away someone else’s freedom and independence” (218). This illuminates the general American hypocrisy and the narrator’s abhorrence of