The Refugees By Thanh Nguyen Summary

“The Refugees” by Viet Thanh Nguyen is a collection of eight short stories, primarily about Vietnamese immigrants and their children, attempting to escape the communist regime that took power in Vietnam. Despite similar circumstances, Nguyen crafts 8 different stories each teaching the reader different lessons. In the first short story, “Black-Eyed Women”, the narrator is a ghostwriter, essentially a journalist who does not publish his or her name for protection via anonymity. One night, the narrator is visited by the ghost of her brother. When escaping from Vietnam, with the desire to live in America, the narrator’s family made efforts to protect the narrator from being captured and raped by the pirates who raided their boat. The narrator’s brother died in the effort to protect her. From …show more content…
Eventually, Arthur finds out Louie Vu is not related to Men Vu, and wants to turn him in to the police to please his wife. However, Arthur is now an accomplice, and would be arrested for housing the goods. In, “I’d Love You to Want Me”, a man named Mr. Khanh suffers from Alzheimer’s. At a wedding banquet, Mr. Khanh calls his wife, Yen, a name unknown to Mrs. Khanh. Mr. Khanh refuses to explain who Yen is, and how she is related to Mr. Khanh. One day, Mr. Khanh gets lost, and Mrs. Khanh is tasked with finding him, searching the whole neighborhood. She later finds him safe in their library, and she decides to read the stories he has always encouraged her to. In, “The America’s”, Vietnam War Veteran James Carver resentfully travels to Vietnam with his wife to visit their daughter, Claire, and her boyfriend, Khoi. He disapproves of their jobs, her job being an English teacher, and her boyfriend’s job being an engineer who works for the government making robots. Khoi tries to reason with him however James argues with him, claiming that his work is replacing jobs, and harmful to