Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Paradise of the Blind, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Traditional Values and Sacrifice
Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption
Love and Wealth
Beauty, Disillusionment, and Coming of Age
Summary
Analysis
Hang receives a telegram that says “Very ill. Come immediately.” Hang curses her luck: for the past few days she has been very sick as well. She only had 800 rubles left in savings and has spent 500 on medicine and food. Hang tells her roommate that her uncle (Uncle Chinh) is sick; he lives in Moscow and wants her to visit. Her roommate argues that she shouldn’t go, as she still looks very sick. Hang resolves not to go.
The opening of Paradise of the Blind immediately introduces the central tension of Hang’s life: duty to family versus duty to oneself. Hang feels obligated to visit her Uncle Chinh in Moscow, but she has also been ill and has very little money with which to do so. This dilemma will likely cause a great deal of guilt for Hang—and although she decides for the time being not to go, it remains to be seen whether she’ll change her mind and sacrifice her happiness for family values.
Themes
As Hang’s roommate makes Vietnamese noodles, she also puts on a record player that she had just bought. They listen to the singer: “At the end of the Red River, do you know? In the land of my birth, is another river. My heart weeps with nostalgia: Vam co Dong! Vam co Dong!” Hang slips back into bed, thinking about the river of her childhood in Hanoi.
The record evokes the landscape of the Red River, the river next to which Hang grew up. Like the singer, Hang understands the nostalgia for its beauty; but now, having grown up, she understands that the beauty of the river simply hid the poverty and the stagnation of so much of their lives.
Themes
Hang continues her reverie, thinking of the “shack” in which she lived in Hanoi, which was made of sheet metal and tar paper. It stunk, and the gutters flowed into the streets where children played. Hang sees her mother, Que’s, face: “pain and infinite perseverance.” She thinks of a proverb her mother would say: “Unhappiness forges a woman, makes her selfless, compassionate.” Remembering these words, Hang feels guilty that she is turning away from her mother’s younger brother, Uncle Chinh.
In contrast to the beauty of the river, Hang remembers the less attractive parts of their lives and the toll that they took on her mother’s beauty. The proverb that Hang remembers also hints at the family values to which Que subscribed. Duong foreshadows how much Que has sacrificed for her family and also hints at the fact that Hang visiting her uncle would not be out of love for him, but rather out of respect and familial duty to her mother.
Themes
Hang tells Madame Vera, the landlady, that she’s going to Moscow. Madame Vera gives her a wool shawl for the journey, and Hang thanks her. Hang catches a bus and arrives in time to make the only express train to Moscow. At the station, she catches her reflection in a window: “a pale young woman with a lost, worried expression, stooped shoulders, and cheap maroon suit.” She feels hatred running through her for Uncle Chinh.
Hang decides to support her family by visiting her uncle. However, this comes at the expense of Hang’s own personal happiness: even to herself, she appears “lost” and “worried” rather than youthful and vibrant as one would expect a young woman to look. This dynamic of self-sacrifice for the sake of her family member only results in Hang resenting her uncle even more.
Themes
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Que’s parents both died of illness when Que was 19 and Uncle Chinh was 18. Uncle Chinh immediately joined the anti-French resistance movement in the north, and Que stayed behind in the village. She worked as a street vendor, living off the sales of snacks and goods. She used the money to keep up her parents’ house.
Losing their parents is what introduces this dynamic of sacrifice for Que, as she comments throughout Hang’s recollections that Uncle Chinh is the only family she has left. It is for this reason that she feels she has to do whatever she can to support him and honor their family.
Themes
The narration flashes back. One afternoon, when Hang is almost 10, she stands in Que’s parents’ house. It is rotting, with creepy sculptures and spider’s webs. Hang confesses to her mother, who is sitting in the courtyard with a group of neighbors, that she is scared of the house. Que laughs. Hang thinks that Que’s shining teeth are “the last trace of her beauty, her youth, of a whole life lived for nothing, for no one.”
Hang’s being scared of her grandparents’ house is symbolic of the idea that the past is constantly haunting her. While Hang simply wants to move forward with her life, instead she feels constantly chained to family expectations. The loss of her mother’s youthful beauty is another illustration of how much suffering she has endured because of her family’s poverty: Hang believes that Que’s “whole life” was “lived for nothing, for no one” due to her lack of opportunity.
Themes
Hang asks Que if she had been scared, living alone in the house. A neighbor tells Hang that Que was bored, and that’s why she couldn’t wait until the end of the mourning period to marry Ton. The women laugh, and Hang asks who Ton is. The neighbor snaps at her, saying that Ton is her father. The women laugh, and Hang runs away, sobbing and hiding from them. Que comes after Hang and comforts her, though Hang still cries herself to sleep. The next day, Que buys Hang two sticks of barley sugar and tells her about her father for the first time.
Not knowing the identity of her father is one of the most difficult aspects of Hang’s childhood, because she feels the absence of a father’s love in her life. Despite the fact that this is not her fault, she is criticized for not knowing who her father is by those who hold more traditional values.
Themes
