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 returns to her memories. Due to the continued resentment of the villagers, Que moves to Hanoi. Ten years later, Hang is born in a brick hut in a “working-class slum.” Every day, street vendors are outside selling their homemade snacks. Each morning when Hang is growing up, Que packs her own snacks to sell and wakes Hang before school. She makes her breakfast of pickled cabbage and fried silkworms, as well as some kind of candy that she has picked up for Hang. Que looks at Hang with tenderness and admiration.
Hang’s introduction of her childhood home and her dynamic with her mother provides some evidence as to why she considers the past to be so idyllic. While she appreciates the food that her mother prepares for her, it becomes clear that what she appreciates most is knowing that her mother has real love for her. It is this knowledge, not any food or wealth they might have, that gives her a sense of comfort and love.
Themes
One morning, when Hang is about eight, she wakes up when Que has already gone. She walks through the street, passing her neighbor Madame Mieu’s house. Madame Mieu has a blind dog named Fuzzy White that Hang loves, and a “crippled” son (whom Hang refers to as “the cripple”) who sings in a falsetto voice, “Hail autumn and its procession of dead leaves, the rows of barren poplars stand silent on the hillside.” Hang feels like crying at the song.
The cripple’s song serves as yet another symbol of the beauty, but also the poverty, of Hang’s home. Hang senses the beauty of her surroundings—and perhaps even gets a hint of the tragedy around her—but as she reveals later, it is only when she has grown up does she truly understand the meaning of the song. It represents a life unfulfilled and lost to the stagnation.
Themes
Just then, girl named Thu invites Hang to play with her. Hang thinks that the girl is mean and lies shamelessly, but she agrees to play. They run down to the Red River, try to catch dragonflies, and gather fruit. But when Thu hears her mother hollering for her, they run back home and pretend that they have been there all along. When her mother returns, angry that she couldn’t find Thu, Thu says that Hang made her go down to the river. The woman yells at Hang, forbidding her to go near Thu and calling her a “little bitch without roots” before dragging her daughter back to their house.
While Hang thinks back on this time in her childhood as an idyllic one, there are parts of it that are still filled with pain. Not knowing who her father is, as this woman brings up, is a large source of distress for Hang. It plays into her need to feel love and affection, because she is missing a key piece of her life.
Themes
Hang is deeply upset by the woman’s words. An old blind neighbor calls out to Hang, asking to talk to her, but she runs away in tears. That night, in bed, Que tries to comfort Hang. Hang begs Que to tell her who her father is, but Que refuses, crying. She asks Hang not to ask those questions and reassures her that at the very least, they will always have each other.
Even though Hang is upset about not knowing the history of her father, Que reinforces their mother-daughter relationship. This adds further context as to why Hang feels so much loyalty for her mother later in life—clearly, Que’s support is a buoy for Hang as she navigates life without a father.
Themes
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A year later, Uncle Chinh comes to the house. It is the first time that Hang has met him, and he looks so much like Que that Hang instantly takes a liking to him. Que starts to prepare rice for Uncle Chinh and instructs Hang to get a pound of pork, a pound of roast goose, and pickled shallots for dinner. As Hang leaves, Uncle Chinh comments on how much Hang looks like her father. When Que doesn’t respond, Uncle Chinh comments further that Que doesn’t have to worry about the stigma of a bad family background because she comes from the working class. Que asserts that Ton’s family was reclassified as middle peasantry during the Rectification campaign, then changes the subject.
Duong introduces the dynamic between Que and Uncle Chinh that will follow throughout the rest of the novel. Despite the fact that Uncle Chinh is cruel toward Que, Que makes it her duty to support her family no matter what. Duong also includes the idea that food is an expression of love, as Que insists on providing a more lavish dinner because Uncle Chinh is there. And lastly, the hollowness and vindictiveness of Uncle Chinh’s communist rhetoric becomes evident yet again, as he is unwilling to admit the mistakes he made in persecuting his sister’s husband for the Party.
Themes
That evening, after dinner, Que invites some neighbors to meet Uncle Chinh. They are impressed that Uncle Chinh is responsible for ideological education and sit rapt as he talks about the “‘International Struggle’ between capitalism and communism.” The neighbors don’t leave until late in the evening, and after Que sends Hang to bed, she and Uncle Chinh speak more seriously.
Duong demonstrates how there are still many people throughout the country who subscribe to the communist ideology and associate it with education. Yet because Duong has already illustrated many of the problems instigated by the Communist Party, she uses an anecdote like this to illustrate that Uncle Chinh’s language is flowery and simply meant to impress—it doesn’t contain any real substance.
Themes
Que asks Uncle Chinh why he didn’t make contact with her for the past nine years. He responds that he’s been very busy with government business, organizing the unions and publicizing various campaigns. Que then asks why he never organized memorial ceremonies for their parents. He says that they live in an age of materialism age, and no one cares about worshipping their ancestors because after death, there is nothing.
Again, Duong depicts how Que and Uncle Chinh hold themselves to different standards: women are expected to remain loyal to their family members above all else. But when Que points out that Uncle Chinh does not do the same, he argues that his ideology is more important than paying his respects to his family.
Themes
Uncle Chinh then asks Que how she’s been supporting herself. She says that after he ordered her to sell her street-vending business in the village, she moved to Hanoi to work in a textile mill. She couldn’t save anything, however, and instead started selling small snacks at the market so that she could save money for Hang. Uncle Chinh argues that merchants are “exploiters” and “parasites” and that Que should “rejoin the workers.” Que responds that all she wants is food and education for her daughter. Uncle Chinh argues that in the new society, children who come from working-class families will have advantages.
Duong again points out the irony in the communist ideology and its ineffectiveness in its goals. Where it is meant to empower the working class, instead Que argues that adhering to the ideology and “rejoining the workers” actually makes it more difficult for her to provide for a future for her daughter. While Uncle Chinh continues to make promises, Que’s personal path proves that those promises are largely empty.
Themes
Uncle Chinh then says that the Party has given he and his wife (Thanh), who is a leader of the Communist Youth League, a new apartment in Hanoi. He explains that he needs the money Que got from selling their parents’ house in order to furnish it. He says he is too busy to go to the village to collect the money, so Que is forced to go.
Uncle Chinh reveals his hypocrisy yet again in proving that communism doesn’t actually allow him to support himself fully. Even though he and his wife are both officials in the Party and they have been given a new apartment, they don’t make enough money in those positions to be able to furnish it. Only by using the money that they have from selling their parents’ house are they able to make a comfortable life for themselves.
Themes
A week later, Que and Hang return to her old village. The bus drops them off eight miles from the ferry, and they walk through a traveling bazaar. Hang is entranced by the stands, and Que buys her a set of small figurines. They then go to the pagoda and sit down together at the base of a banyan tree, where Hang falls asleep in her mother’s arms. When she wakes, Que smiles at her. Hang once again notes that Que’s teeth glisten, but she thinks that the rest of Que’s beauty and youth had faded from sorrow “for nothing.”
Que shows her love for Hang through the gesture of buying her figurines, but Duong illustrates that Hang derives more comfort from her mother holding her and supporting her emotionally than from any monetary gift she could give. Duong also draws a connection between hardship and a loss of physical beauty in referencing Que’s teeth yet again. This part of her beauty contrasts with the beauty that she has lost due to the struggles that she has had to face in her life. Hang realization that this has happened “for nothing” suggests that she sees in hindsight how society has unnecessarily broken Que.
Themes
Que and Hang eat a little food and then head to catch the ferry. While they wait on the bank, Hang wraps her arms around Que and asks where her father is. She knows she is upsetting her mother but thinks that she needs “another shoulder to lean on in this life.” Que doesn’t respond. The ferry arrives, and they cross the shore to the village. That night, Hang dreams that she is being beaten. She thinks about the humiliation that’s haunted her since the neighbors mocked her. Seeing Hang suffer, Que decides to tell Hang what happened to Ton.
Hang’s desire to simply be loved is evidenced by her statement that she needs “another shoulder to lean on.” She wants to know who her father is to have some sort of connection or knowledge of another person who could truly love her. But in deciding to be honest with Hang about what happened to Ton, Que knows that she will potentially make Hang feel even more alone.
Themes
