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
The narration flashes back to Ton fleeing the village. He hides with the parents of a former student of his, and they are terrified that he will be found with them and that they will be punished for associating with the landowning class and acting out against the revolution. Ton doesn’t stay long and takes the ferry to get as far away from the village as possible. The woman at the ferry tells him to pay 18 coins, though the trip usually costs five. Ton does so, and he takes a three-day journey up the river to the end of the line.
The tyranny of the Communist Party becomes evident in Ton’s experiences. Not only is he forced to flee his home, but people who had previously been friends are now hesitant to have any contact with him at all. Additionally, Ton’s experience at the ferry illustrates how the policies allow for opportunistic people to take advantage of others, because the woman knows that Ton is being forced to flee and will pay the inflated price.
Themes
Ton finds refuge for two weeks with a couple who had come to this more rural area during the anti-French resistance. He then travels further up the river into a Muong minority region. There, he starts a new life, teaching Vietnamese and science. He is quickly revered by the villagers, marries the daughter of the village vice president, and has two sons.
Again, Ton’s path illustrates the cruelty inherent in the Party’s policies. Far from equalizing citizens and promoting justice, it forces Ton to abandon his life and create an entirely new to preserve his anonymity.
Themes
After six years, a traveling salesman who knows Tam and Que arrives in Ton’s village. The salesman tells Ton about the Rectification campaign and that Que had sold her home and left for Hanoi. The following week, Ton takes a raft down the river to Hanoi. When he arrives, he finds Que, still young and beautiful but very bitter and somber. Hang describes how their love rises again despite being apart for years and each of them having endured great loneliness and suffering. On that night, Hang is conceived.
The story of Hang’s conception is related to Duong’s themes of beauty and disillusionment. In the society, beauty (in this case, Ton and Que’s love) is able to prevail despite harsh conditions. However, much like the symbol of the duckweed flower, it is stifled by the poverty and dirtiness of what is around it. As much as Que and Ton try to revive their love, ultimately their circumstances prevent them from rebuilding their life together.
Themes
On the train to Moscow, the train stops abruptly, and Hang lurches forward but is caught by her traveling companion. Outside, the sky darkens. Hang sees the trees in the distance and a singular old house with a chimney on the edge of a lake. The house stirs a memory in Hang: “a vision of a former life […] a past to which each of us is linked, inextricably, by the ties of blood and race.” Hang thinks about the night Que first took her to visit Que’s old village.
The vision of the house sparks Hangs memories of her own past, as this dwelling serves as a symbol of the “ties of blood and race,” or their familial ties. But Hang also seems to acknowledge the disillusionment she has with the past: even though the vision reminds her of her family, she also acknowledges how those ties can be suffocating ones, particularly because they are inescapable.
Themes
Get the entire Paradise of the Blind LitChart as a printable PDF.
