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 train pulls into a station. Hang’s traveling companion offers her a Bulgarian peach, which Hang gratefully takes. She watches on the platform as a couple parts with a farewell kiss. She thinks that separation is perhaps the most painful type of sadness a person can experience.
Hang’s reflection on separation sheds light on her own feelings, as being in Russia has separated her from her mother. Pursuing her own path in a different country comes at the cost of Hang’s happiness and her ability to maintain a connection with her mother, again illustrating the conflict between prioritizing oneself versus one’s family.
Themes
The narration flashes back to the day Hang leaves her country, knowing that her own separation is breaking Aunt Tam’s heart. She goes through customs at the Noi Bai airport. The people around her all look stunned and panicked. Que is in the hospital, and Aunt Tam is angry with Hang, so neither is there to see her off.
The fact that everyone around Hang has these expressions of fear and panic plays into her evolving idea of beauty. Hang realizes that true beauty is derived from this constant feeling of insecurity that is so characteristic of people in Vietnam.
Themes
Hang thinks back to three years prior to the day she moved to Russia, while she was preparing for college entrance exams. During the whole week, Aunt Tam stays at her and Que’s house, spoiling Hang and making all of her meals while Que runs her street vendor business. A few months later, Hang learns that she passed her exams and has been accepted to university at the Institute for the Social Sciences.
The competition between Aunt Tam and Que becomes more pronounced here. Each woman works to try to support their family, but even with Aunt Tam’s gestures, Hang is still unsure that either woman genuinely loves her.
Themes
As soon as Aunt Tam finds out about Hang’s acceptance, she comes to their house with hampers of fruit, cakes, ducks, and chickens. She also gives Hang a wad of money so that she can travel. She tells Hang that the week before Hang leaves for university, she is inviting the family and neighborhood to celebrate her success. Hang is uncomfortable at the idea, but Aunt Tam assures her that because she is the first person in their family to get to the university, they have to properly celebrate.
The planned banquet is yet another way in which Aunt Tam tries to express her affection through her wealth. But the fact that Hang is uncomfortable at the idea of a massive feast in her honor shows that Aunt Tam’s affections are misplaced. Rather than supporting her niece emotionally, Aunt Tam makes it clear that her gestures are once again motivated by the honor that Hang brings to their family line.
Themes
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After the exams results, Hang devotes herself to spending time with her friends. One of them is the daughter of a high-ranking official, and they take a trip together to a few coastal towns, but Hang barely makes a dent in the money that Aunt Tam gave her. Then, 10 days before she is supposed to leave for university, a motorcycle driver arrives at their door to take Hang to Aunt Tam’s house for the week.
While Hang has a difficult time accepting Aunt Tam’s gestures as expressions of genuine love, it is clear that they enable Hang to have opportunities that she might not have had otherwise—both this trip and attending the university at all. Thus, there is some irony in the fact that Aunt Tam’s sacrifices for her family in turn enable Hang to turn away from that family.
Themes
On the way to Aunt Tam’s, Hang stops at the marketplace to say goodbye to Que. When Hang tells her mother that she’s leaving, Que simply says goodbye. Hang notes that because Aunt Tam had been doting on her, and because Que had been focusing on Tuan and Tu, their relationship had been distant. Hang asks Que if she has any advice for her. Que says that Hang has Aunt Tam for advice. Que then laments that she’s not rich enough to throw Hang a big feast. Hang protests, saying that they’ve always lived modestly but happily as mother and daughter. Hang thinks about how she simply wants her Que’s love, while her mother wants recognition from the Do family.
Here the conflict between Aunt Tam and Que becomes more explicit as each woman focuses on the heirs to their family, and Que is disdainful of Aunt Tam because she can provide more for Hang than Que ever could. However, Hang emphasizes that it is not the money or food that is important to her, but a sense of being happy with the person she loves most in the world. But because Aunt Tam has been so lavish, this dynamic unfortunately creates conflict between Hang and her mother.
Themes
Hang says goodbye and meets back up with the motorcycle driver to go to Aunt Tam’s house, where cooks are preparing the massive feast. Hang watches Aunt Tam as she directs the preparations; she thinks that she is very close to her aunt but also thinks of Tam as a stranger. Hang wakes up early the next morning and notices that her aunt has not gone to bed at all. Aunt Tam tells Hang that one sleepless night is nothing, and she instructs her to come get breakfast.
The banquet that Aunt Tam is throwing is the latest in her series of monetary gestures for Hang. But Hang makes clear here that just because Aunt Tam dotes on her does not necessarily mean that they have a close relationship. Additionally, Duong makes another point to show how much Aunt Tam has sacrificed of her own well-being and happiness for her family.
Themes
Hang notices Madame Dua sleeping in a corner of the kitchen, so Aunt Tam tells Madame Dua’s story: she had come from a wealthy family and her husband was a carpenter. He then started working for his in-laws, and they had a son after a year. But Dua proved to be a very clumsy woman and would often break things. It became so bad that when Dua’s son turned seven, her husband ran off with her child. Then her parents died, and she had to sell the house to feed herself. Now she is a servant. Aunt Tam tells Hang that Dua’s parents are cousins of Tam’s mother, and so she decided to take her in because she was family.
Aunt Tam’s story about Madame Dua displays additional problems with traditional values. Because women are expected to be deferent to men and have far fewer rights, Madame Dua is left with nothing simply for being clumsy. Even while recognizing the horror of what has happened to Madame Dua, Aunt Tam implicitly upholds these values as well: she still views taking care of family as being more important than anything else.
Themes
Aunt Tam prepares a huge meal for Hang’s breakfast, but Tam eats almost nothing of it as usual. Soon after, three cooks arrive. Aunt Tam offers the women lunch and then tells the cooks about her plan for the banquet. She says that it will cover both lunch and dinner, and there will be five dishes and five soups for the guest. One of the women comments on how Aunt wants three times as much food as any banquet the village has seen.
Here Duong illustrates the scale of Aunt Tam’s banquet for Hang and the extent of its lavishness. Again, Aunt Tam is not doing this only for the sake of making Hang happy, but rather as a means of displaying their family’s wealth and prosperity.
Themes
As they discuss the guest list, one woman mentions that a man named Mr. Duong has been invited. A woman with a scar frustratedly tells Aunt Tam that Mr. Duong is trying to take her sister’s plot in the Trai hamlet, now that her husband has died. She says her sister has filed a complaint with the township, but that that will likely do little good. The woman refuses to serve him, and Aunt Tam agrees that she will not have to.
Mr. Duong’s treatment of his sister is reminiscent of how Uncle Chinh treated Ton. His desire to gain land at the expense of this woman’s sister illustrates his own greed and corruption, even if he claims to uphold ideologies of equality and harmony.
Themes
