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
At noon on the day of the banquet, the whole village arrives, and Hang “play[s] the part of the successful niece.” Hang even sneaks away to take a nap during the day and then returns in the evening. When Hang rejoins the party, Aunt Tam introduces her to Mr. Duong, who is the vice president of the village. Mr. Duong invites Aunt Tam and Hang to their table, saying that he has something to ask Aunt Tam.
Hang’s understanding that she is simply “playing the part” of Tam’s “successful niece” indicates that she does not actually feel that this party is for her, but rather for the idea of what she represents: the product of a successful family. Thus, Hang feels that the gesture of the banquet in its entirety is a hollow one.
Themes
Mr. Duong and Aunt Tam begin to discuss politics. He tells her that these days, people readily stab him in the back, and that it is rare to find honest people. Aunt Tam disagrees with him, saying that the people in the village are very kind. She cites a man named Danh who had recently been arrested only for insulting Duong and the Party secretary, saying that he didn’t even put up a fight despite the fact that the vice president did not have a warrant for his arrest. Duong says that people who criticize the Party must be silenced, and that authority must be exercised without weakness.
Aunt Tam begins to call out the ineffectiveness of the government through Mr. Duong. By pointing out that Danh didn’t protest his arrest—even though it was an unlawful one—Aunt Tam illustrates both the authoritarian nature of the government as well as Mr. Duong’s personal hypocrisy. While he believes it is rare to find honest and good people, he endorses injustice and absolutism.
Themes
Aunt Tam tells entertaining stories about ministers during the reign of emperor Tu Duc. Everyone is impressed with her memory and laughs at her stories of government officials’ ineffectiveness. While the guests are entertained, Mr. Duong is livid over the way that Tam is speaking and says that he has to leave. When Aunt Tam prompts him about what he wanted to ask her, he asks if Aunt Tam would teach his daughter how to make noodles. She agrees to do so, but she notes that making noodles is hard work and points out that she knows his daughter lives off of his salary. Duong flushes with embarrassment but assures Aunt Tam that his daughter will live off of her own work. He leaves abruptly.
Again, Aunt Tam calls out Mr. Duong’s hypocrisy. While the Communist Party’s intention is to lift up the working class, Aunt Tam points out that even Mr. Duong’s own daughter has never truly worked for a living and up until this point has only been living off of his salary. This also reveals why Mr. Duong and other members of the Party may be proponents of authoritarianism: because suppressing criticism allows them to hide their hypocrisy.
Themes
The guests enjoy watching Duong leave, and they joke about his shame. The guests begin to leave, and Aunt Tam packs the cooks’ baskets with extra food for them to take home. She then gives food to the staff who had helped her, chatting with them about their families and their news. When the last person leaves, she asks if Hang is tired. Hang tells her that it is Aunt Tam who should be tired. Aunt Tam takes her hand, and Hang notes how bony, gnarled, and rough it is.
Duong continues to highlight Aunt Tam’s physicality, illustrating how Aunt Tam works herself ragged in order to support Hang. It is also notable that Aunt Tam is generous with the people who work for her and that she cares about them, contradicting the idea that she is exploiting the people who work for her.
Themes
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In the present, back on the train, there are only three stations left before Moscow. Two drunk men enter Hang’s train car and start to harass her, asking if she has any jeans to sell. When she says that she doesn’t, they argue and taunt her, wondering why she doesn’t want to sell anything to them. She starts to cry, and Hang’s traveling companion gets up and threatens the men to leave. When they do, Hang starts to sob—the first time she’s ever let herself cry in front of a stranger.
The incident with the two drunk men and Hang’s traveling companion directly contrasts with the interaction with Uncle Chinh that Hang describes just after this. Whereas Uncle Chinh often expects so much of Hang as a member of his family (and gives nothing in return), this man protects Hang even though she is a complete stranger to him. Her comfort is evident in her ability to cry in front of him, showing that she is able to be vulnerable and feel a sense of protection with him that she does not experience with a member of her own family.
Themes
This is not the first time that Uncle Chinh has demanded Hang come to Moscow; he had done so a year ago as well. Hang flashes back to a year earlier, when she takes the same train to Moscow to visit Uncle Chinh. She is looking forward to it, hoping for news of Que and Vietnam, as Chinh had only arrived in Russia three months prior. But when Hang arrives at her uncle’s hotel, he immediately asks for the suitcase she has brought him, which is filled with luxury goods for him to sell on the black market.
Duong continues to illustrate Uncle Chinh’s hypocrisy. After constantly criticizing Que for being a businesswoman that sells goods on the market, he does the same thing on the black market in Russia so that he can make money. For all of his lofty ideals, Duong also shows him to be the greediest character.
Themes
Uncle Chinh immediately starts to unpack the suitcase and asks for Hang’s help in selling the goods, saying that he doesn’t want to have to depend on people outside the family. Hang, frustrated, says that Chinh should have done her the courtesy of telling her about Que or made her a cup of tea, since she’s come thousands of miles. She leaves the room and buys a bit of food for herself from the cafeteria. When she returns, she hears Uncle Chinh in a meeting with his comrades. Hang waits outside for the meeting to finish, feeling shame and humiliation. She misses her mother.
Hang recognizes the expectation that Uncle Chinh has for her to help him because he is a member of her family—just as Que would have done. Yet Hang points out that Uncle Chinh has failed to do his familial duties, like being kind to her or offering her something after her long journey. Instead, he is only concerned with his business dealings. This is one of the reasons why Hang is so frustrated with Uncle Chinh as she travels to Moscow in the present, and it foreshadows the possibility that Hang will ultimately turn away from this expectation that she will put family above all else.
Themes
