Paradise of the Blind

by

Duong Thu Huong

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Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption Theme Analysis

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Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption Theme Icon
Love and Wealth Theme Icon
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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.
Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption Theme Icon

In Paradise of the Blind’s North Vietnam setting, communist ideology is central to the society. The protagonist, Hang, understands firsthand the ideas of communism from her uncle Chinh, who is a key leader of the communist reforms in her mother Que’s village. At first, communist ideology—with its emphasis on ending exploitation and its aim of benefitting the poorest workers—helps liberate Vietnam from the French colonialist government. But as the book goes on, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s actions do not lead to equalization and harmony between classes but instead simply sow more dissatisfaction and disorder. In highlighting the hypocrisy and the harm that communism entails, Duong argues that even if the ideology might be a noble one, the implementation of those ideas reveal the Party and its members to be corrupt and ineffectual.

Duong uses the real-life land reform campaign to introduce the hypocrisy and ineffectiveness of the Communist Party. Before Hang is born, Chinh returns to his family’s village following Vietnam’s liberation France in order to institute land reform. This involves categorizing villagers into different classes and redistributing land and wealth. Chinh’s sister (and Hang’s mother) Que is married to a man named Ton. Chinh tells Que that Ton’s family belongs to the “exploiting class” because they hire people to help on their farm. Yet the reforms become bitterly hypocritical: Bich and Nan, two people who are notorious for being lazy, are given authority over people like Ton’s sister Tam, who is known to work extremely hard to keep up the rice paddies. Bich and Nan are given Tam’s home and land, while Tam is left with nothing. Thus, the reforms are not equalizers for hard-working citizens—they simply become a way for opportunistic people to take advantage of the political situation. After the Party begins to forcibly remove people from their homes, Ton flees the village. Tam and her mother, Nhieu, are then humiliated and degraded in front of their entire village. The villagers yell at them, “down with the landowning class!” out of fear that they might be targeted if they do not comply with the Party. Nhieu, who is sick and elderly, dies as a direct result of this degradation, and later in the story Ton commits suicide due to the fallout of these reforms. Duong thus reinforces that the Communist Party is actually propagating more injustice and creating fear even among the people that it is proclaiming to protect. The ineffectiveness of the Party’s policies is only further proven by the subsequent fallout from them. Less than a year after “land reform had […] sow[ed] only chaos and misery in its wake,” another campaign begins called the “Rectification of Errors.” Seeing how devastating land reform had been, it attempts to reclassify people like Ton’s family as “middle peasantry” and reverse its policies. Tam returns to her home (having lost a brother and mother) and aspires to become as wealthy as possible in order to get revenge for what has happened to her. Thus, not only does the Party admit its own failures in land reform, but those failures also directly instigate people like Tam to actively oppose the party’s ideology—reinforcing the Party’s ineffectiveness.

Duong also illustrates the hypocrisy and corruption not only of the Communist Party as a whole, but even of those who are its largest proponents. By demonstrating Chinh’s own corruption even as he is the most vocal supporter of the Party, Duong reveals the hollowness of his words and actions. Hang meets Chinh for the first time when she is almost 10 years old; he has not seen Que since before Hang was born. When Que reveals that she works at a vendor’s market, Chinh calls her a “businesswoman” and says that merchants are “exploiters” and “parasites.” When he suggests that Que work in a factory, she argues that a position in a factory would give her no way of saving anything or supporting Hang. Thus, Duong highlights how joining a movement meant to expand opportunity for people of Que’s status actually leaves them in direr straits. What is particularly ironic about Chinh’s visit is that after calling Que the “enemy of the revolution,” he then immediately asks Que for his share of the money that she received for selling their parents’ house. He explains that he needs it in order to furnish the apartment that he’s been transferred to. Thus, Chinh’s illustrates that joining the Party and even becoming a high-ranking official does not actually provide him with enough income to maintain that lifestyle. The request also demonstrates his own complicity in the system he is trying to overcome, as only through his parents’ owning land is he able to receive this money. Thus, even though Chinh is a vocal supporter of communism, his actions don’t fully bolster the ideology he espouses. By the end of the book, Chinh’s corruption is further displayed: he uses money that Que gives him in order to a Japanese television set, but he keeps it hidden so that other Party members won’t see that he has it. Chinh also uses official party visits to Russia to trade luxury items on the black market. Thus, even while he espouses ideals of overthrowing greedy oppressors, at heart he is more ruled by greed than any other character.

During her early adulthood, Duong Thu Huong herself was a major proponent of the Communist Party and its ideals. Over time, however, she became disillusioned by the Party’s hypocrisy and corruption. Paradise of the Blind thus demonstrates Duong’s own beliefs about the Communist Party, as she emphasizes the empty language of its members and how its lofty ideals are used as a tool for corruption and greed.

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Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption Quotes in Paradise of the Blind

Below you will find the important quotes in Paradise of the Blind related to the theme of Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption.
Chapter 2 Quotes

“Ton’s family has always lived in peace with everyone,” my mother stammered. “They’ve never laid a finger on anyone here. You know that. Here in the village, everyone knows who’s bad and who’s good.”

Uncle Chinh interrupted, correcting her sternly: “You must not let yourself be influenced by others, or betray your class. We must crush the landowning classes, these cruel oppressors, and return the land to the peasants. If you don’t listen to me, you’ll be forced out of the community and punished according to revolutionary sanctions.”

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que (speaker), Uncle Chinh (speaker), Aunt Tam, Ton, Nan, Bich, Nhieu
Page Number: 23
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

Someday I’ll be even richer. This ancestral house will be renovated. It’s going to be even more opulent than before. I’ll show people. Even if I have to tear this body of mine apart. […]

People say I’m extravagant. I tell them, “Yes, that’s right, and I’m offering this to myself in memory of all my suffering.”

Related Characters: Aunt Tam (speaker), Hang, Que, Uncle Chinh, Ton, Nhieu
Page Number: 79
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Cadres in my country lived for these moments, for their luxury goods. They were good at this sordid secondhand trade in scarce imports. Some even lived off it. My uncle was no exception. All he cared about was the contents of my suitcase.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que, Uncle Chinh
Page Number: 169
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“So there you have it, Mr. Uncle Chinh. The old child molester had never set foot on a dance floor. Of course, he did like to lecture his workers about how dancing was decadent, how their generation indulged in shameful pleasures, and how everyone should devote himself to the revolution. He had the same worldview as you, the same tastes. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to insult you. I know you don’t have the same vices. But I must say, the resemblance is somewhat troubling.”

Related Characters: The Bohemian (speaker), Hang, Que, Uncle Chinh, Ton
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:

“The Saratov is mine. I paid for that refrigerator with my study-grant money while I was in the Soviet Union. In this house, only the television is yours. Sell it if you like. But try and explain that to the boys.”

I drifted off in silence; the couple, lost in their calculations, probably didn't even notice my departure.

Related Characters: Uncle Chinh (speaker), Thanh/Aunt Chinh (speaker), Hang, Que
Page Number: 223
Explanation and Analysis: