Paradise of the Blind

by

Duong Thu Huong

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Traditional Values and Sacrifice Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Traditional Values and Sacrifice Theme Icon
Communism, Hypocrisy, and Corruption Theme Icon
Love and Wealth Theme Icon
Beauty, Disillusionment, and Coming of Age Theme Icon
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 Theme Icon

Paradise of the Blind centers on the life of the young protagonist, Hang, as she grows up in North Vietnam between the 1950s and 1980s. In the book, Duong depicts some of the key values of Hang’s culture: women’s deference to men, young people’s deference to their elders, and loyalty to one’s family over all else. Hang observes how the two central figures in her life (her mother, Que, and her Aunt Tam) embody these values. Both Aunt Tam and Que give up everything they have in order to support their families—particularly relatives who are viewed as the “heirs” to the family. Hang feels constant pressure to do the same, but she ultimately recognizes the need to find happiness as an individual rather than sacrificing everything for the sake of family. By demonstrating how debilitating supporting the family is for Aunt Tam, Que, and even Hang—and by emphasizing the freedom that Hang feels in ultimately turning away from her family—Duong questions the value of upholding family values simply for tradition’s sake.

Aunt Tam, who has no children of her own, works herself ragged in order to honor her family’s memory and ultimately to pass down their legacy to Hang. Thus, she provides evidence for the idea that putting one’s family over oneself can hamper one’s own happiness. Aunt Tam is the older sister of Que’s late husband, Ton. During the communist land reform, the Communist Party had classified Aunt Tam, Ton, and their mother Nhieu as being part of the “exploiting class” because they were farmers and held land. As a direct result of being stripped of their land and possessions and the humiliation they endure, Nhieu dies, and Ton commits suicide. Aunt Tam then labors for years, subsisting only on potatoes and turning a “wasteland” to which she was relocated into a prosperous rice paddy. Ultimately, when the “Rectification of Errors” campaign returns her now-destroyed family home to her, she works herself to make it as prosperous as possible in order to honor her family’s memory. Yet because Aunt Tam is never satisfied with how much she has earned or how much work she has done, Duong illustrates how Aunt Tam’s dedication to her family does not actually bring her happiness. When Que brings Hang to see Aunt Tam for the first time, Hang’s aunt is thrilled to meet her, as she views Hang as the heir to her family’s lineage. From then on, Aunt Tam gives Hang massive amount of food, money, and jewelry so that she can eat properly and buy what she wants. Yet Hang constantly comments on how old and gnarled Tam looks: she observes that the cost of what she has earned is “a life deprived of youth and love.” Thus, even though Aunt Tam has been able to amass great wealth for herself and Hang, sacrificing everything for the sake of family has seemingly led to a life unfulfilled.

Hang’s mother, Que, upholds the same values as Aunt Tam, putting her family over everything else. However, Que illustrates another dimension of Vietnamese cultural values that plays into this dynamic: the supremacy of men over women. Que prioritizes her brother Chinh and his sons to the detriment of her relationship with Hang, proving how these traditional family values can even cause misery within families. When Hang is almost 10 years old, Que reconnects with Uncle Chinh after not seeing him since Hang was born. Que starts giving gifts and money to Uncle Chinh and his sons Tu and Tuan, exhausting her savings. Hang writes about how her mother would “gaze[] adoringly at the heirs to the Do family lineage,” while at the same time becoming increasingly reserved toward Hang. In emphasizing the Do family lineage (the line that Que’s brother carries on, but which Hang does not), Duong emphasizes how the men in the family are given support over the women and how this deprives Hang of her own mother’s love. Later, when Hang is older, this dynamic worsens as Que does everything she can to support Uncle Chinh. When Uncle Chinh is diagnosed with diabetes, Que spends less and less on food for herself and Hang in order to pay for Uncle Chinh’s treatment. Hang’s starvation starts to wear on her, so she asks her mother to sell a ring Aunt Tam gave to Hang because she is hungry. In response, her mother only snaps at her to shut up. The love between them eventually deteriorates to the point where Que kicks Hang out of the house. Even though they still love each other, the tension created by these traditional values and Que’s sacrifices literally rips their family apart.

Growing up, Hang follows her mother’s suit and does everything she can for her family. But in seeing how much misery these sacrifices brought upon her mother and Aunt, she realizes that she can only find freedom and happiness in turning away from her family altogether. While at university, Hang learns that her mother was hit by a car and lost one of her legs. As a result, Hang immediately drops out of school and moves to Russia to become an “exported worker” so that she can send what little money she can make back to her mother. Just like Que and Aunt Tam, Hang’s sacrifice comes at the expense of her personal happiness. By the end of the novel, however, Hang refuses to cede her happiness to her family. In the final chapters, a dying Aunt Tam leaves Hang everything and tells her to keep the house as an “altar to [their] ancestors.” But after Aunt Tam passes away, Hang instead decides to leave it all behind, dreaming happily of returning to “the cool shade of a university auditorium.” Duong thus reinforces the extent to which traditional values have forced Hang and her relatives to sacrifice, contrasting it with the liberation and optimism that Hang feels when she refuses to carry on the same sacrifices.

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Traditional Values and Sacrifice ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Traditional Values and Sacrifice appears in each chapter of Paradise of the Blind. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Traditional Values and Sacrifice Quotes in Paradise of the Blind

Below you will find the important quotes in Paradise of the Blind related to the theme of Traditional Values and Sacrifice.
Chapter 1 Quotes

“To live with dignity, the important thing is never to despair. You give up once, and everything gives way. They say ginger root becomes stringy, but pungent with age. Unhappiness forges a woman, makes her selfless, compassionate.”

My mother had lived like this, according to proverbs and duties. She wanted me to show the same selflessness. And what had I done? My uncle, her younger brother—her only brother—had asked for my help. He was sick, and here I was, preparing to abandon him.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que (speaker), Uncle Chinh
Page Number: 14
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5 Quotes

This voraciousness put me ill at ease. I knew she was my blood, the link to my father. This was the love that had been buried, impossible to imagine.

I stood very still, letting her touch me, caress me. Her wizened face, which ordinarily must have been quite severe, was ecstatic, reverent. “She’s a drop of his blood. My niece,” she murmured.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Aunt Tam (speaker), Que, Ton
Page Number: 72
Explanation and Analysis:

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 6 Quotes

“He’s all the family I have left. He’s so unhappy. Needs so much.” She went on, indignant. “And your poor cousins…they looked so straggly, like potato vines.”

I thought to myself, Mother, why don’t you just say what you mean: “My two nephews, my two little drops of Do blood.” At bottom, she was just like Aunt Tam. These were the only two loving women I had in my life. I said nothing.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que (speaker), Aunt Tam, Uncle Chinh, Tuan, Tu
Page Number: 102
Explanation and Analysis:

I knew she had been counting on Aunt Tam to offer me the Tet banquet. That suited her just fine, since it left her free to put her savings toward her brother’s family.

“It’s just splendid, our Tet. Thank your lucky star.” She kissed me. I couldn’t stand the indignity of it, and I turned away.

How could my mother accept this humiliation? Why did she lower herself in front of my uncle and his pockmarked wife, before their children? Why did she love people who enslaved her?

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que (speaker), Aunt Tam, Uncle Chinh, Thanh/Aunt Chinh, Tuan, Tu
Page Number: 126-127
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 10 Quotes

One night, when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I said to my mother, “I don’t even have the energy to study. Let’s sell one of the rings.”

“We can’t. They’re Aunt Tam’s,” my mother said, irritated.

I tried to keep calm. “She gave them to me. I need to survive and study before I can wear any ring.”

“No,” she snapped.

“Mother, I’m hungry,” I pleaded, biting back my tears. She went white and glowered at me. Suddenly, she jumped up, screaming like a madwoman, “No! Shut up! I said NO.”

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que (speaker), Aunt Tam, Uncle Chinh
Related Symbols: Jewelry
Page Number: 180
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“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:

I had never met a man so gentle and yet so firm. He had helped me. This was the first time in my life I had accepted help from someone outside my family. With him, my problems seemed to melt into thin air.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que, Aunt Tam, Uncle Chinh, The Bohemian
Page Number: 232
Explanation and Analysis:

“When…” she whispered. “When I am dead… stay here… keep this house… the altar to our ancestors. Remember to think of replacing the orange trees… and…”

[…]

This was her legacy to me, I thought. Its price was a life deprived of youth and love, a victory born of the renunciation of existence.

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Aunt Tam (speaker), Ton, Nhieu
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

Forgive me, my aunt: I’m going to sell this house and leave all this behind. We can honor the wishes of the dead with a few flowers on a grave somewhere. I can’t squander my life tending these faded flowers, these shadows, the legacy of past crimes.

[...] I sat down, cupping my chin in my hands, and dreamed of different worlds, of the cool shade of a university auditorium, of a distant port where a plane could land and take off…

Related Characters: Hang (speaker), Que, Aunt Tam
Related Symbols: Duckweed Flower
Page Number: 258
Explanation and Analysis: