The Sympathizer: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

When the narrator leaves the hospital, he learns that he’s no longer needed on the film set. An airplane ticket has been reserved for his immediate departure from the Philippines. When he arrives in Los Angeles, Bon is waiting for him at the airport. Back at their apartment, the narrator has another letter from his Parisian aunt. He reads it when Bon goes to sleep, then he writes his response. He tells her that The Hamlet is complete. More importantly, the South Vietnamese movement has established a revenue source: Madame is opening a restaurant.

Though it may be a hole-in-the-wall, the General notes that Madame’s restaurant will be the first Vietnamese restaurant in the city. He says that refugees all over the city are “starving for a taste of home.” The narrator looks around and, indeed, every table and booth is occupied, though it’s only 11:30 AM. The General says that it’s an open secret that the restaurant is funding the revolution. Madame is in charge of making uniforms. She’s also in charge of the women’s auxiliary forces and the making of flags. He says that the narrator missed the Tet celebration she organized in Orange County. They’ve also assembled the first companies of volunteers from a group of veterans who train every weekend. The next step will be to send a reconnaissance team to Thailand. They’ll link up with their forward field base and make their way into Vietnam. Claude says that the time is nearly right for an invasion.

The narrator pours himself a cup of tea. He asks if Bon is a part of this invasion team. The General says that he is. Bon is a good worker, but he’s also the best for this kind of work. The only route overland from Thailand involves hiking through Laos or Cambodia, through disease-ridden jungles with man-eating tigers. The narrator says that, if Bon is going, he should, too. The General is delighted by his offer but insists that the narrator is more useful in California, helping the General with planning and logistics, as well as fund-raising and diplomacy. He’s notified the Congressman that the community is gathering funds to send a team to aid the refugees in Thailand.

The General says that it’s the right time for a beer and offers one to the narrator, who notices their clock and says to Madame, who fetches the beer, that it’s set to the wrong time. She says that it isn’t; it’s set to Saigon time. The narrator realizes that it makes sense for the clock to be set to Saigon time. They’re displaced people, living between time zones. After lunch, the narrator debriefs the General and Madame about the explosion in the Philippines. The story arouses their resentment. The only thing that the narrator doesn’t mention to them is that he was compensated for his near-death experience.

The morning after the extras’ hospital visit, Violet and a tall, thin white man in a powder-blue suit went to check on the narrator. When they asked how he felt, he whispered “all white,” though he could speak perfectly fine. Violet eyed him suspiciously. She said that the Auteur would’ve come, but he was meeting with President Marcos that day. The mention of the director infuriated the narrator. When the man in the suit asked what happened, the narrator told him that there were many explosions. The man, who was a representative for the film studio, handed the narrator a report saying that it was all an accident. He also offered a check for five thousand dollars. The narrator said that the money wasn’t enough because he had his family to think about. Really, he knew better than to settle on the first offer. The narrator then asked for twenty thousand instead.

The narrator claimed to have lost a portion of his memory to legitimize his demand. The rep said that the narrator might find that hard to prove. The narrator persisted and he and the rep settled on ten thousand dollars. The narrator, in return, signed the documents, releasing the studio from any future obligations. They traded farewell pleasantries. Then, Violet paused at the door and said, “You know we couldn’t have done this movie without you.” The narrator wanted to believe her.

When the narrator returned to California, he cashed the check and left half in his bank account. The other half is in an envelope in his pocket at the time that he’s chatting with the General and Madame. He drives to Monterey Park later that afternoon. There, he has an appointment with the crapulent major’s widow. He plans to give her the money. The narrator doesn’t believe in God, but he believes in ghosts. The crapulent major’s ghost has appeared to him and he fears seeing it again when the doorknob turns on the door to his former apartment.

The crapulent major’s widow opens the door and exclaims about how good it is to see the narrator. On the coffee table in the living room, she has prepared tea and French ladyfingers. She says that she misses her husband very much. The narrator squeaks across the plastic couch to place a hand on her shoulder. On the side table, he sees a picture of the young crapulent major, in full cadet uniform and not yet fat. The narrator offers the widow the envelope. She resists at first, but the narrator implores her to think of her children. She takes the money. The children are asleep in the bedroom. The narrator looks at the twins, Spinach and Broccoli, and says that they’re beautiful, though he doesn’t really believe this. He doesn’t particularly like children and doesn’t wish to have any himself.

The only advantage that the narrator thinks he has over the twins is having had a father who taught him about guilt. The question around Original Sin is important to the narrator because it’s related to his birth and his father’s identity. One day, after Sunday school, he and the other children watched his father’s imported French bulldog “thrust away at a whining female companion in the shade of a eucalyptus tree.” One of his classmates proclaimed the act natural. Turning to the narrator, he said that the narrator was what happened when a dog mated with a cat. The narrator punched the boy in the nose, shocking him, and continued to punch him. More blood gushed from his nose. No one intervened to help the boy, “the comedian.” When he finished his fight, the narrator stood up and saw “fear, if not respect” in the eyes of the “little monsters” who surrounded him. He went home and cried when he saw his mother. He confessed everything.

The narrator’s mother assured him that he wasn’t unnatural and clutched him to her bosom. When he looked up at her, he saw that she, too, was weeping. She asked him if he wanted to know who his father was. He nodded yes, then she said his name. She talked about the narrator’s father—the priest—and how he taught her how to read, how he was always kind to her when she was his maid. He told her stories about France and his childhood. She knew that he was very lonely, due to being “the only one of his kind in [their] village.” She talked about how she was lonely, too, and that this united them. The narrator broke away from her and covered his ears. His mother insisted that his birth was part of God’s Great Plan. She saw the narrator as one of the meek who shall inherit the earth.

The narrator wonders, if she could see him now in the crapulent major’s old apartment, if his mother would still consider him one of the meek. After the visit to the widow, the narrator drives to a liquor store nearby. He buys a copy of Playboy, a carton of Marlboro cigarettes, and a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka. In the parking lot, he spots a pay phone and thinks of calling Sofia. Instead, he drives across Los Angeles to see her. He parks down the street from her apartment and takes his treasures from the liquor store with him, except for the Playboy. When Sofia opens the door, he sees that her hair is no longer permed but straight. She looks younger than he remembers. They embrace and she invites him in. Her black cat, which usually keeps its distance from the narrator by sitting on the futon, is now sitting on Sonny’s lap. Sonny is sitting on the futon. He extends his hand, saying that it’s good to see the narrator again, and that he and Sofia talk about him often.