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Common Themes In Vietnam

Decent Essays

When thinking about Vietnam you may think of many things, but their literature may not be on the list. There are many different regions in Vietnam. Each region has some similarities and some differences in their themes. Malaysian literature uses themes in their writings that reflect their daily lives such as ancestry, health, and the production of their food. Cambodia is a country with war and poverty that’s shown in their writing. Different themes between Malaysia and Cambodia were addiction and war, but they both had a theme of poverty.

Malaysian authors write about the simpler things in life, but have importance to their culture. A theme in Malaysia writing is addiction, see this theme allows the reader to gain an understanding of the …show more content…

Their struggles were a theme in their writing, and allows the reader to see that they went through war and daily struggles in the modern world. The essay “Cambodia: Back to Sierra Leone” by Robert D. Kaplan is written about how the war is affecting Cambodia. They had gone through a war with Khmer Rouge. “Between 1 and 1.5 million Cambodians out of a population 8 million were shot, [beaten with clubs], starved, worked to death, died of disease” (Kaplan 236). The author references wars that had already happened, for example the French Revolution and wars that were happening at the same time such as World War II. “The image of tens of thousands of people jammed upright into trucks and slow-moving freight cars...an uncertain but ominous future, hauntingly echoes the Jewish experience in world war II” (Kaplan 240). That quote is one example of how the war was making the future appear to the everyone around. The quote “[t]he method of execution bore all the hallmarks of a classic “Killing Fields” -style murder- a blow from a hoe to the back of the head” (Kaplan 242) shows the extreme fighting style of the Khmer Rouge. The theme of war also reveals irony. They are aiming for a utopian society, but instead it's the complete opposite. “[C]olonialism and anticolonialism, and the utopian ideals” (Kaplan 236) The society wasn’t perfect, they were in a war and going corrupt. Another example of irony is that Cambodia …show more content…

Poverty is a theme that appears in both stories, but are displayed differently. The story “Ah Bah’s Money” reveals that money is important to the little boy Ah Bah. Ah Bah treats his money like it’s treasure, which by him getting so happy about having money will make the reader think that they don’t have a lot of money when they do have money. “Ah Bah was reluctant because the sight of his money gave him so much pleasure” (Lim 232). He would take his money out and would organize it into piles by their amount. While he organizes his money he will think about where he got it from and will be happy no matter the amount. “He could tell exactly which coin came from whom or where” (Lim 232). Ah Bah will get the littlest amount , but to him it will be like a hundred dollar bill is to us. This shows the reader that his family doesn't get a lot of a money, but when they do he will be happy and treasure it because little is better than nothing. In the essay “Cambodia: Back to Sierra Leone” it describes how the appearance of Cambodia is, it’s appearance reveals how poor they are. “The ragged landscape indicated a poor country, as did the absence of both paving and traffic on the country roads” (Kaplan 241). Counties around Cambodia were good economically and wasn’t low in money like Cambodia. “Thailand was booming economically...Vietnam was about to emerge as a dynamic oil-producing

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