I Don 't Have Time For A Man

Continuing with the views of Nguyen and his parents, Nguyen’s split identity of being Vietnamese and American is fueled by the way he interacts with his family. The aforementioned disagreement between Nguyen and his parents on fighting the

Tan’s grandfather encouraged her mother to understand and help others, and urged her to consider the possibility of escape from Vietnam. Aged sixteen, Mai married a wealthy pharmacist eighteen years her senior. By 1981 she was preparing to escape Vietnam by boat. In early morning darkness, she left with her daughters Tan and Min, her mother, sister and brother, and 161 fellow passengers on a boat disguised as a fishing vessel. At the time, Tan Le was aged 4, her sister aged 3 and her mother, Mai Ho aged 18.

The streets of Ho Chi Minh City are beautiful around the summer time, but my favorite city was Huế, the city of cheap eats. My siblings and I have never been to Vietnam before, so it was an experience for all of us. As we were sitting down in a restaurant, looking at the menu, an old lady came up to us to take our order. My mother used to order for my brothers, so she ordered for them. When the lady looked at me, waiting for me to give her my order, all I could do was point at the picture on the menu and give her a smile. The look on her face was clear displeased. “She was born in America. She doesn’t know Vietnamese,” my father quickly told her, apologizing for my lack of knowledge. I felt embarrassed, lowering my head whenever she came near us. It was not my fault that I did not know my native language, but it was not my fault entirely for being able to learn it all these

“Everybody get down!!!” He freezes for a second and then it suddenly strikes him--his heart beats almost out of his chest, and his hands are shaking uncontrollably; this is war. This is Vietnam, a cruel war between the Americans and Vietnamese that takes place in a jungle. War is undoubtedly frightening and may seem like the number one threat for the soldiers, but it is not; it is not remotely close. The true threat at a time of war, especially in a place such as Vietnam is isolation. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien illustrates the danger of isolation and why it is the greatest danger in Vietnam. Soldiers are aware that they are detached from society; this continuously haunts them, and as a result, they damage themselves emotionally.

In Vietnam, independence is far from desirable, much less respected. Family connections are so powerful that it is not unheard of for as many as three generations to live in the same household (often the direct result of grown children’s desire to do whatever necessary to care for their aging parents). Someone’s success or failure is never seen as theirs alone, but is directly credible to the family. If one wished to insult a

Ha’s mother is grieving the disappearance of her husband and the fall of Vietnam to Communism. The fallout of the Vietnam War causes separation for Ha and her family. Once in America, Ha finds that many in the small township move to ignore her culture and her heritage. Vietnamese culture and

Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel “The things they carried”, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at

After the North Vietnamese fired directly upon two U.S. ships in August 1964, the United States’ Congress responded with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, giving President Lyndon B. Johnson authorization to deploy troops to Vietnam, ultimately spurring America into the war movement. By the end of the war in 1975, over two million Americans were deployed to Vietnam, and among them only eight thousand were women, 90% of which served as nurses. The insignificant amount of women participating in the war was because during this time, women were believed to be psychologically and physically unsuitable for war. In the novel The Things They Carried, by Vietnam War veteran Tim O’Brien, O’Brien confronts the conventional gender roles of women, asserting

In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, he uses the theme of relationships and the different forms they take to instruct the reader on how these relationships affect individuals. In O’Brien’s story, he splits his experience in life and the Vietnam War into various sections in order to retell his experiences as well as his fellow platoon members all the while teaching readers various themes and truths about love, life, and war. The tale jumps around from his time before the war, the war itself, and the aftershocks. In life, there are various types of relationships experienced between two beings; this act of bonding between two persons is rather powerful and strange for such a daily occurrence, that other forms are often overlooked. When one thinks of relationships, it is often depicted as two lovers, such as Mark Fossie and Mary Anne Bell who would do anything for a love so pure, but it’s also important to take other forms of relationships into consideration. Tim O’Brien demonstrates this idea in his gripping novel, The Things They Carried, through the different members of the platoon and how they each interact with each other and with themselves; indicating the importance of the relationship with oneself, the sense of comradery between the men, and even political relationships of the countries involved can determine the survival rate of the soldiers involved.

This shows the effects of the Vietnam War and how it can cause separation between the family not just physically but also mentally.

If Philip Caputo’s memoir is meant to be the story of an American soldier, Trâm’s diary becomes the story of the Vietnamese people and their struggle. On May 7th 1970 Trâm recounts her feelings on the history of war in Vietnam, and how the people still remain undeterred. “Twenty-five years immersed in fire and bullets, we are still strong.” Not only after all this fighting and after all that Trâm herself has witnessed and endured she is still confident in her country. “We will persevere and be courageous and hold our heads high and take the offensive.” Trâm’s diary makes it clear that there was never any doubt in

Ninh’s novel jumps between flashbacks of the war and Kien’s love affairs, in particular one with his childhood sweetheart Phuong. Ninh uses the reoccurring theme of Kien’s love, or loss of love, as a metaphor for the impact the war had on the Vietnamese people. The original title of the novel is actually The Destiny of Love. Kien likens the war to a soldiers love saying, “The sorrow of war inside a soldier’s heart was in a strange way similar to the sorrow of love. It was a kind of nostalgia…It was a sadness, a missing, a pain which could send one soaring back into the past” (Ninh, 94). Kien does find himself often reminiscing of his young innocent love with Phuong. The end of the novel focuses

“True… but he told me the real heroes are buried in the delta and the jungle. He told me about Vietnamese woman. The young prostitutes were the friendliest. After the battle, he liked to visit the whorehouses. His friends teased him by telling him if he died the women in Saigon would never smile again.”

Han Kang’s use of comparison between two closely related but very different characters demonstrates society’s definition of a dutiful wife. Unable to withstand the embarrassment of having a wife he is not proud of, he leaves her. Han Kang used the sense of pressure to depict not only the public opinion, but also the force that drives Mr. Cheong’s actions.

Thùy Nguyen and I first met at my home in Austin, Texas. Thùy came to visit her close friend - my first wife Dao Tran. This was during Thùy’s second U.S. visit; Oct. 27, 2012 to Mar. 4, 2013. At that time, Thùy’s English was minimal and I knew details of her through my wife Dao. Thùy visited frequently and helped Dao – who had terminal cancer. Dao was physically weak, but brutally honest and mentally sharp in a “matter of fact” way. Once Dao asked me, “What are you going to do about women after I’m gone?” I said, “Don’t worry about that!” She continued with the subject, “You’re young and going to need a woman and that is ok.” I tried to dismiss her again with a joke. Dao bluntly said, “Thùy is a great woman. She helps others, never has had a boyfriend and is very good.” She continued very sincerely, “I wish Thùy would accept you! I would bow at her feet if she would accept you!” I let Dao finish her wish but didn 't think more about the matter.