Differing Morals and World Views in 'Paradise of the Blind' and 'Tiny Sunbirds Far Away' Anonymous 10th Grade

Duong Thy Huong’s Paradise of the Blind (1988) and Christie Watson’s Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away (2014) explore the difference in morals between tradition and modernity to demonstrate that this constant conflict is critical for change in society. Paradise of the Blind is a bildungsroman text, which analyses the difference in morals between Vietnamese protagonist Hang, her family and her 1980’s post Vietnam war socio-political landscape. Tiny Sunbirds Far Away explores female heroine Blessing’s battle to comprehend the complexities of tradition, politics and race as she is thrust into the rural, oil-producing Niger Delta. Both texts critique key cultural issues, and how their protagonists aim to change traditional, outdated ways of thinking by their society by consistently striving in times of adversity.

In Paradise of the Blind, Hang is able to understand how her morals conflict with the status quo as she examines her own family and their surrounding society. The novel, a political allegory shows the direct parallelism of the relationship between Hang’s mother, Que and her uncle, Chinh, and the mistreatment of the working class in Vietnam by the Communist party. Huong constructs the character of Que to criticize the male-dominated...