Paradise of the Blind Literary Elements

Literary fiction / Bildungsroman

The novel is set in Hanoi, Vietnam and Moscow, Russia.

First-person narration from the perspective of Hang.

Impassioned, Tragic, Depressing

Hang is the protagonist of the story and familial duty and communism are the antagonists.

Hang yearns for an identity and a life of freedom away from the burdens of her past and familial duties. The political tensions in both Vietnam and Russia coupled with her sense of duty to her family make her journey far more hectic.

The climax occurs after the death of Aunt Ham and Hang has to contend with the decision of leaving the homeland and selling the house.

“He was an Englishman who seemed to carry the fog of his country with him everywhere. Fog invaded his paintings like an obsession, dissolving all colors in a blur.”

The statement foreshadows Hang’s hang-ups with her homeland while in Moscow dictating her eventual decision following Aunt Ham’s death.

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The novel alludes to the political confusion in Vietnam after the North and South unified under communist rule.

“A lush green grove of mango trees and banyans wove a canopy of foliage over our heads. Under this natural sunshade, the market people had set up primitive stalls, fixed them to the ground with a few stakes, and pitched roofs thatched with sugarcane leaves or crushed reeds. Behind the market stood a small pagoda, its whitewashed walls blotchy and covered with mildew, its roof eaten away by lichens.”

The paradox is in the idea that the communist government intends to make a ‘paradise’ yet their actions and failure in land reforms show otherwise.

“The fog in that Englishman’s paintings reminded me of a pond filled with duckweed. There was an odd but undeniable correspondence for me. There were so many landscapes that painted fog could have evoked for me”

“Flowers and leaves carved out of mother-of-pearl had been embedded and lacquered into the wood around the sides of the table.”

Mother-of-pearl is a metonymy for nacre.

“The road careened and snaked around the precipices, reeling, drunk on its own danger.”