Uncle Chinh
Uncle Chinh symbolizes the Vietnamese communist party as he constantly portrays and justifies himself with communist ideologies. As the story progresses, the readers get to see a side of Uncle Chinh that is self-interested. Though he claims to push Que into working for the government for her own benefit, it was, in reality, for his own benefit as he could not have a street vendor sister while part of the communist party. He drifts farther and farther away from communist ideology as he first accepts food beyond his portion and then sells goods in black markets. Duong characterizes Uncle Chinh in such a manner to mock the Vietnamese communist government and the slow deterioration of their ideals. The author mocks that, just like Chinh, although the communist government may have begun believing in their ideals, when met with reality they quickly dropped and "picked up whatever crumbs they could" for their own benefit.
Food
Food is often written about in this book, sometimes given more accurate descriptions than human characters. Food, to Hang, represent warmth and health within her family. When they had food, it was triumphant and she was happy. However, as the quality and quantity of their food decreases, such as when her mother began giving quantities of food to Chinh, there was conflict and anger between them. Food is a representation of traditional Vietnamese culture in this book, as people rejoiced over food.
Lotus
During one chapter, Hang was amazed at a lotus for living in muddy waters, yet growing out to be so beautiful. The lotus was a motif for her, that she will soon be growing out of the muddy water and become beautiful.
The muddy water is also a symbol of her surroundings, as she is surrounded with both traditional Vietnamese culture and communist beliefs. Though Hang was born under such influence, she was not at all affected, and her choice at the very end of the book to sell the houses and live away from Vietnam demonstrated her independence from these social values and expectations that have surrounded her from the very beginning.
Que
Que is the mother of Hang, and she symbolizes traditional Vietnamese values that are outdated. Throughout the book, she often does things that appear unreasonably lenient towards Chinh, even forfeiting her own food in order to feed their family. Yet, this unreasonable approach could be explained by Que herself, who felt like she had the obligation to feed them and repair their relationship for "blood is thicker than water." Her continual belief in the traditional Vietnamese culture of family ultimately leads to the deterioration of all of her family connections.
"A Paradise of the Blind"
In her choice of the title, Duong directly makes connections with a quote within the book, where a Vietnamese student describes the communist government as making "heaven" or paradise. However, Duong's choice of title suggests that instead of a paradise for Vietnamese people, what the communist government creates is a paradise for the blind, who are unable to see the clear actions of the communist government. The communist government does not understand the true identity of the Vietnamese culture, thus their implementations will never make a true paradise.
