However, if he does, he will abandon any cause that is unrelated to the only one that he now believes to matter—his will to live. He is a cultural critic-at-large for the Los Angeles Times and teaches English and American … After the event, he disobeys his intelligence advisor and returns to Vietnam, but before he departs, he decides to conduct some unofficial business. The Sympathizer essays are academic essays for citation. April 30, … The Sympathizer Summary. While in Bangkok, the narrator sees The Hamlet at a local theater. After his release, we learn he is among the Vietnamese Boat People, a refugee. He tells us about himself, that he is half Vietnamese and half French, and that his father was a Catholic priest who broke his vow of celibacy to impregnate his mother. will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. The narrator, the General, Madame, and Bon settle in Los Angeles. Though the narrator knows that Man doesn’t want him to return to Vietnam, he insists on going to save Bon’s life. Also during his return, he discovers that Sonny is now in a relationship with Sofia, and that the couple is in love. Viet Thanh Nguyen (Buôn Ma Thuột, 1971) è uno scrittore, accademico e blogger vietnamita naturalizzato statunitense. From Thailand, the narrator and Bon go to Laos and nearly make it across the border into Vietnam when they are captured by the Communists after an attack on their camp. The narrator describes himself to the Commandant, who has imprisoned him at a detention camp in North Vietnam, as “a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.” The narrator is both a captain in the South Vietnamese Army and a spy for the North Vietnamese, acting under the instruction of Man, one of his “blood brothers.”. He also endures various forms of torture to help him answer the question put forth by the Commissar of the camp, “What is more precious than independence and freedom?” The narrator struggles to answer the question. "The Sympathizer," by Viet Thanh Nguyen, is the story of a communist spy who is conflicted about where he stands within his political beliefs and in the world itself. Loyalty vs. Duplicity. The narrator puts together a list of select staff members who will also be allowed to board this plane, which will include the narrator’s other “blood brother” Bon, Bon’s wife, Linh, and their son, Duc. The narrator describes himself to the Commandant, who has imprisoned him at a detention camp in North Vietnam, as “a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces.”. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. The Refugees' Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen shares memories of being a refugee from South Vietnam. Initially, the General doesn’t believe this, but his distaste for the major’s being both fat and Chinese sways him to think that the major is a sleeper agent. Funds earned at the liquor store and the restaurant, along with those from the General’s charitable organization, the Benevolent Fraternity of Former Soldiers of the Republic of Vietnam, help to fund a guerrilla army that plans to take back control of Vietnam from the Communists. Detailed plot synopsis reviews of The Sympathizer; Plot Summary Part 1. Though she never bothered to cook in her home country, due to the plenitude of servants, her relatively modest life in the United States requires her to do more household chores, in which she discovers her talent for cooking. He departs and ends up in Vietnam, and here the story becomes contradictory to earlier passages of the novel. Bon agrees to kill the major. When the narrator reunites with her, she’s living in Brentwood and working at an art gallery, while also pursuing a singing career. Then, Bon walks up from behind the major and shoots him in the head. The pair are kept in a detention camp for over a year. T he Refugees is a collection of short stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen about Vietnamese immigrants and their children, many of whom fled Vietnam after the … He is captured trying to help General Bon in a military attack, but the spy is captured and he writes this novel about his experience as he reflects on the truth about the conflict between France and Vietnam, and between the USA and Vietnam. When he returns to Los Angeles, the narrator gives half of the money to the crapulent major’s widow. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read Summary and Analysis of The Sympathizer: Based on the Book by Viet Thanh Nguyen. 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