Historical Criticism Of Night And Ru By Kim Thony

Historical Criticism for Night and Ru “Literature is deeply mired in its time.” (Gillespie, 1) This is the most basic way that a critic could describe the theory of Historical Criticism. In this theory, literature is interpreted not simply as a part of the writer's oeuvre, but as literal reflection of the time period it was written. For instance, if we were to study a personal memoir like Night or Ru using this criticism, we would take the proverbial step back with a less empathetic approach, rather than become emotionally attached and make the material personal. “The most basic benefit is the most literal.” (3) The only thing a reader would care about is the history of the piece. Therefore, this method of criticism requires that the individual do some background research and may also require translation into another language. If the reader is aware of this, they are more likely to actually learn something about the history of a piece of literature, and thus, enrich the work for themselves. The novel Ru by Kim Thúy is a personal memoir about a refugee who fled her homeland in a lifeboat during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). This
However, upon further digging, we can see the literal references to history in the piece. The part about two million soldiers deployed is actually the statistic for how many soldiers were deployed in the Vietnam war; the real number is approximately 2, 594, 000. Second; the part about a ‘Vietnam that had been torn in two’ is symbolic of the outcome of the war where the country was divided into Communists in the north and pro-American in the South, or; in two.