Paradise of the Blind Reflective Statement

Paradise of the Blind, by Duong Thu Huong, is written about a young woman’s journey and memories from her past and present in both Vietnam and Russia. The different cultures were discussed, along with different aspects of the context of the novel in order to help better understand the novel. Vietnam and Russia were both Communist states at the time period, both going through political tension. Huong shows these issues through Hang’s journeys in the novel. Vietnam was at a time of intense political confusion during the time period of this novel. Just coming out of the Vietnam War with first France and then the United States, the country emerged as a fragile, torn state in which Communism ruled the country. The North and the South were only recently combined from two opposing sides to one country, making politics and reforms difficult for the population. Land reforms and others being implemented began creating problems in the social systems over whether or not the new, modernized, Communistic Vietnam should come forward or the old traditional Vietnam should stay as the highest priority for citizens. People such as Aunt Tam wanted to keep to the traditional values, continuing to wear the Ao Dai, and continuing to live with the more traditional values. People such as Uncle Chinh were against the old traditional values and wanted to move society toward the Communistic ways, leading his family into the Communistic changes. The Communist state of the Soviet Union in this novel plays a huge role in showing the ideas Vietnam wants to uphold and become a part of. Vietnam follows the Selected Works of Lenin, making Communistic reforms to try and match that of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union uses people from Vietnam in their workforce in order to gain a bigger workforce as well as hire cheap labor. The mutual involvement of the two countries helps both maintain the Communist values. The background from the interactive oral helped to realize the connections between