THE SYMPATHIZER

Viet Thanh Nguyen (pronounced 'win') was born in Vietnam and came to the US in
1975 as a child. He is a professor at the University of Southern California. The
book, written from the Vietnamese point of view, is actually ground-breaking.
 Vietnam’s
population
size and
structure
Viet Thanh Nguyen Vietnam has a
Viet Thanh Nguyen (pronounced Viet Tang Win) was born in Ban Me Thuot, population of more
Vietnam (now Buon Me Thuot) in 1971 and came to the United States as a refugee than 99 million
with his parents in 1975. They lived in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, which
served as a camp for war refugees. They would relocate one more time, to
people. Population
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, before settling in San Jose, California in 1978. After growth has been
graduating high school he briefly attended both the University of California at effectively controlled
Riverside and Los Angeles before finishing his college career at the University of over the years, with
California at Berkeley, where he would go on to receive his Ph.D. He currently
quality being
teaches at UCLA.
The Sympathizer is Nguyen’s first novel. It was published in 2015 and won the improved in many
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction that year. different ways.
Characters
◦ The Narrator – The unnamed narrator of the novel. He is the son of a white French Priest and a Vietnamese woman. The
Narrator became a member of the Communist revolutionaries while in school, and at the beginning of the novel he is working
as a spy for the Communist Forces. At the beginning of the novel he is spying on a high-ranking general in South Vietnam,
and flees to America with the general and continues to report on his activities. His loyalties are tested throughout the novel
and he struggles to maintain his relationships while also keeping his cover intact.
◦ The General – A decorated general of the South Vietnamese Army, who is the immediate superior of the Narrator. He flees
Vietnam after the fall of Saigon with his family and soldiers selected by the Narrator. He opens a liquor after arriving in Los
Angeles, and also helps his wife run a Vietnamese restaurant. He uses the profits to fund an attempt to send troops back to
Vietnam in an attempt to take it back from the Communists.
◦ Bon – The Narrator's blood brother, a soldier in the South Vietnamese military, who flees to Los Angeles with the Narrator
and the General at the beginning of the novel, but his wife and child are killed during an attack on the airstrip from where
they were evacuating. The loss of his family causes him to commit himself to the General's counter-revolution in the pursuit
of vengeance.
◦ Man – The Narrator's other blood brother, and the one who convinced the Narrator to become a revolutionary and take up his
position as a mole. Man convinces the Narrator to travel to Los Angeles with the General and report on the General's attempts
to send troops back into Vietnam.
THEMES /SYMBOLS
QUESTIONS
◦What was the name ◦ What’s the name of one of
the two “Blood” brothers
of the protagonist?
of the narrator?
1.The Narrator is the son of a white
European and a Vietnamese woman.
How does his mixed-race status affect
his narration and perspective throughout
the novel?
1.How does the novel portray the life and struggles of a
refugee? While many stories of refugees portray them as
being forced out of their country by a hostile regime, the
Narrator of The Sympathizer is actually a part of the
victorious regime. How does this unique perspective alter
the typical portrayal of a refugee in the novel?

2.The Narrator ironically ends the novel as a refugee once again,

this time forced out by the very government he helped to install,
how does this ending affect your understanding of the themes of
the novel? Does it enhance them or complicate them?
1.The Sympathizer satirizes the American film industry and how it
exploits those affected by war by forcing them into secondary or even
non-existent roles whenever war is portrayed in film. Even films which
attempt to problematize American involvement in war manage to work
for the American propaganda machine. How does the Narrator’s
attempts to give the Vietnamese proper representation in film work to
undermine this? Why is representation so important to the Narrator?
2.The Auteur insists on including a controversial scene of a Vietnamese
woman being raped in The Hamlet, insisting on the fact that such a thing
gives the film a degree of “authenticity” in its portrayal of war. Do you
think such a thing is accurate or is it only an attempt to demonize the
Viet Cong in the film? Why would the Auteur insist on the inclusion of
such a scene?
3.The Narrator makes a point to explain that Vietnam is being exploited
by the American film industry. What do you think he means by this? How
does the portrayal of a war in the media affect public perception of a
war?
NAME ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE
QUOTES
"THE BLOOD OF FRIENDSHIP IS
THICKER THAN THE WATER OF
IDEOLOGY."

?
WE WILL LIVE!
?