A Reflection of The Brutal Atrocities Of Vietnamese Society At The Time

“The Tale of Kieu” is a great work about the unfortunate life of the main protagonist Kieu. The story also truly reflects on the brutal atrocities of Vietnamese society at that time. Furthermore, Confucianism was at the core of Kieu’s filial piety to her parents by selling herself as a prostitute to repay her family debt. Although she knows that selling herself is betraying the love between her and Kim Trong, she has no choice other than to save her family.

Nguyen Du mentioned “… If fate did not mean them to join as mates/ why had the temptress come and teased his eyes? …” The fate of Kieu has completely changed since then, her life is ups and down within many years.

Kieu is used and tricked into prostitution many times, then she decided to commit suicide twice but failed. Nguyen Du mention “”Yes, if and when the flood should reach my feet,/ this knife may later help decide my life “”.

It can be said that Kieu is still alive and meeting her family is a miracle after all the difficulties she faced. However, the ancient Vietnamese took the chastity of the woman very seriously before the wedding, it cannot be taken as a victory which we often see in other stories since chastity and honor of Kieu is no longer the same. At the end of the poet, Nguyen Du said “Inside ourselves, there lies the root of good:/ the heart out weights all talents on this earth”.

Tolstoy Prompt

“The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is a great work of Leo Tolstoy which narrated by the author himself.

Get quality help now

Marrie pro writer

Verified

Proficient in: Society

5 (204)

“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Through the story, the author wants us to keep in mind that people are going to die at no matter what. The story also helps us to understand what people feel like when they are about to face death and it turns out that everything around them will change gradually as people near death. Tolstoy mentions “His official pleasure were pleasures of pride;…, Ivan Ilyich went to bed in an especially good mood” to emphasize how pleasant Ivan Ilyich was before he suffers from death. At some point, although Ivan Ilyich is really afraid of death, when his pain is at its peak, he thought about death for a moment as “” Always the same, always these endless days and nights. If only it could be soon. What could be soon? Death, darkness. No, no. Anything better than death! “”  After all, he realized his whole life was meaningless but only when he was near death, he finally find the meaning of life.

Proust Prompt

“Combray” is a part of “Swann’s way” which talks about the boy’s surroundings from his memory of Combray town. The first part of “Combray” was narrated from a boy named Marcel who has so much love for Combray. Throughout the novel, there are some different aspects of love between Marcel and his mom which can sometimes become obsessive and stressful about the kiss of Marcel’s mom before he goes to bed. At the beginning of them novel, it said “ For a long time, I went to bed early. Sometimes, my candle scarcely out, my eyes would close so quickly that I did not have time to say to myself…”. It can be said that Macel’s mother is easy to influence the emotions of Macel whether happy or sad. Moreover, Freud’s view and the affection between Marcel and his mom are similar because they both talk about the bond between mothers and sons.

Camus Prompt

After reading “The Guest” of Albert Camus, I think that the story revolves around two main characters, Daru and the Arab, who create lots of philosophical questions through their decisions and actions. Moreover, existentialism is the core to explaining the actions of Daru which he accepted the task to escort the prisoner and then let the Arab choose between freedom and prison. Camus mentioned, “ Daru held out the package. ‘take it’ he said. ‘There are dates, bread, and sugar. You can hold out for two days. Here are a thousand of francs too’”. In addition, Daru want the Arab to make the decision on his own by saying “’ No, be quiet. I’m leaving you ‘”

I think the reason why Darius do so is that he think to lead the Arab to imprisonment is “contrary to honor”. In my opinion, the Arab character is mysterious and unpredictable from the beginning of the story, thus, this may have been the intention of Camus when creating this character. Because of it, I think Darius also wants to know how guilty the Arab is after the Arab commits a crime. We will never know why the Arab choose what he did. The external factors that might explain this is the Arab may feel regret and guilt for what he did or he just does not want to be nomadic in France where he does not have any relatives or family.

Works Cited

1. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Vol. D. Norton, n.d.
2. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Vol. E. Norton, n.d.
3. The Norton Anthology World Literature. Vol. F. Norton, n.d.