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ANTI-WAR FICTION.
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Analysis of 3 works on the horrors of war.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Analysis of 3 works on the horrors of war. Bao Ninh's novel THE SORROW OF WAR, Michael Cimino's film THE DEER HUNTER, and Nguyen thi Minh Hgoc's short story THE MADAGASCAR PLUM. Vietnam war setting. Muteness of characters as a human response to the war. Common message of each work.
Paper Introduction:
All three of the works--Bao Ninh's novel The Sorrow of War, the Michael Cimino-directed film The Deer Hunter, and Nguyen thi Minh Hgoc's short story "The Madagascar Plum"--send powerful anti-war messages in which muteness in characters is used to convey the horror of war. In other words, that horror is so overwhelming that the characters who are most deeply affected by it are rendered incapable of even expressing themselves, their suffering, their rage, their helplessness, and any thought of emotion. They are, in a sense, completely deadened by the war, if we see self-expression as a requisite of true human existence, although they remain alive. The muteness of the three characters in the three works is also a kind of denial of what has happened to them. The little girl in Hgoc's story, for example, seems to be stuck in the past in her bombed village, returning to it to
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The soldiers, on the other hand, are reduced toinhuman and inhumane monsters who blow up a harmless and helpless child whofrightens them to the point of madness, despite the fact that she isunarmed and they have weaponry of every sort. Nick is the mute character in The Deer Hunter. She is clearly not destroyed by herexperiences, although one might say that the little girl in the story isnot destroyed either, that is, until she is blown to pieces. Unlike the doomed child and Nick, the mutecharacter in Ninh's novel is a bridge between the destruction of war andthe rebuilding (of hearts, minds and souls) after the war. But as she couldn't speak, she couldn't ask anyone. Similarly, themute woman is intelligent, caring and responsible enough to recognize theworth of the manuscript and to give it to a man who will himself care forit. Nick is truly hopeless when Michael finds him, but Michael, in hislove for his friend and his frantic desire to help him and bring him backfrom the land of the living dead, almost descends himself into self-destruction. She knew that he would use it in such a way that other people will seewhat the novelist has seen and will emerge from the reading with a deeperknowledge of war. She dies, in fact, becauseshe refuses to speak. . If we spoke sharply, she'd press her lips together, and her eyes would flash, glaring-- (Ngoc 5). Finally, he grants himself his own wish and kills himself, making hismuteness permanent. One might even say that she is fearless, refusing to tell the menanything no matter how much they threaten her. The little girl in Ngoc's story is the most pitiful of the threecharacters, in part because of her age and in part because of the way shedoes. However, with one such mute character, each work reminds the readeror viewer that at its worst war destroys something basic in the humanbeing, especially in the most sensitive of human beings, whether itactually takes the life of that human being then or later. . Hissuicide seems a mercy killing. The message of each work is emphasized by the presence of a mutecharacter. If we see language and speech as making up the most basic self-expression of the human being, then the choice (conscious or unconscious)to give up that form of expression is a kind of self-negation, or suicide. Muteness, again, is symbolic of theinexpressibility of the horrors of war. However, her strength in conveying these truthsthrough the manuscript she gives to the man should not make the readerforget just how broken she is herself: She had no idea why or how had left or where he had gone. Unlike the other two, she is a relatively insignificantcharacter as well, or at least certainly not as central as Nick in the filmor the little girl in the short story. In otherwords, both the little girl in the story and the mute woman in the novelretain some sense of their connection to other human beings. Theyare, in a sense, completely deadened by the war, if we see self-expressionas a requisite of true human existence, although they remain alive. New York: Riverhead, 1993.----------------------- 8 The experience of war first-hand hadcompletely broken him, driven him into an existence like hell itself. Because they could not understand how a child couldbe made mute by such horrors, they destroyed her, literally blew her topieces. When Michaelreturns to bring Nick back, he finds his friend not only mute but drug-addicted and addicted as well to the notion of suicide. The mute woman in Ninh's novel is the most mysterious of the threemute characters. "The Madagascar Plum." 1-1 .Ninh, Bao. Perhaps this "glaring" plays a part in the men's belief that she washiding something of danger to them. The little girl is obviously intelligent and clever, as shown in herability to evade the soldiers and bring food to the women. . The Deer Hunter. . Certainly in this story the mute child is the mosthumane character in the story. All three of the works--Bao Ninh's novel The Sorrow of War, theMichael Cimino-directed film The Deer Hunter, and Nguyen thi Minh Hgoc'sshort story "The Madagascar Plum"--send powerful anti-war messages in whichmuteness in characters is used to convey the horror of war. In fact, one might even argue that muteness in the face of such warhorrors is the only sane and true human response. . All he wanted was to stopexisting, to stop being in the place of suffering he had lived in since thewar. At the same time, it is clear that there is meant to besome hope in the novel within the novel as well as in the novel itself. Themuteness of the three characters in the three works is also a kind ofdenial of what has happened to them. Her death is also, as it turns out, pointless. (Ngoc 8). The mute woman in Ninh's novel, then, is a carrier of truth--both of the horrible truth of war and of the mystical truth which somehowtranscends the horror. They may havebeen partially destroyed by the experience of war, but they continue totake action which shows that they are still human, still caring, stillloving beings. The little girl in Hgoc's story, forexample, seems to be stuck in the past in her bombed village, returning toit to help her mother and another old woman, but also in the hope ofretaining some connection with the past that is gone forever. The message is that war is horrible and that it includesexperiences which simply cause the human communication system to shut downor overload to the breaking point. Works CitedCimino, Michael (dir.). Perfectly round brown balls, bright red, sharp white. There is no doubt thathe has been rendered hopeless by his experiences in the war. In fact, is it any wonder that a childwould glare at men who had played a part in the destruction of her village,her way of life, her childhood, and most of the people she knew and loved?But from the men's perspective, she was a threat which they had to eitherunderstand or destroy. The Sorrow of War. The very fact that the narrator could ever consider that blowing asmall child to pieces with explosives could ever be a "just condemnation"demonstrates just how inhuman the soldiers had been made by the war. She isa keeper of the flame of both history (the past--the horror of war and whatit can do to human beings) and of hope (the future--how somehow humanbeings are able to transcend that horror, or endure it, and emerge stillhumane and loving themselves). In other words,that horror is so overwhelming that the characters who are most deeplyaffected by it are rendered incapable of even expressing themselves, theirsuffering, their rage, their helplessness, and any thought of emotion. . Oh, Brother, her flesh landed piece by piece, piece by piece. She could only ponder her departure, and her loneliness in not knowing weighed even more heavily than her handicap. Of course, most people are not driven tosuch a point, and if they were the works themselves could not have beenmade. . One might arguethat muteness itself is a kind of suicide which precedes Nick's actualsuicide. I couldn't yet be sure whether the small child had been unjustly condemned. She is not completely shut down, for she does show signs ofemotion now and then: If we spoke sweetly to her, she'd open her lips a little and smile. The moment Phong returned, I heard a chill rattle my spine. She is killed becauseher muteness (and wiliness in her nighttime escapes) has led her captors tobelieve she is a danger to them. It may be that the veryact of trying to express or describe in words the horrors of war is anattempt to diminish those horrors, that "talking about it" makes it lessthan what it really is. Her muteness, however, is such a powerful force, because it containsso much mystery and terror, that they are driven to extreme action in orderto try to find pout what she is doing, who she is, what she knows, what sheis thinking. In a sense, then, the muteness is both an attempt to deny what hashappened by shutting down emotionally and physically, but it is also anattempt to express the horror by showing that there are no words todescribe it. The child had been made mute by the war, but the soldiers had beenmade monsters. . . Nick was alive,but it can hardly be called a life. It is a sign that Nick had been sobroken inside that he could no longer even bring together the words or theenergy needed to try to explain what was going on inside him, what he hadgone through, what he was thinking and feeling. The mute woman is far more than merely a reader, loyal or not. She risks much to take food to the oldwomen, at the same time that she is so stricken by war that she cannotspeak. Her muteness, in thatrespect, is a symbol not merely of her suffering and her sensitivity, butalso of her basic humanity, compared to their brutal and insane inhumanity. In fact, she is only stealing smallamounts of food and taking it to the two old women who remain in thevillage from which she was taken when it was destroyed. 1978.Ngoc, Nguyen thi Minh. I thought that her silent waiting for our neighborhood writer to reappear was something akin to the loyalty of a reader towards a beloved masterpiece (Ninh 228). In the end it is only Nick who dies, but certainly the messageof the film is that Nick's suicide was almost a blessing. She posed no threatto the soldiers or to anybody. The mute woman is a mysterious conveyor of hope, although the hopeseems terribly romantic and idealistic in the face of the brutality of thewar which has apparently left her mute.
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