Vietnam Essay, Research Paper

West vs. East

Throughout both novels and the movie watched thus far, at least one or more characters live in constant struggle because of their western beliefs. In the novel Blood Brothers, by Pham Van Ky, the narrator after studying in France for ten years, is faced with returning to a community which he no longer accepts. Secondly, Jean Baptiste in the movie, Indochine, is faced with falling in love with a Vietnamese girl. Their relationship causes him to leave the French navy, an organization he had dedicated his life to. Finally, Pyle an American foreign correspondent is killed in Graham Greens novel, The Quiet American, because of his actions based on his western beliefs. Western beliefs played an important role in the lives of both the characters that have accepted them and those who were in contact with them.

When the narrator in the novel Blood Brothers, returns home from studying in France for ten years, he is quickly placed in a dilemma. It is not long after his return when he starts to feel different in his community, a community where his father is the governmental leader. The narrator no longer follows the views of his father. The narrator now follows the western beliefs he has developed in France. There is a time when the narrator sympathizes with his sister Dinh who left home for the Communists cause, the narrator says,

“I vaguely hoped that Dinh would speak to me frankly. Unlike Ho, she had never shown any hostility towards me. For this champion of emancipation, I represented ‘him-who-has-escaped-tradition’, even though the duties of the firstborn son should have kept me at home, to tend the ‘incense and votive candles’.”(ky 72)

It is clear at this point early in the novel that the narrator is no longer enriched by Vietnamese beliefs.

It is also very important to understand that it was the father that sent his son to France in order to become educated in western beliefs. Following his fathers’ orders, the narrator attended school in France and became a doctor. While in France he became engaged to a white woman. In Vietnam, such a marriage is unacceptable, for it is customary for marriages to be arranged by the parents. Since the narrator’s father was a mandarin, it was necessary for his son to marry a notable.

Everyday the narrator lived in a constant struggle with friends and family, until he felt no choice but to leave the land in which he had been born and raised, and return to France where he was happy. This novel is an example of the contrasting beliefs of the eastern and western cultures. The ideas and beliefs were so different that it caused a son to be shunned by his friends and parents.

Jean Baptiste was the exact opposite of the narrator in Blood Brothers.

Jean Baptiste was a member of the French navy, with all the ideals and beliefs that made him successful in the military. The beliefs of Baptiste began to change the night that he was forced to burn a boat, because it was sailing after curfew. This decision was difficult, and this event left him sleepless. It was instilled in his conscience that this was wrong, but he was not bold enough yet to stand up for what he believed in.

Camille was important in the development of Baptiste’s future actions. Their first meeting was a downtown shooting where innocent people were shot. Luckily Camille was alive. Jean Baptiste was sent to Dragon Island to protect the coast. Camille left her assigned husband and began a voyage to reach her love. Jean Baptiste was disgusted when he found the Vietnamese people being treated like savage pieces of meat. It was when Jean Baptiste saw Camille that he decided to take action for what he believed. Camille was so distraught after seeing the killing of the family she had traveled with, that she killed the commander in charge. Baptiste decided at this point that he was willing to risk everything he had worked for, to be will the Vietnamese Camille and his Vietnamese beliefs.

Jean Baptiste decided that he was willing to leave his French desires and beliefs behind to follow what he thought was right. Baptiste believed that he was in love with Camille and that love was more important than anything France had to offer. It is very ironic that in Blood Brothers, the narrator, a Vietnamese man, went to France to study and felt out of place when he returned home. On the other hand, Jean Baptiste a French man, who was raised in Vietnam went to fight the Vietnamese, fell in love with a Vietnamese girl, and left behind his French beliefs. Pyle’s situation was a little different; he himself did not have a problem with his beliefs, but the people involved with him did.

It was his American beliefs and actions that had Pyle killed by an older friend. Pyle and General The’ were causing the death of thousand of innocent Vietnamese. Fowler states, “A two-hundred pound bomb does not discriminate. How many dead colonels justify a child’s or a trishaw driver’s death when you are building a national democratic front?”(Green 163). This pursuit for democracy by the French was wrong.

One must understand Fowler and his position to understand what he was doing, when he decided to help Pong in the murder of Pyle. Fowler was an English reporter in Vietnam attempting to keep an unbiased opinion toward the events in Vietnam. This bias had been overrun by his conscience. It was obvious that the French were wrong in their attempt to maintain the control of Vietnam. Fowler sympathized with the Vietnamese,

“They don’t want Communism.’ They want enough rice,’ I said.’ they don’t want to be shot at. They want one day to be much the same as another. They don’t want our white skins around telling them what they want.”(Green 94)

and therefore made his decision to lure Pyle to his death easier.

Eastern and western beliefs are very different, it are these differences that caused the tensions between the Vietnamese and those who attempted to control them. With these tensions and opposite views the stage was set for the brutal war, a war for freedom by the Vietnamese. People and families on both sides were torn apart. For example, the narrator in the novel, Blood Brothers, who had gone to study in France. When he returned he felt out of place and his parents and friends were disappointed with what he had become. It was this response that caused him to return to France. Secondly, Jean Baptiste, became a fugitive when he help a Vietnamese girl flee after killing his commander; he went against all his western beliefs to sympathize with the Vietnamese. How could a war not take place with these conflicting views in one place?