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The Boat by Nam Lee

This summary discusses two short stories from Nam Le's collection "The Boat": 1. "Love, Honour, Pity and Pride" explores the relationship between a father and son and the son's struggle to write a story that is not his own. It ends with the father burning the son's manuscript. 2. "The Boat" depicts the harrowing journey of boat people fleeing to a safer country. It uses vivid imagery to portray their fight for survival in stormy seas and represents the internal turmoil of displacement. Religious themes and interwoven storylines evoke sympathy for the characters. Key themes are the authenticity of telling others' stories, and the visceral human reaction to being reduced

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Michellee Dang
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6K views1 page

The Boat by Nam Lee

This summary discusses two short stories from Nam Le's collection "The Boat": 1. "Love, Honour, Pity and Pride" explores the relationship between a father and son and the son's struggle to write a story that is not his own. It ends with the father burning the son's manuscript. 2. "The Boat" depicts the harrowing journey of boat people fleeing to a safer country. It uses vivid imagery to portray their fight for survival in stormy seas and represents the internal turmoil of displacement. Religious themes and interwoven storylines evoke sympathy for the characters. Key themes are the authenticity of telling others' stories, and the visceral human reaction to being reduced

Uploaded by

Michellee Dang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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I recently finished the collected short stories titled The Boat by Nam Le- my main focus is on the

pieces called Love, Honour, Pity and Pride and The Boat which was ultimately used as the title of
the book.
1. Love Honour Pity and Pride
The centre theme was the idea of telling stories that do not belong to you. It revolves around a
disjointed father- son relationship. In a sense the story is metafictional as the son struggles to create
a story for his writers course. The ending is rather dramatic as it ends in the imagery of the father
burning the manuscript in the fire of a homeless mans fire- metaphorical device to represent the
feelings of desolation from ones own origins- can a person ever truly integrate into another
country? Or will there be lingering longings of home like the way migrants within Australia establish
cultural hotspots like Cabramatta for Vietnamese, Lakemba for the Middle Eastern, Belmore for the
Korean etc. Do we all attempt to imitate a home without any sort of progression, acceptance of a
multicultural society- we appreciate the hospitality but we do not fully embrace it.
Key Ideas; Father and child relationship- when roles are reversed... the moment when this happens.
The authenticity of telling stories that are not yours. A migrants conflict with their own nature
clashing with another culture.
2. The Boat
Is a vivid presentation of the primal human need to survive- it is grotty, raw and extremely blunt- in
a way that Le has created an atmosphere in which nature itself is against the band of people on the
boat. It is a journey of the Boat People towards what they hope is a more better future- the state
of transit is a powerful idea to explore as it isolates the human from place it is a moment of
suspension like they are there but not really there? May be read as a physical manifestation of the
alienation a migrant may expect to feel upon reaching the shores of safer countries.
Notable Themes/techniques: The Main character is plagued with feverous dreams which removes
many writing barriers and will allow for a more imaginative and erratic writing pieces if I chose to
portray a similar character. Dreams can be foresight, memories, and fantasies.
The writing is emotional because it lacks the emotive narrator voice- its insensitivity is highly
effective in conjuring a reaction from the audience that recognises an emotional void within the
displays when the people are tossed around on a shabby boat which pitches in stormy seas. The sea
is a force to be reckoned with- it is a character in its own right- its presence is overwhelming
continually reminding off the alienation and dismal state of the scarcity of life left in the humans on
the boat- everyone is drained. May even represent the internal turmoil of emotions- reactions to
their displacement- exodus from land.
Religious connotations are true to the spirituality of Christian Vietnamese as they are very devout
and many are conservative believers. The integration of other story lines was very enthralling and
enrapturing as a reader i found myself sympathising with the characters more are other story lines
are coincided- it brought a sort of reality through the possibility of situations.
Key ideas: Visceral human reaction- reduction to the animal- which is so poignant. Interweave of
story- but a structure must be found to avoid incoherency- unless an unreliable and viably unsuitable
narrator is employed.

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