Novel Without a Name

In these pages, Huong provides her most damning depiction of the Communist Party in Vietnam. Everyone on the train fears the Party members: “They sat like masters in the middle of the crowd […] Everyone [around them] was stiff, frozen, paralyzed” (158). Over the course of this section, the shorter of the two Party men explains to the taller man how one can use the Party to his advantage, and why pragmatism makes more sense than idealism. The smaller man notes, “Revolution, like love, blooms and then withers. But Revolution rots much faster than love, ‘comrade.’ The less it’s true, the more we need to believe it. That’s the art of governing” (161). His companion argues from the idealistic perspective, but for each of his arguments, the smaller man has a rebuttal. During the conversation, the two men readily acknowledge that they are there to “see how the masses live” (162), indicating first that they are part of an elite and second that they don’t really have anything in common with the citizens that Marxism is intended to support.

Further, the smaller man points out that Marxism has essentially replaced religion–it’s an ideal that people worship yet has no practical use. He goes so far as to point out that Marx himself was an amoral person, hanging out in brothels and getting “his own maid pregnant” (164). When the soldier on the train challenges the smaller man for insulting Marx, the Party member simply screams him into submission, declaring his own absolute authority. He remarks, “A nation of imbeciles. They need a religion to guide them and whip to educate them” (167). Through the conversation Quan witnesses, Huong paints communist leadership as stewarding Vietnam into destruction through lies, manipulation, and decisions made for personal gain in the name of being for the common good.