The Refugees

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Story 1

Story 2

Story 3

Story 4

Story 5

Story 6

Story 7

Story 8

Two Essays

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Two EssaysChapter Summaries & Analyses

Essay 1 Summary: “On Being a Refugee, an American—And a Human Being”

This essay was initially published in the Financial Times (UK) Life & Arts section.

Viet Thanh Nguyen wrote this essay to contradict the implicit bias in American culture that the refugee identity is at odds with the American identity and to reinforce the truth that all refugees are human. Thanh immigrated to the United States as a refugee from the Vietnam War when he was four years old. He recounts the chaotic flight to Saigon and is grateful to have been young enough not to carry trauma. His brother, who was 10 at the time, has traumatic memories of dead paratroopers in the trees.

In America, Nguyen learned “that in the United States, land of the fabled American dream, it is un-American to be a refugee. The refugee embodies fear, failure, and flight” (145). Refugees represent the fact that anyone can lose everything. Nguyen writes that though he was young when he immigrated, he is scarred from his experience because he was taken from his parents to live with a sponsor family.

The US accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees from South Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries as “proof that the US was paying its debt to its South Vietnamese allies, and the refugees became reminders that life under communism was horrible” (146). Refugees were expected to be grateful for being taken in.

Nguyen calls himself a bad refugee. In his novel The Sympathizer, Nguyen wondered if the “need” for American charity was caused by his “need” for American aid. He wonders how he would have fared in the US were he not Asian, a so-called model minority. He is a “bad refugee” because he questions the historical conditions, often precipitated by American interference in foreign countries, that cause people to become refugees in the first place. Nguyen cites the examples of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the modern reliance on undocumented workers as examples of America’s contradictory stance on immigrants since the Immigration Act of 1965.

Though his own family has been very successful in America, Nguyen cautions that the financial success of some should not be used to penalize less-successful immigrants. Immigrants are used as scapegoats to distract the American public from the fact that the real threats to their livelihoods are corporate interests and corrupt politics. Nguyen thinks of his family’s early years in America and concludes that America needs to overcome this divisive fear by demanding that the country live up to the ideals it promises.

Essay 2 Summary: “In Praise of Doubt and Uselessness”

This essay was originally published in the Los Angeles Times Jacket Copy section on April 14, 2017.

Nguyen was 26 when, after receiving his doctorate and taking a teaching job at the University of Southern California, he moved to Silverlake in Los Angeles and began writing a short story collection. He claimed his naïveté protected him: had he known it would take so long to write and publish it, he may not have begun at all. He claims that ignorance can occasionally be as useful as knowledge. Ignorance of what it would take to become a successful writer allowed him the strength to continue. He sees his determination over the nine years it took to complete The Refugees as “an act of faith, and faith would not be faith if it was not hard, if it was not a test, if it was not an act of willful ignorance, of believing in something that can neither be predicted nor proved by any scientific metric” (152).

Meanwhile, Nguyen’s scholarship paralleled his creative writing, focusing on the Vietnam War and his experiences as a refugee. Once again, his ignorance protected him: It took 14 years to publish his first scholarly book. Had he known this, he may not have been able to finish it.

Nguyen admits this to show readers the immense effort it takes to write fiction that is both creative and scholarly. The confidence and knowledge projected by a book as a finished product are not representative of the doubt and struggle it takes to write it. While he published three books in three years, it took him over 20 years of labor and struggle to write those books. He argues that, rather than the material rewards that come from a successful book, “we should value the arts and humanities for their privileging of the mystery and intuition that makes moments of revelation and innovation possible” (153).

All are ignorant of the future success of novels and authors. Even though Nguyen’s book The Sympathizer won the Pulitzer Prize, Nguyen acknowledges that it just as easily could have faded into obscurity, even with the exact same content. Nguyen argues that knowledge of such ignorance leads to humility. Science is allowed by society to bear failure, doubt, and labor. Meanwhile, the arts and humanities are assailed with claims of uselessness until they produce something acknowledged as good or worthwhile. Everyone, from skeptical parents, to universities, to governments, should have faith in the arts and humanities because they are ultimately worthwhile, even if every single endeavor does not pan out.

Two Essays Analysis

Both essays featured in The Refugees emphasize the importance of empathy for American society to thrive and live up to its promises. “In Praise of Doubt and Uselessness” shows the importance of the arts and humanities in modern life. Nguyen documents his own struggles with writing The Refugees, particularly the delays and failures leading up to the completion of the collection, which took 20 years. By including this essay in the collection, Nguyen reminds the audience to look beyond the trappings of awards and positive critical responses. Much of the work an author does takes place in obscurity; triumph is celebrated, while failure is relegated to obscurity. Society needs the arts and humanities as much as it does the sciences. In order for the arts and humanities to flourish, more empathy must be extended toward authors and scholars.

In “On Being a Refugee, an American—And Human Being,” Nguyen explores his own experience as a refugee to highlight the role of the refugee in American society. Its inclusion in The Refugees emphasizes the importance of viewing refugees not just as the other but as human beings—complex and dynamic, with hopes and dreams, and with virtues as well as flaws. This essay also ties Nguyen’s lived experience with those of his characters, many of whom process their refugee and immigration experiences through writing and storytelling.

Nguyen draws on the concept of precarity to demonstrate why Western societies tend to respond negatively to refugees; this concept draws on the distinction between exile and voluntary immigration. A voluntary immigrant has a choice in leaving their home country, and they have the opportunity to go back if they so choose. A person in exile, however, cannot go back due to politics or safety concerns. Mr. P in “Somebody Else Besides You,” for example, feels he cannot go back to Vietnam because he is in danger from the communist government. If he returns, even to visit as a tourist, there is a chance that he will be killed or sent to a reeducation camp. Nguyen contends that it is “un-American to be a refugee” (145). Refugees represent the precarious status of modern life: Refugees were normal people living normal lives in their home countries before circumstances beyond their control forced them to seek shelter at the mercy of other countries’ goodwill. This is an uncomfortable reminder that it could happen to anybody, and this discomfort is channeled into fear and anger toward the refugee other. On paper, America appears willing to atone for the mass disruption in Southeast Asia that its involvement in the Vietnam War caused, but xenophobia has much historical precedent. What will overcome this precedent and the fear that it inspires (Americans’ fear of immigrants, refugees’ fear of discrimination) is an empathetic approach to refugees.