Bao Ninh Short Stories

others. A successful person in life suddenly feels guilty about something, at least it means he feels he is not perfect. And it also means he has the desire to perfect himself.

In Bao Ninh’s short stories, there are works that mention confessions that originate from small, out-of-the-way situations that haunt and torment the characters endlessly. Those situations can sometimes be just jealousy towards a classmate who is better than you ( Challenge ), or just a moment of rashness that adds a “sharp accent” from Tan to Tan in Moi Dou , or because of a teasing out of the blue that “I” feel “like a wound cutting deep into my heart” ( The Snap )…

Huong ( Challenge ) the “country genius” was the one “I” hated the most. Thinking back later, “I had to admit that my attitude of looking down on Huong at that time was simply out of anger, I was stupid, he was smart” [61,87]. It was also because of jealousy that “I” challenged Huong to volunteer to join the army together before graduating. The next day, when I went to the district and didn’t see Huong, “I” judged Huong as a “coward”. The school and the military recruitment board discovered the challenge and rejected it. This made “I” extremely happy and triumphant “because I was completely above Huong in terms of dignity” [61,97].

As time passed, each person had their own choice. “I” became a very successful person in my career, studied abroad in the Soviet Union, taught at a university, became an Associate Professor and then a Doctor. Although “my life was perfect”, it was completely different from “the heroic ambition of my youth” [61,100]. As for Huong, although he passed the exam with a very high score, because of that “challenge” event, he was not eligible to study abroad. Huong joined the army (even though he was the only child of a martyr’s family) and died on the Southern front. He died but his remains have not been found.

Maybe you are interested!

The story is like a sad memory of the character about a reckless time. Bao Ninh wrote it as if pouring out his heart, as if apologizing to the soul of the deceased. “I” was tormented endlessly even though “youth has long since cooled down, my mind is lethargic, my heart is sleepy”, but “it seems like there is still something in me that has not completely died out”

[61,100]. Perhaps that is the reason why every few years, “I” return to Mo village, sometimes without visiting anyone but just “climbing the hundred steps of Giang hill, reaching the top to admire the plains in the autumn mist”. I always stop by to visit the martyrs’ cemetery – where my classmates rest in peace!

The story of “I” ( Tan ) in Moi Doubt is the same. Just because of personal selfishness, because I wanted to achieve my goal (get high scores to study abroad), “I” turned Tan ’s paper into Tan ’s in a Math test. Just because of the “sharp accent” that completely changed a person’s fate. Now recalling that action, “I” affirms: “I swear it was completely unconscious. It was just a convenience, I calmly used a fountain pen to add the sharp accent to the word Tan ”. Then I destroyed my own paper without hesitation. Because of that action, Tan, the best Math student in the class, was considered a “coward”, “stupid and blind to the extreme”. Tan got the maximum score, went to the Soviet Union to study at university and then continued studying. As for Tan, who had low conduct, was not qualified to study abroad, so he joined the army and became a super sniper, honored by the entire army for his significant contribution to the miracle of Hanoi troops jamming American B52 planes. That is why Tan never appeared in front of his friends again because he was embarrassed. However, “the whole class of 10A should have been embarrassed in front of Tan, Tan was not dirty at all, it was us. At that time, we were only thinking about ourselves, our work, our scores, our fate, and not thinking about our friends, so we did not realize the obvious absurdity of not submitting that work. First, Tan was very good at math, more than capable of doing well on that test, and second, he could not be that cowardly” [61,77]. This happened a long time ago but still haunted Bao Ninh until later.

Reading the above short stories, we think of the gentle comment echoed in the short storyThe Thief by Nguyen Minh Chau: "Sometimes people become cruel in a very innocent way."

It can be said that the character confessing and repenting in Bao Ninh's short story has brought readers a new feeling. The concern with the hidden corners of the individual with secret pain and private feelings that are not easy to reveal.

It is precious that the soldiers in Bao Ninh's writings are people who live honestly with themselves, self-aware of past events in torment and repentance. All of this aims to express the ambition to explore to the end of the private life of a person, to explore to the end the fate of a soldier after the war in the writer's multifaceted view of humanity.

2.2.3. Anachronistic character type

The past has a profound impact on the lives of those who have emerged from the war without ever forgetting it. War is in the spirit and thoughts, emotions and daily psychology of those who are living, those who have experienced the war.

Literature after 1975, especially literature from the renovation period, focused on portraying the image of soldiers in the post-war period. They could be the ones who quickly integrated with the hard-working, simple people of everyday life (Lieutenant General in Everyday Life by Cao Tien Le); there were soldiers who returned and immediately started building the economy, participating in management, continuing with their contributions to the cause of building the country after the war, healing the wounds of war with the dangers lurking in the selfish lifestyle of their colleagues but in the end were still the winners ( Circle of Ingratitude by Chu Lai)... However, not all returning soldiers could immediately adapt to the post-war life with all its chaos and complexity. They came out of the war but the obsession with war still haunted them. It was a wound in the soul that was not easy to heal. These are soldiers who always live in the shadow of war and at times their souls become "distorted" ( The Sorrow of War - Bao Ninh, Beggars of the Past by Chu Lai); there are those who are lost right between their homes and their loved ones ( Retired General by Nguyen Huy Thiep); there are those who suffer from ungrateful and mean treatment ( The Good Murderer by Lai Van Long)...

Coming out of the war, Vietnamese society no longer had the heroic atmosphere of the war, but instead a new life with many violent changes as commented by writer Nguyen Khai: "War is noisy,

The hustle and bustle but also has its own quietness and simplicity. Peace is quiet but contains many hidden waves”. The life of making a living in the post-war period makes soldiers have to brace themselves with new difficulties and challenges. In that turbulent life, the returning soldiers seem to be out of step with the current hurried, urgent life, so they feel lonely, out of date in their own homes, in their own society, some people feel that they are tasteless, meaningless in the post-war period. The glory of fighting is over, their comrades have sacrificed too much, returning from the war as "defeated" people before peace, so they live in complexes about their fate (Moc - Trai "Seven Dwarfs" ); those who did not participate in the war, did not have faith in the nation, their tragedy in peace is a hundred times greater than the tragedy of the soldiers.

In the short story Three and One , in addition to the character of the soldier and the girl, Bao Ninh also sketched the character of the father - a person who did not participate in the war, hiding from the communist soldiers on the last day of the war. The character of the father appeared through the daughter's thoughts: "Honestly, she could not understand the reason for the horror of communism that haunted and controlled the life of her father as well as many others in this town" [60,15]. Then when peace was restored, the homeland changed, the father left the country, running away from the past, running away from his homeland because of his guilt about the past. Bao Ninh showed the readers one of the countless other people carrying within themselves the tragedy of "out of time", "out of environment" when they were people who lacked faith in the Fatherland, in their homeland.

Besides the out-of-date characters who lack faith in the Fatherland, there are also some characters who lack faith in humanity. Phuc in the short story Weather of Memory is such a character. During the war, he worked for the Dai Viet Party (a reactionary party of the puppet government). When he was arrested, the person who interrogated him was Dinh - his old classmate. Phuc listened to Dinh's words to "confess everything and admit everything" in the hope that with their previous friendship, Dinh would "mitigate his crime" and ask for "a lighter sentence". Unexpectedly, "the crime of spying for the US, the sentence was ten years" [60,310]. Therefore, Phuc lost

hopeless, “bitter in my heart”: “I am truly a victim of friendship. Friendship, in the end, is the noose that I put my own neck in” [60,310]. Having lost all faith in his friends, after his re-education term ended, he did not want to go anywhere, do anything, or socialize with anyone. But Phuc did not expect that Dinh was the one who cared about and followed Phuc. Knowing that Quynh loved Phuc, Dinh went to find and take care of Quynh and her children. It was also thanks to Dinh that he learned everything about the person he had been searching for for many years after being released from prison. Throughout the remaining years of his life, Mr. Phuc always lived in torment and anxiety. He was in pain when he received the news of Dinh’s death: “My old heart ached and my hot tears stung my eyes like needles” [60,329].

Bao Ninh builds the motif of a lonely person, wavering between the past and the present. That is the type of lonely person, out of time in peace, in the community; it is the fate of a soldier carrying the sadness of the post-war period because he cannot overcome the after-effects of war. The concept of a lonely person is a common concept of writers after 1975, Le Thi Huong explains: "In today's chaotic, black and white, mixed-up society - where is the soul mate, where is humanity, where is empathy, where is faith? Loneliness therefore becomes the vortex of attraction for many short story writers today" [32]. Many other writers also build characters in this direction. Nguyen Huy Thiep draws a portrait of a retired general who is only familiar with the simple, clear thinking of a soldier. Returning to ordinary life, Mr. Thuan still retains his old way of thinking, so living among his family and relatives, he still feels lonely and lost. Or Phai in The Deep Sea by Trieu Huan was also lucky to survive and return, also living with his wife, children, and friends, but his daily life was boring, meaningless, without joy, sadness, passion, and interest...

Bao Ninh also created many anachronistic characters. In the short story "Huu Khuynh", Tu is a soldier who has participated in the war. When he returned, he was given the position of Secretary of the District Party Committee. The first thing he did was to release the prisoners. He believed that when peace was restored, right in "the place of great privilege"

resentment” – prison, there will be no more separation between people who used to be on two sides of the battle line. That action made him be condemned as “losing his vigilance”, “losing his class position, turning his back on the past” [60,160]. From then on, “there was something in his heart that Tu himself did not know what it was, silently restraining him. Always hesitant. Not being bold, not being straightforward, not being thorough” [60,161]. Everyone’s criticisms were like a barrier. Carrying his backpack back to the village, back to the lonely and mournful house, with no relatives or family left, he lived in the middle of his hometown village but only felt “unsteady” with loneliness.

Why are soldiers in war heroes, they passionately long for a life without war, but when they achieve their wishes, they are not happy? They feel lost among their comrades, their brothers, among their hometowns. Bao Ninh's short story partly explains that question. If people in wartime live for one purpose, one ideal for national independence, then in peacetime they have to face many different purposes. Post-war soldiers cannot keep up with the hustle and bustle of modern life, so they become out of date even in their own homes. Vinh in Quay Lung is one of such characters. If others always strive for a better life with a more comfortable house, a more luxurious car in bustling places, Vinh lives forever with a 24 square meter apartment in a "senile collective area". That apartment seems too big for Vinh. Out of habit, he only eats and sleeps in "half of the apartment inside the tiger cage". He lives a withdrawn life, does not like to communicate, isolates himself from his neighbors, does not care about the changes around him, for several years he has not met the people living in the two adjacent apartments and greeted them once. Vinh is a person who is “less tactful, less communicative, always hesitant, hesitant, silent. Quiet, the more years pass, the more silent he becomes, the harder it is to communicate with the world” [61,217]. His life is confined to half a small apartment and only one road from home to work. Vinh lives a lonely life, lost in the present because of the past because he is always

Haunting past: “The memories that have been extinguished for many years always choose the moment when he returns home from work, unlocks the door, pushes the door open, turns on the light to appear” [61,218]. That is why he cannot change himself, cannot open his heart to another woman. He keeps living with the memories of his wartime love, always searching for the girl from years ago. Unexpectedly, that girl has been living right next to him for decades without him knowing.

The past clings to soldiers who have fought in the battlefields, so when they return to ordinary life, they always feel lost and lonely. For them, whether they are suffering or happy in the present, it doesn't mean much. They will tell themselves that "it doesn't matter because it doesn't matter, because no suffering of today can compare to the suffering experienced in the war, and on the contrary, no matter how happy we live tomorrow, we know that there is no happiness like the happiness of the past" ( Washing hands and putting away swords ) [60,212].

They are people with degrees, diplomas, and have studied abroad, but apart from those degrees and diplomas, they are still stuck in the present life. In front of ordinary life, Tuc and Hao ( Stranded ) are like children taking their first steps into life. They fell in love, got married very easily. They “got to know each other and got married, which is a necessary thing in life” [61,25]. When they went to court to get divorced, it was also very simple. “In the petition, in court, Tuc and Hao did not blame each other, nor did they bring up anything from worldly affairs” [61,25]. After the divorce, they thought they had broken up, but in the end, their lives became even more attached. Living together in a small room, even with a wall separating them, could not separate them. Especially when children were born, although not all of them were Tuc’s children. “People said that Tuc’s private life was completely stranded. It is impossible to leave the collective housing area to reach the new land, and it is also impossible to go back to the old days” [61,37].

In that society with many shortcomings, betrayal is still hidden and hidden by the glamour of people. Do the three men, including the character who calls himself “I” in Betrayal, really love Thao? Why don’t they dare?

openly? Why did both Quan and Minh calmly come out and have an affair with Thao? When Thao left alone, she bore all the dirt, but why was the traitor still not discovered? Was it because my sister and mother loved a “educated” and “reasonable” person like Quan so they couldn’t bear to tell the truth, or was it a deep-rooted deference in the Vietnamese mentality?

In creating an anachronistic character, Bao Ninh also shows the discordant dialogue between two generations. The previous generation only knows how to live in their glorious past, while the next generation has to face many changes ... Writer Vuong Kha Son once confided on his blog: “We also have our own pain. It is the pain of the current social situation, of social evils, of corruption, of the premature forgetting of the past by a large part of society. The ambiguity and indifference towards the glorious past of the nation. That is a mistake that is hard to forgive them.”

The attitude of the children towards their mother's relics in the short story Calling Children shows the lack of empathy and sharing between the two generations. Before Tan's mother died, she left behind an old chest. When moving to a new house, although Tan "didn't want to", "couldn't he keep even a little bit of his mother's memento?", he reluctantly chose the chest to place next to his mother's bed. Tan's wife considered "this thing that strayed into their villa no different from a toad-gnawed bowl found in Mr. Thach Sung's mansion!" [61,127]. Tan's sisters almost forgot about their youngest brother (Nghia) who had sacrificed himself. They forgot to write Nghia in their personal history, "gradually in their minds the image of their youngest brother quietly faded away, then disappeared without them knowing" [61,130]. The attitude of the children and mother towards the past also shows the "dissonance" between the two generations. The past for young people is just “the horror of a life of poverty and hardship” with a communal life that is “grumpy, gloomy, shabby and sad, with nothing worth regretting or remembering” [60,131]. Meanwhile, the mother always lives with the past, “all the sufferings of the past, she keeps on holding on to”. While the children always look towards the future with a life

Bao Ninh Short Stories - 8

Comment