Le Luu's Novels in the Renovation Period

“together” with the people to “patiently endure” when he had secretly eaten all kinds of chicken thighs, duck thighs, hearts…. He “ rooted ” and deeply connected with the people to satisfy his own purposes. Are these facts considered normal in a historical period containing many “unusual” elements?

In this reform, all the bad, the good, the childishness, the pursuit of achievements were revealed. Why did they insist that a village must have five landlords when they knew clearly that the whole village had none? That was a very unreasonable and arbitrary accusation, so that those who should be accused and blamed were not accused, and those who should not be blamed were accused. The final result was that twenty-six people were gathered together to be classified and three were shot.

The character who played an important role throughout this reform was Kiem - a revolutionary, a person who had liberated the people of Cuoi village, a commune party secretary who prepared very loudly to welcome the team. While shouting slogans to overthrow and support the government, he did not expect that those he warmly welcomed would turn around and overthrow him. From a revolutionary, he was accused of being an enemy with countless serious crimes that he could not have imagined. He was given a " cuoi " background thought up by a team leader, or " learned from the poor peasants ". That background had turned everything upside down, turned a cowardly person (Kiem's brother-in-law) into a second agent for the secret police, the stalking of Ms. Dat by the militia in the past became barriers to protect her. Why could a true revolutionary like Kiem fall into such a tragic situation without anyone justifying or verifying him? People only felt momentary pain at the sky-piercing cries of injustice from Ms. Dat. Even Mr. Van Yen, a superior, a comrade who had fought and worked with him for many years, did not understand him. He questioned him like a judge interrogating his prisoner just to hear a yes or no answer without knowing the reason or motive for those yeses and noes. When he was given an explanation, and heard the words drawn from his friend's heart, he said: " Are you planning to take advantage of the time you worked with your old friend to denounce the organization ?" [76, 220]. But also

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Therefore, Kiem was able to speak out the things that were bothering him. Through this incident, Le Luu expressed his critical point of view. The reality in Cuoi village was "dressed in a more vulgar appearance" than its content many times over " people took a real thing that everyone knew to make a bag and stuffed many fake insides without anyone needing to find out the lies or false accusations " [76, 220], so that the " unclear problem " would " keep " people from rotting from generation to generation.

The reform team is like that, but what do the people gain and lose in this matter? The people during and after the reform are still hungry, still ignorant. They are passive, dominated by the team's cadres. They do not understand anything about class, government, they only know " first team, second sky ", go to study, go to struggle just to see if it is related to them, if they will be affected?

Passive, dominated, they are so afraid of being implicated that they dare not live their true selves. “ They are like people in a trance, people who are in a trance, no longer seeing their grandparents, parents, spouses, children, siblings. They do not see relatives, friends, villages, hometowns, no before and after, above and below, no love and memories, no affection and favor. The old people of the same suffering think of only class struggle. There is only cruelty and suffering. There are only plots and tricks and countermeasures. There is only one loss, one gain and the inability to live under the same sky. There is only class love and love of struggle. There is only poverty and the wicked. There is only the victory of the poor class and the collapse of the greedy and cruel landlord class. Poverty is everything. Poverty is like God ruling over all creatures” [76, 190]. What do they so enthusiastically bring in the end?

The reality presented in the work has great social significance. It is the treatment between people, the corruption and moral degradation of a large number of people. Le Luu used the land reform to talk about the rigidity, irresponsibility, the mistakes of the leadership class, the difficulties that people have to overcome in both wartime and peacetime. The character Hieu once thought that when fighting a real enemy, we have to go to war, die, and bleed to find and destroy them. But

That is, fighting a real enemy, having a real victory and liberating the people. As for self-created enemies, enemies that are easy to find and easy to destroy, it brings false victory and false prosperity. The people around us can suddenly become enemies, suddenly become people of the same class. That does not depend on their actions but is governed by society.

The story of Cuoi village is a story that happened in a lifetime, lasting from war to peace. During the war, the people of Cuoi village, like many other villages, enthusiastically participated in the revolution. They were absolutely loyal to the revolution. When peacetime came, many problems arose in life. The leadership team was either too ignorant or chasing after achievements to serve their personal interests. There were ignorant cadres who were illiterate and did not understand the nature of the problem, only knowing how to hit where they were told. There was a trump card from the cadre generation born after the land reform, who had lectured thousands of people in the commune about cultural ideology, military and political affairs, our policies, the enemy's plots, he knew everything, discussed everything, and could lecture, the person who had reviewed books, poems, and music said an extremely ridiculous sentence: "A poem by a certain Nguyen Du praised girls who dared to climb over walls to have illicit relationships. It sounds very sentimental and tearful, calling for promiscuity [76, 374] and suggested " look at where Nguyen Du works, so there is an official dispatch from the district committee requesting that this guy be dealt with, it is not too dangerous " [76, 375]. With such a leadership class, it is understandable that the lives and fate of the people of Cuoi village are dark.

In that dark and chaotic society, there are still bright sources of personality such as Mr. Kiem, Mrs. Dat or Ms. Huyen. Is it true that Le Luu looked at the rural reality of Cuoi village in particular and the Vietnamese countryside in the renovation period in general with sad eyes? No matter what, we can affirm that through social reality with profound inspiration from world affairs, Le Luu wanted to portray in a realistic way the Vietnamese society and people in the renovation period, thereby exuding a call to wash away, redraw a brighter picture of society, and save the moral values that are being lost. This is also

It is the humanistic value in Le Luu's works in particular and in the works of contemporary writers in general.

CHAPTER 3: THE ART OF LE LUU'S NOVELS IN THE PERIOD OF RENOVATION

3.1. The art of organizing the plot

Not among the writers with unique works and strong innovations in plot, Le Luu always has the awareness to innovate, creating novelty and diversity in the structure of his novels.

The plot of The Distant Times revolves around the life of the main character Giang Minh Sai with joys, sorrows, gains, and losses. The novel is over 300 pages long, consisting of 12 chapters divided into three parts.

The first part is Sai's life from childhood to the end of the war. Sai was a military officer who achieved many glorious feats in the resistance war against America. This part is the focus and also the most successful part. Sai's personality at this time was closely tied to society, subject to the close interaction between family, public opinion, unit, and agency. That is why the social significance of this part is especially profound. This is the story of an individual but at the same time it is also the story of a not-so-distant past. It is the story of yesterday but at the same time it is also the story of today so that each reader can look at it and determine for themselves.

live - how to live responsibly to yourself, to the people around you and to society.

In this first part, in addition to mentioning the social and psychological significance of the character, the author also inserts pages of off-topic commentary. This shows the writer's attitude to evaluate, guide, awaken the reader's subconscious and point to the causes and consequences of the character's fate.

The second part of the work is the period that begins when peace is restored. Sai returns to Hanoi from the battlefield, divorces Tuyet and starts rebuilding his family life. But it seems that he has become accustomed to the arrangements of others, now having to make his own decisions, Sai cannot help but feel bewildered, confused and inevitably makes mistakes. This part has a narrower social meaning than part one, it is just a story about the discord and disagreement between a couple, one from the countryside and one from the countryside. In this part, there are also pages that describe very realistically the family life, the scene of Mr. Tinh and his wife in the countryside worrying about finding a wife for Sai... It can be said that in part two, the overarching inspiration is the inspiration of world affairs with tragic colors.

Part two is placed next to part one like two paintings drawn with two different materials but intertwined and blended together. It is a picture of war and peace, countryside and city, country people and market people… This reminds readers of a continuous, successive development process of history.

Part three is the ending part starting from the time Sai divorced Chau and returned to Ha Vi to become the head of the cooperative. This part focuses on the character's emotions and reflections on life and himself. The end of his second marriage with Chau is also the beginning of a new life for Sai.

Thus, the structure of The Distant Time is relatively tight, enough to cover a problem of reality: war and peace are associated with people and their personalities. The author has recreated a realistic part of life associated with gains and losses during and after the war with the tragic fate of people.

Each chapter in the work is a logical and systematic ideological thesis that allows the reader to continuously follow the plot. The author also creates suggestions in each chapter to create attraction and appeal to the reader.

In The Distant Time , Le Luu has built many important details related to the character to reveal the character's personality, fate, the author's point of view and affect the development of the plot. One of the details that has a heavy influence on Sai's personality is when he discovers the toad backpack full of memories of his comrade who sacrificed in Truong Son with the strap cut off and thrown on the bed. For many years, Sai has tried to chase an unreal love. He tried his best to forget everything, accept everything to be loved. But he was wrong, he wanted to change his life once again but was afraid. Chau's last action was like the last straw, awakening Sai's ignorant self. Sai repented to his brothers, friends, and teammates because he saw himself as a lucky survivor who lived unworthy, so he decided to break up with Chau. This can be considered a climax action that had a strong impact on the development of the plot.

Just like The Distant Times , Two Houses is also structured and developed in chapters such as Two Model Intellectuals, Benefactors, Cruel Sipping, etc. At the beginning and end of the work, there is an additional lyrical digression. Each chapter in the story is a small story that happens between the characters and behind it is the sour, bitter, and sorrowful attitude of the characters.

If The Distant Times depicts an expansive time and space spanning almost a lifetime, from the countryside to the battlefield and the city, then Two Houses mainly depicts a limited time and space. The space is almost confined within the scope of a collective housing complex with two rooms, two neighboring houses next to each other. All actions and conflicts take place there. Therefore, reading Two Houses, we feel a confined, oppressive atmosphere, and it is in that space that all issues about people and morality, dignity, lifestyle, etc. are fully exposed.

The time deployed in the work is a reversal in physical order. It is a re-enactment of time from the past to the present. Hong's death at the end of the work is brought to the forefront as a pre-announcement: " Hong, the son of the poet, your friend, is dead. He took his own life so that your wife would not be slashed in the face by a machete at 5:30 pm " [80, 5].

After that introductory statement, the author goes on to describe the married life of Tam and his wife, the conflicts in their family, and the neighborly relationship between Tam and Linh Anh's family and Mr. Dia and Mrs. Nhan-Di's family. Gradually, through the characters' thoughts, diaries, and letters, the author goes on to explain the causes of the conflicts.

The novel Two Houses is built and developed according to the psychological development of the characters. The plot is built on the basis of a central drama, which is the tragedy in the marriage between Tam and Linh Anh, and when this tragedy ends, the work also ends. In addition, the author cleverly intersperses the plot with pages of digressions, philosophical sentences about morality, human dignity, and human nature, so the work, although having a simple structure, still creates appeal and appeal to readers.

The story of Cuoi village is also developed according to the structure of each chapter and each part. The whole work consists of four parts, each part is divided into chapters. The work is built around the main character, Mrs. Hieu Dat. The parts and chapters are named suggestively.

Part one consists of seven chapters about Mrs. Dat's life, followed by two love stories of her life: with Tong Loi - a forced love affair and with Mr. Kiem, a Viet Minh cadre. This part mainly recreates Mrs. Dat's life when she was young, being forced by Tong Loi and then having to escape to the forest to give birth to Hieu. Hieu was originally a child without a father, going through historical events and the molding hands of public opinion, suddenly, Mrs. Dat had a husband who was a cadre and Hieu's father was a Viet Minh cadre who sacrificed. Later, it seemed that happiness smiled on Dat when she met and married Mr. Kiem, a Viet Minh cadre who had great contributions in liberating Cuoi village. If before, besides Mrs. Dat and Tong Loi, no one knew about this

The truth about Hieu's birth was that they calmly gave her the label of a communist cadre's wife, but now that she married Mr. Kiem, an excellent Viet Minh cadre, suddenly, due to the limited awareness of the people and the limitations of history, public opinion blatantly accused Mr. Kiem of being a reactionary and had him executed. Part one of the work leans towards narration, recreating the character's life.

Part two consists of three chapters revolving around the third love story of Luu Minh Hieu. Perhaps the tragedy of Hieu's life also began because of the hands of women. Hieu's wife Xuyen was a flirtatious woman. Thi and Doi Lang, the land reform cadre who falsely accused and forced Kiem's son to cooperate, together cuckolded Hieu. In this part two, the character, fate and moral degradation of the characters are developed and highlighted by the author.

Part three consists of 4 chapters with the title The Fourth Love Story . In this part, Hieu's career, reputation, and power begin to rise, and along with the development of his career comes the decline and degeneration of his personality. Hieu silently swallows his anger to find a way to take revenge on Xuyen and his lover. If before, because of Hieu, Mrs. Dat had to sacrifice her youth and her life to raise Hieu, now she also has to sacrifice her personality and conscience to help Hieu take revenge. That miserable mother was controlled by Hieu step by step in his revenge plan. Borrowing Mrs. Dat's hand, she was determined to disown her daughter-in-law because she betrayed her son, so that Hieu, out of filial piety, had to listen to his mother and abandon his wife. Thus, in both love and reason, Hieu achieved his wish. The most miserable person was Mrs. Dat. She was extremely tormented when she forced her daughter-in-law into a corner. After breaking up with Xuyen, Hieu also quickly fell into the arms of Nho, a woman who was more flirtatious and scheming than Xuyen. It can be said that in this third part, the drama and climax of the story begin to take shape. Readers go from one surprise to another before Hieu's plot, tricks, and despicable personality.

Part four consists of 4 chapters with the title The Fifth Love Story and the Last Love Stories . All the tragedies and karma of the characters are concentrated in this part. Still revolving around the motif of love stories, but the reversal of order, morality, and human personality happens at a dizzying speed. Huyen, the daughter of Hieu and Xuyen, a strong, straightforward girl who dares to live true to her heart, falls in love with a married teacher.

Le Luu's Novels in the Renovation Period - 9

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