Nguyen Minh Chau Has Strength In Portraying Individual Human Beings -

Thanh laughed out loud:

- If you want people to spend money to renovate the temple, the gods must be sacred. Ask for one and get ten, no one will open their wallets for nothing to buy a false reputation" [75; p. 270]. Just through "loud laughter", through statements expressing views on gods,

about worship is enough to see the shallow, rogue, and rude perception of the character. Surely with this person, if there is profit and benefit, there is nothing he will not do. Sometimes, the author does not need to let the character appear, but only through the comments and evaluations of other characters, but it is enough for the reader to recognize their nature and personality. For example, through this dialogue:

- Building that market doesn't cost twenty million, just ten million at most. Tu asked innocently:

- They were fooled?

Maybe you are interested!

- Who can fool the husbands, they know, but they still believe because they have already shared the profits with the market contractors [75; p. 272].

The “husbands” are characters whose appearance is not present but whose souls and personalities are very evident. They are opportunists, a new class of “ruffians” disguised as public officials.

This type of character who “depends on the times” and takes advantage of the “times” is very diverse, they change in many ways, but they all have one thing in common: they take full advantage of the loopholes of the “times” for personal gain. They are all born from the “darkness”, from the shortcomings of the “times” and are the living embodiment of the author’s philosophy about the negative side of the market mechanism.

The “outdated” character type like Tu in A Time of Wind and Dust , who was a journalist and once in charge of the literary page of a newspaper, had to retire. Although he was still healthy, “he was tired because he could not find a place in the heated debates on urgent issues in society as well as in the industry.” However, when he realized that he had become an “obstacle to the flow,” the character immediately became worried: “Will my wife and children consider me redundant? Will I hinder their business?” [75; p. 263] The result was immediate, when Tu informed his wife and children of his decision, he received their opinions. His wife said: “You are not old enough to retire yet, what can you do when you go home?” The son said: “People are forced to go home but they don’t want to go home, but you volunteered first, no one praises you for doing that.”

"Where" [75; p. 264]. Tan, a journalist in Doi Doi , was also "out of date" in his own house, and also fell into the situation of "No one fired me, I had to fire myself, even over a small matter I had to argue, if I raised my voice, how could we live together in the same house" [74; p. 260]. The character Phuc in We and Them is also a type of "out of date". "Phuc is a very talented person, but his talent is not in line with the times, sometimes even against the times, so he can only be a lowly assistant in an anonymous department". Nguyen Khai also "traced" this type of "out of date" talented person with a voice: "I fit myself into a general order that is just right, and somewhat comfortable. What about you? Your personality, your way of thinking, your lifestyle seem to be a bit wider than the prescribed model. It's somehow choking, somehow stubborn" [75; p. 343].

Nguyen Khai also portrayed the portraits, fates, and personalities of “outdated” people from the intellectual and artistic classes with very skillful sketches. For example, the detail of writer Trac recognizing a familiar literary friend at a committee headquarters, while Mr. Trac excitedly and eagerly called out to his friend, the other person tried to ignore him but failed: “It’s Trac! The two of them held hands, but looking at Linh’s shy smile and hesitant eyes, he knew that he had forgotten him...” [74; p. 447]. The most valuable and also the most painful detail was the detail at the dining table. The “outdated” person innocently followed his friend to the dining table without realizing that this was a reception for guests of the Committee: “The dining table was set for eight people with bowls and chopsticks for eight people. He was the ninth person, the extra person, the person no one invited, who suddenly barged in, making everyone feel embarrassed...” [74; p. 447]. The fate of anything superfluous is truly pitiful, but being a “superfluous person” is something that everyone recognizes, only the person involved does not realize it themselves. When they fall into the tragedy of “realizing it”, they are tortured by a feeling of shame and pain: “Nowadays, people only drink for profit and fame, with the rich or the rich. Am I right, everyone? Sad? I am so sad, everyone!” [74; p. 450]. The 28, 29-year-old daughter of writer Trac, a high school literature teacher, is also a type of “out of date”. This character only appears through the author’s comments, but the reader feels a vague sense of a type of person:

On Saturday night, a 28 or 29 year old high school literature teacher was still at home waiting for her father to come home for dinner. She would be the ideal wife of a soldier going to war. But she is not the woman expected by a man in the market economy. The girl felt sorry for her fate because she was also out of date, what else!” [74; p. 452].

In the work A Winter Afternoon , there are two “out of date” characters, one is a woman - a famous stage actress, with a haughty beauty that “dazzles” the viewer, a few decades later she is the owner of a tea shop making a living with a small shop with plates of roasted peanuts, glasses of wine for ordinary customers, workers. The second “out of date” person is the husband, who is also an artist, a talented director, currently “sitting in a dark corner carving something”, “it is said that he learned carpentry”. At the end of the work, the author - narrator sadly exclaims: “The years have passed but the faded scent of a time still remains, as well as the dried tears of a time” [77; p. 256]. In the story Two Old Men in Dong Thap Muoi , there are two characters appearing representing two opposite ideas. The character of Mr. Ba Quoc Hoi is the embodiment of the “timely” character analyzed above, while the character who works as Mr. Ba’s secretary, an old man “thin and small, with a slightly hunched back, wearing a very tight brown T-shirt, a pair of gray trousers that are too long”, who walks and speaks softly and politely, showing himself to be “an educated person, a knowledgeable person, a civil servant at best, or perhaps a teacher” is an “out of date” character. It turns out that this skinny old man once had a French baccalaureate degree, and used to teach in Saigon. The misfortunes of his family and his untimely fate turned him into a homeless person, a laborer, a temporary resident. His thoughts are also Nguyen Khai’s philosophy about an “out of date” fate: “For me, living is difficult and dying is also difficult. I have been on the verge of death several times, but when it comes to making the decision, there are so many reasons to live. Besides, no matter how miserable a fate is, it cannot last forever; it will eventually end, won't it, sir? [75; p. 471].

It can be said that Nguyen Khai has imagined countless types of characters to convey his thoughts and philosophies about life and people. The richness in the types/forms of characters in his works shows that he has lived, observed and experienced all types of people and human destinies during his decades of writing. Deeply immersed in current events, Nguyen Khai tends to contemplate the impact of current events on human life, especially on the movement and change of human psychology, personality and soul. His characters, therefore, have the power to generalize and symbolize reflections and philosophies about current events.

4.2.2.2. Nguyen Minh Chau has strength in portraying individual people -

private life

Completely different from Nguyen Khai, Nguyen Minh Chau's character is very

interested in describing psychology, inner self, thereby having the opportunity to reveal the child's portrait

Personal life - private life is quite vivid and clear. Nguyen Minh Chau rarely stages dialogues and debates, but has many internal dialogues, his characters mainly reveal their souls and personalities through their inner thoughts. There are two ways the author often uses to reveal the inner thoughts of the characters: either direct description, or through description of natural scenery.

Right from his first works, Nguyen Minh Chau showed this tendency. In Different Skies , Nguyen Minh Chau recreated the portrait of two gunners and the artillery battery mainly through the thoughts and mood of the character Le. For example, Le's thoughts when he first met Son: "Through the lens, Le immediately noticed the soldier walking at the end. He was tall, white, and walked softly like a girl (...) It must be said that he was really handsome, with an oval face, intelligent eyes, and deep in his eyes was a black pupil that was both innocent and proud" [24; p. 42]. Le's maturity in life and his special friendship with Son were also mainly revealed through his thoughts: "Sometimes sitting next to Son, he often passionately thought that if there was no sacred sky that belonged to both of them being torn apart by the enemy, if there were no two lenses mounted parallel to each other on an anti-aircraft gun, there would probably be no situation in which he and Son could meet, share the same bed, wear the same shirts that reeked of gunpowder and mixed sweat. Only then did he suddenly understand that it was comradeship, the ranks of soldiers fighting to protect the fatherland" [24; p. 45]. In Le's thoughts, there was always Son, sometimes Le said to himself: "You are used to Son's ways, you have eaten the bait of his dreams!" However, many times Le Tu confessed: "In the unit, Le was attached by blood ties to all his comrades, but there was still one person he loved the most, and that person was Son." When they were apart, Le went to protect the sky of Hanoi, Son stayed to protect the sky of Zone Four, they "shared a sleeping mat, a few shirts smelling of gunpowder, and shared the sky of the fatherland above their heads". And "in Le's deepest thoughts, he considered Son as his closest comrade in the army - "Let's go!". They shook hands, saying goodbye with only those two words".

In the short story "Manh trang" , the author still uses the same method of character building through thoughts and inner thoughts. Except for a few dialogues to connect and lead the plot, the story with the main character appears through the narration and mood of the character Lam. Portrait of the character Nguyet from appearance to soul and personality

All of these appear through Lam's eyes and emotions: "Through the dim light of the chained vehicles rushing by, I managed to notice the girl's beauty, a simple and cool beauty like mountain mist radiating from her face and slender body..." [32; p. 25]. How Nguyet got engaged and waited for Lam, her brave actions, her kind heart and noble soul... were recreated by Lam with sweet, admiring emotions. This is when he looked at her through the moonlight: "...What fragrant, thick and youthful hair! Suddenly Nguyet turned to me and asked something. I didn't have time to hear because my eyes were overwhelmed as if I had just seen an illusion. The bright moonlight shone straight into Nguyet's face, making her fresh face shine with an unusual beauty!" [32; p. 29] And here are Lam's feelings when he realized Nguyet was injured: "I turned on the cockpit light. The first thing I saw was a trace of blood on Nguyet's shoulder (...) Honestly, at that moment, a love for Nguyet arose in my heart, almost blinded and filled with admiration" [32; p. 33]. Until the end of the work, Lam seemed to still be floating in a sweet and happy mood: "I stood on the riverbank, in the middle of a collapsed bridge and wondered: In the soul of a small girl, the love and strong belief in life, that shiny green thread, no matter how many bombs were dropped, could not be broken, could not be destroyed?" [32; p. 38]. Thus, the beauty of a generation of young people who were willing to put down their pens and dedicate their youth and lives to the independence and freedom of the nation was philosophized by Nguyen Minh Chau through this modern fairy tale-like love story. The character with symbolic meaning aimed at clear propaganda, however, the author recreated it through the path of emotions and moods, so it had the power to attract and conquer readers.

Nguyen Minh Chau's works after 1975 tend to strengthen the character building style using the "stream of memories" technique. From the character of the painter in The Painting (drafted in 1975 and re-published in 1982) to the character Khung in the two consecutive good stories The Guest in the Countryside and The Giat Market, Nguyen Minh Chau's characters are not only rich in philosophy but also very diverse in the way they are portrayed, especially, the characters appear vividly thanks to the perfect combination of artistic techniques. In which, the stream of consciousness technique is used as a basic technique to portray the psychology and thoughts of the character. The entire short story The Painting is a self-judgment of the character "I" - the painter after accidentally encountering the "prototype" of the "portrait" of a soldier's portrait instead of a photo to send back.

The rear as proof that he is still alive. The story was recreated through the character's flashbacks and then the "scenes" of self-torment and self-debate: "Why didn't I bring the "photo" to his family that day? Why didn't I keep my promise? But I still remember, I promised him and myself, firmly and eloquently, and also sincerely?"

And here is the character's "stream of consciousness" debate:

- You liar, look, my mother has lost both eyes! Now my picture is displayed in art magazines all over the country...;

- I am an artist, not a portrait painter. An artist's job is to serve the majority of people...;

- A ha! Because of the artist's purpose of serving the majority, you forgot about me... Do you have the right to deceive me? [32; p. 387].

There are many other times when the character “splits” himself to dialogue and debate with himself like that. He insults himself and then defends himself, through the character “I - the artist”, Nguyen Minh Chau philosophizes that in every person there is always “human - instinct” and “human - educated reason”. In every person there is always a mixture of good and bad, “dragons and phoenixes, snakes and centipedes, angels and demons”. Human instinct always leads people to follow their ambitions and can make mistakes, even leading to crimes. However, the kind heart of the writer always guides the reader to the horizon of goodness. At the end of the work, the author lets the character “repent” by drawing a portrait of the soul with the symbol:

A very large human face: The beams of light from thousands of candles from the front and above the head shone down on the half-cut hair that at first glance looked like a part of the gray brain that had just been cut open. The lower part of the face seemed to be still hidden under a mask (...) And on the face stood out the wide-open eyes, anxious, restless, full of severity, looking inward [32; p. 397].

The character Quy in The Woman on the Express Train is also a typical example of the author using the stream of consciousness technique to recreate the character's mood and psychology. The character returns after the war and now always lives in a sleepwalking journey back to memory. The entire event and plot of the story are told through the memories of the character Quy. Although he is a character rich in symbolism, the way he recreates using the stream of consciousness technique gives the character Quy a depth of personality and a vivid inner life.

Individuals - private life is also a person associated with very private emotions/moods of joy - sadness, happiness or suffering. To be more precise, the character thinks and acts on the basis of personal thinking and psychology, originating from personal psychology and personality, and is less influenced/affected by outside "public opinion". Female characters such as Nguyet, Quy, Thai, Hanh, Em's mother, etc. are all such people. The pretty, virtuous Nguyet agreed to love Lam even though she had never met him, only heard his sister's story. Moreover, she kept her promise even after several years, Lam was discharged and then re-enlisted, the war spread, many "real officials" flirted with her... That girl chose her lover according to her own "viewpoint", not like what people often think according to common psychology. The same goes for Ms. Hanh and Ms. Thai, one is an intellectual (Hanh is a doctor), the other is a village girl (Thai), but each has their own perspective on how to deal with situations related to family and society. Although Hanh has her own family and grown children, she still retains feelings about her first love with the soldier who used to be her father's liaison. For decades, she has been looking for her ex-husband, but she still maintains the respect of her current husband because of her integrity and the feelings she has for her ex-husband, who is both a benefactor and a soldier who is now the division chief of staff. The same goes for Thai, although she has remarried (because Luc has been confirmed as a martyr), she still brings her ex-father-in-law to her house to raise and care for, still holds "death anniversaries" for her ex-husband and brother-in-law, and teaches her children that they are family members. These women, in their way of life and behavior, have wonderfully combined etiquette, morality with awareness stemming from a kind heart.

Nguyen Minh Chau often portrays characters from a family perspective, as family people. Characters mainly show their behavior in emotional relationships, placing them in relationships with relatives: husband and wife, children, friends who are often old acquaintances, even in relationships with pets in the house (dogs, cats, cows). Their stories often revolve around love and gratitude, so Nguyen Minh Chau's characters are often gentle, emotional, and less philosophical. Their lives, lifestyles, thoughts, and behaviors create philosophies about humane and benevolent values.

4.2.3. Differences in narrative tone

The Dictionary of Literary Terms (edited by Le Ba Han, Tran Dinh Su...) has a subtle note: tone should not be confused with intonation. This difference lies in the fact that "tone"

"Tone" is "the way of expressing speech, expressed through the way of raising and lowering the voice, emphasizing, rhythm, and pausing", while "tone" is "the attitude, feelings, ideological and moral stance of the writer towards the phenomenon described, expressed in the text, which regulates the way of addressing, naming, using words, tone, emotions, ways of perceiving distance, intimacy, respect or casualness, praise or sarcasm..." [51; p.112]. In writers with personality, the most obvious difference is the difference in "tone". Although both are passionate about philosophy, there is a clear difference in "tone" between the two writers: Nguyen Khai's "tone" is sharp and rational; Nguyen Minh Chau's "tone" is warm and sentimental. The thesis will clarify this through some aspects of the writer's tone towards the object of description.

4.2.3.1. The language of address in Nguyen Khai's works tends to be informal, while in Nguyen Minh Chau's works tends to be standard.

The language of address and naming is the first sign that reveals the "tone" of the work and the "attitude and feelings" of the writer towards the subject of description. Comparing the language of address in the works of Nguyen Minh Chau and Nguyen Khai will reveal this clear difference.

The language of self-referencing in Nguyen Khai's works tends to be informal : In the trend of epic tone in literature before 1975, the author still addresses the protagonists with a respectful and intimate attitude: Mr., Mrs., Grandfather, Sister, Brother... or political language, social position: comrade, political commissar, squad leader, secretary, political director, etc. However, with Nguyen Khai, he still tries to show "distance" from the characters to create an objective and informal tone. The writer often calls the characters directly by name instead of using the accompanying pronouns "Mr., Mrs., Brother, Sister...": "Dao went to Dien Bien farm at the beginning of the year...", "Huan played his favorite flute again..." ( Lac season ); Giao is a young man loved by the whole production team" ( A couple ). Even when introducing a character with a social position, Nguyen Khai's way is still: "Cu, political director of the farm..." ( The adopted child ), "Vui, head of the carpentry team..." ( Let's go further ), "Tuy Kien, director of the cooperative in that hamlet..." ( Farsightedness ), etc. The way of addressing tends to be casual and simple, not formal or serious. In the way of addressing, we can see a combination of formality and casualness. For example, in the dialogue, when a subordinate/subordinate calls a superior/superior, there is a formal way of addressing: anh, comrade, chief, political commissar, etc., but a superior/superior calls a subordinate/subordinate or is equal.

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