Blog Two NC

"The Scent of Green Papaya" needs little dialog to convey its meaning. As Mui is sent to become a servant to a wealthy family, it can be interpreted as the Vietnamese service to the French under colonization. Though she is a servant to the family, the family has many issues, including the common absence of the husband/father of the family. The father/husband role in a family can be considered as the most important position in a family in that the male head often had the power in traditional families, and by being absent, the idea of colonization is further stressed as Vietnam was not annexed to France but simply under its control and neglected. Eventually, the husband leaves, like the weakening French presence before World War II, and the family suffers difficulties as the father/husband takes all the money (colonization), just as Vietnam felt the pinch of drifiting into Chinese and Japanese control from the French.

As time passes, she becomes servant to a new master, the pianist. The pianist represents America, as America was considered the most refined country, just as a pianist is respected as having refined skills in music. The pianist, like the first father/husband, also does not spend time correctly with his family, his soon to be fiance. He enjoys playing the piano too much and seems to ignore his duties. This absence yet presence stresses the neglect America placed on the Vietnamese people. As a fiance would tend to his soon to be spouse to demonstrate love and affection as any fiance should, he ignores the love to pursue his own interests, such as the piano. This symbolizes the question of whether America cared about the Vietnamese people at all, even with its good intentions, just as a fiance has good intentions to take on a wife and be responsible for her.

Eventually, Mui and the pianist sleep together. As an engagement is a working commitment, the worst possible action to take would be to cheat. When viewing this, I was reminded of the massacres in My Lai, in that America came to 'help' Vietnam, yet in coming they actually made things worse for a lot of people.

All, however, is not terrible. The pianist's original engagement is broken off, and he is seen teaching Mui how to read. This to me was the most powerful sequence of events in the film, as Mui really had nothing in being a servant for the whole film, yet through her life's struggle she begins to take on an education of sorts. Though this is wonderful in itself, the strongest scene is when she is reading to her unborn child. Mui, through everything that had happened, finally finds her place, though she will never be socially mobile. However, in reading to her unborn child, it represents the hope to pass on her education to her child, in the hopes that better days will come to the new generation, that in her struggle to find meaning and value to everything that had happened in her life, her child could finally have the chance that she never had in life. To me, the ultimate symbolism in this movie is the suggestion that the value of the Vietnam struggle comes from the ability to give the children of the next generation the chance at living a better life.