The Short story "Madagascar Plum" was narrated by a former office of the Sai Gon Army. The officer is a very unreliable in narrating on his past experience during the war due to alcoholism a symptom from PTSD. The narrator clearly has shown his past mistakes of murdering of the mute girl. When he states, "The night that if I hadn't been under the influence of alcohol I wouldn't have turned out the way it did" (p. 5). Through this statement he shows he is disturbed and knows he did wrong through the impacts of alcohol. The scene of the dead girl is unforgettable in his mind, but is unwilling to admit to his mistake.
The unreliable story shows the impacts of the Vietnam War. As the reader it is hard to understand and believe the whole story. Through the devastation of the war shows the mental impacts on the soldiers. Such as the narrator who suffers greatly from PTSD. This problem has shown to be very impact full on the narrator and other soldiers when a decision needs to be made. As a reader it makes one wonder what other terrible events also occurred in the war to innocent victims. In doing so many events of the war can be unclear to what really happened. Many unknown secrets still exist from the war due to the unreliable sources from the war due to the serious psychological factors.
The short story "Madagascar Plum", by Nguyen thi Minh Ngoc, is narrated by an officer of the Sai Gon Army who suffers greatly from alcoholism. Therefore the officer is very unreliable in narrating on his past experience. The narrator has shown his past mistakes of murdering the mute girl. When he states, "The night that if I hadn't been under the devilish influence of alcohol It wouldn't have turned out the way it did" (p.5). The narrator is clearly disturbed by his wrongful actions. He realizes the impacts of alcohol on himself, but he is unwilling to admit his wrong doing. In doing so in the end he never learns from his mistakes from alcohol. For example just seeing the color of the plum makes him remember the scene of the dead mute girl which makes it unforgettable in his mind.
ReplyDeleteThe unreliable story shows the impacts of the Vietnam War. I found it hard to understand and believe the whole story. This shows the hard devastation on the soldiers and mental factors that came along with symptoms from PTSD, which the narrator suffered greatly from. These symptoms make a large impact on the soldiers when they need to make an important decision, such as the decision the decision the narrator needed to make about the mute girl. Then it also brings up the question of what other awful actions he might has taken in other similar situations in the war. Stories that are alike to "Madagascar Plum" make me realize how many of the events from the Vietnam War are not very clear to what was was really happening. Therefore, there will always be unknown secrets from the War.