The Sympathizer

On page 376, the narrator shifts in the way he refers to himself, going from “I” to “we.” The narrator implies that his “two minds” have split apart, thus forming the “we,” but could the “we” refer to others as well? Who else might the narrator be speaking for?

The Chair of the Department of Oriental Studies asks the narrator to conduct an “indexing” of himself. The Chair has the narrator draw up a chart with two columns: in one column, he lists his “Oriental” qualities and in the other he lists his “Occidental” qualities. Examine the chart carefully on page 64. What is happening here, and how does it contribute to the overall theme of duality (and other themes) in the book?

The ghosts of Sonny and the crapulent major appear throughout the book. While the narrator finds them greatly disturbing, the ghosts’ tone of voice and actions might be described as grimly playful, for example on page 113 when the severed head of the crapulent major teases the narrator with a visual pun about “being up to one’s neck.” The narrator says, “Although I did not believe in God, I believed in ghosts. I knew this to be true because while I did not fear God, I feared ghosts” (204). What contradictions do the ghosts in The Sympathizer embody? Why do we never see the ghost of the narrator’s mother? How does this interplay with the narrator’s ideas on religion? 

Claude “was a CIA man whose time in this country [Vietnam] dated back to the time when the French still ruled an empire” (4). Examine the figure of Claude, not only in terms of what he might symbolize for American military involvement in the Vietnam War, but also for Americans and colonialism in history at large.

The narrator reveals his true self to Sonny on page 275, saying, “I had worn my mask for so long, and here was my opportunity to take it off, safely” (275). Are there other characters in the novel who see the narrator’s “true self”? What does “true self” even mean in The Sympathizer? 

Of The Hamlet, the narrator says that the movie was “just a sequel to our war and a prequel to the next one that America was destined to wage” (179). What does he mean by this? How do cinema and Hollywood influence the way we think about war?

In The Sympathizer, the narrator, a Vietnamese person, tells the story of the Vietnam War to a Vietnamese person, the Commandant. How might this narrative differ from other more American-centric narratives about Vietnam? How does the narrator’s Vietnam differ from Western depictions of Vietnam in The Sympathizer, and with Richard Hedd’sAsian Communism and the Oriental Mode of Destruction (page 142) and Fodor’s descriptions of Southeast Asia (page 148)? 

The narrator says, “Besides my conscience, my liver was the most abused part of my body” (114). He also says that scotch is “as comforting as a homely wife who understands her man’s every need” (185). How does the narrator’s alcohol use/abuse function as a narrative device in this story?