38 pages • 1 hour read
Thu Huong DuongNovel Without a Name
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Pages 229-247Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 229-247 Summary
The North Vietnamese launch a new military campaign; Quan’s unit prepares for the upcoming battle. One of Quan’s unit, Thai, pulls him aside to tell him about his brother’s death in a battle where an entire North Vietnamese platoon was destroyed because a single political officer wanted to advance his own career and falsified a report about the situation into which the platoon was heading. The next day, Quan’s platoon is hit with malaria; “[b]y the eighth day, the sickness had struck a third of the company” (233).
Less than two weeks after malaria strikes, Quan’s unit is ordered to move out and prepare for battle, regardless of being unwell. On the road, Quan’s unit catches a deserter, whom they bring with them. They reach their rally point and head into battle, emerging victorious but sustaining heavy losses: “Out of my hundred-strong company, only Thai, myself, and seventeen soldiers survived […] In spite of it all, we were the victors” (237).
Quan is ordered to lead four prisoners to the base with his remaining unit. They are stalled by the onset of the rainy season. While watching the prisoners, Quan notices that one in particular reminds him of Hoa’s younger sister, Hien. He brings a different prisoner inside to have a conversation. Quan refers to the man as a “puppet soldier” and tells the prisoner that he is “the enemy. The least we can do is to give you a few pieces of copper candy” (241). Quan and the prisoner discuss why the prisoner joined the “puppet soldier” army, with Quan demanding to know who the prisoner’s “god” is. Eventually, after confusing the prisoner with his interrogation, Quan allows the man to return to his room.
Pages 229-247 Analysis
Much like the section on the train, this section places quite a bit of emphasis on the manipulation of common people by political leaders. Thanks to the blind ambition of a political officer, his subordinates’ desire to support him, and the scouts’ desire to fall in line as well, Thai’s younger brother’s unit goes into an area with bad information and is completely wiped out. Thai tells Quan, “He’s dead, Quan–for nothing, because of some idiot’s ambition. They’re all dead because of that bastard…” (232). Once again, the desire for glory in the pursuit of an ideological ideal ends in disaster, destroying the people it theoretically should support. Shortly after Thai tells Quan about his brother’s platoon, Quan’s own platoon is nearly wiped out. Even though they win the battle, the casualties are extremely high.
Mothers play an important role in Novel Without a Name, and this section contains multiple references to mothers. When Quan finds the deserter, the man cries and says he misses his mother. Quan then wonders, “Who was his mother? The thought tortured me” (236). He spends a while thinking of possible people the deserter’s mother could be, then later dreams of a pregnant woman, and finally has visions of his younger brother shortly after birth. He observes, “The sadness, the weariness would overcome me. And then I would see myself wriggling like a fish in a net, crushed by the weight of my past” (239). As he begins to question the prisoner later, Quan thinks, “Suddenly, I missed my mother” (242). While the mothers themselves are important, what is more important is that Quan and everyone he meets is the child of a mother. Someone once cared for them and gave them life, and many of the soldiers yearn for their former lives and for home, as it is a place of safety.
After questioning the prisoner and learning that he, too, fights for an ideal, Quan realizes that both sides are essentially the same: “On both sides you screamed, you killed you killed in mad, frenzied bursts, shrieking for joy when the blood gushed, the brains shattered […] On both sides you died believing that you had attained your ideal” (247). He adds: “We had forgotten everything: mother Au Co, father Lac Long Quan, the shared womb from which we had sprung” (247). While both sides come from different places, every man comes from a home of some kind, and every man comes from a mother.
