Blog 1 - "A Good Scent" Narrative

One thing that I learned about the Vietnam War from the PBS Documentary was background information on the leaders of both sides of the war. Before, I pretty much knew that there were two sides with differing sides on an issue, but I didnt know anything about the people leading on either side. It was interesting to see how American Presidents affected the politics of the war and the effect it had on the outcome.

In "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain," Butler uses two narrative to effectively add situational depth. The two narratives he uses help to give the reader more information about the characters in the story, but more importantly serve to let the reader know what was going on at certain points in time. These memories are vivid, and serve to show us readers what events impacted the story.

The first narrative in the story was about Nguyen Bich Le, a small time newspaper reporter who was assassinated for his communist-tolerant political views. The author makes it a point to add that Le drives a Chevrolet pickup truck, because this is considered an "American" vehicle. This adds to the irony that he was assassinated in American by people who shared the side that America took on the war.

The second narrative was about the speaker and his good friend Quoc. This part of the story described how the speaker found comfort in the Buddhist religion and describes him in a time of few material posessions. More importantly this talks about Quoc and his attempts at lobbying for political equality of the Vietnamese. The author describes how Quoc dresses formally in a suit and bowler hat in preparation of his trip to Versailles. The speaker says he looks "foolish" and notes that "his bowler made him angry". This is not a good sign, and shows how he does not feel comfortable with Western culture.

Both these narratives add to the readers sense of unrest in the Vietnamese popluation during these times. The first narrative shows us the hostility between opposing political sides using irony. The second narrative foreshadows dealings with Vietnam, and how they were not ready to accept the Western culture being shoved in their faces. These two narratives help the reader understand the trials of the times.