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 247-266Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Pages 247-266 Summary
Quan falls ill with malaria. A messenger arrives bearing news from Luong, whom has shot the deserter Quan previously met in both knees. Though he is sick, Quan is summoned to an officers’ meeting and must leave camp. In a company of all male officers, a woman guides them to their final destination, which makes all of the men extremely happy.
In an extended internal section, Quan dreams of having a conversation with one of his ancestors, arguing about the meaning of life and the meaning of Vietnam. When the company arrives at their destination, Luong is waiting to meet Quan again. After watching a stage performance, Luong pulls Quan aside to tell him that Bien is dead from tetanus. Quan also learns that the army is ordering many more coffins built. This moment feels to Quan like the end of his friendship with Luong. He notes, “I realized he wasn’t going to say anything more, that he would never tell me anything ever again” (262).
Quan wonders if he could have done anything more to save Bien. Later, he dreams again of his ancestor, having another argument about their respective generations and who is right. The man next to Quan in the sleeping quarters wets both his bed and Quan’s; while cleaning his bedsheets the next day, Quan has a vision of the man as a corpse.
Pages 247-266 Analysis
Fragmentation becomes more pronounced in this section, with shorter pieces between sections and more (and longer) sections in italics denoting dreams and hallucinations. During these sections of internalized thoughts, Quan primarily considers death and the futility of life. In his dreams, his ancestor says, “Woe to he who inherits nothing. But even more wretched is he who leaves nothing to his descendants” (257). The wraith chastises Quan for the destruction the living generations are causing–in fighting for glory and an party-line ideal, Quan and his fellow soldiers are leaving nothing for future generations to inherit but destruction.
Quan’s journey has started to repeat: the first person he visited after leaving his unit at the beginning of the novel was Luong, who is also the first person he visits after leaving this second time. Once again, Luong and Quan talk about Bien, though this time it is because Bien has died. Similarly to what happened with Quan going to save Bien, only to return find Luy had gone mad, now Quan learns that his efforts were entirely futile, as saving Bien only led to his death. Futility increasingly permeates Quan’s endeavors as the war goes on.
Huong’s indictment of Marxist ideals continues in this section, in the pageantry of the stage performance that Quan and his fellow officers see, and in the Communist Party session intended to prepare them mentally for an upcoming battle. As his response to Bien’s death, Luong tells Quan, “I’m very sad, Quan. But war is war. The historic mission that has fallen to our people” (262). Quan responds, “I’ve heard that on the radio a hundred times. Thousands of times” (262). Luong callously spits the party line in response to the death of one of his childhood friends. Quan’s response is telling–he comments on the hollowness of Party sentiment and propaganda. To Quan, whatever ideal the Party is selling isn’t worth the lives of so many.
Quan’s ancestor’s final words to him in his dream solidify this idea: “We fought to defend the altar of the ancestors, the future of the country, we never fought for the cheers and applause of others” (265). Quan’s ancestor explicitly states that there is a difference between fighting for your people and fighting for glory, and that the former is clearly a noble endeavor, while the latter is not.
