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The Commandant
A young guard at the prison in North Vietnam who peers through the slot in the narrator’s iron door to mock and degrade him. He has a tattoo on his biceps written in blue ink that reads “Born in the North to Die in the South.” The narrator describes him as having “a gamy smell.”
The Baby-faced Guard Quotes in The Sympathizer
The The Sympathizer quotes below are all either spoken by The Baby-faced Guard or refer to The Baby-faced Guard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
We're revolutionaries, my friend. Suffering made us. Suffering for the people is what we chose because we sympathized so much with their suffering […] Only without the comfort of sleep will you fully understand the horrors of history. I tell you this as someone who has slept very little since what has happened to me. Believe me when I say that I know how you feel, and that this has to be done.
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Somebody must have something done to him! Was I that somebody? No! That cannot be true, or so I wanted to tell him, but my tongue refused to obey me. I was only mistaken to be that somebody, because I was, I told him, or thought I did, a nobody. I am a lie, a keeper, a book. No! I am a fly, a creeper, a gook.
No! I am—I am—I am—
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The Baby-faced Guard Quotes in The Sympathizer
The The Sympathizer quotes below are all either spoken by The Baby-faced Guard or refer to The Baby-faced Guard. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 20
Quotes
We're revolutionaries, my friend. Suffering made us. Suffering for the people is what we chose because we sympathized so much with their suffering […] Only without the comfort of sleep will you fully understand the horrors of history. I tell you this as someone who has slept very little since what has happened to me. Believe me when I say that I know how you feel, and that this has to be done.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Somebody must have something done to him! Was I that somebody? No! That cannot be true, or so I wanted to tell him, but my tongue refused to obey me. I was only mistaken to be that somebody, because I was, I told him, or thought I did, a nobody. I am a lie, a keeper, a book. No! I am a fly, a creeper, a gook.
No! I am—I am—I am—
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
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