Loyalty vs. Duplicity Theme Analysis

The narrator in The Sympathizer is a Communist mole for the North Vietnamese who is also a captain in the South Vietnamese army, working directly for the General and his wife, Madame. For the narrator, North Vietnam is a motherland—that is, his birthplace and the place to which he remains politically committed. South Vietnam is a fatherland of opportunity where, with the help of Claude and the General, he fulfills his personal ambitions. The fact that he remains nameless in the novel enhances the sense that he has no clear sense of identity outside of these connections. However, the narrator’s truest sense of loyalty is to himself. His relationships with the General and Claude, as well as with Man and Bon, are indicative of his ability to sympathize and see both sides at once. They are also indicative of his willingness to play both sides to secure his own interests. Nguyen demonstrates how loyalties often depend less on social bonds and political affiliations than they do upon personal interests.

The narrator’s relationships to both Claude, a CIA agent and the narrator’s mentor, and the General represent the narrator’s commitment to Westernization. They share in common things that the narrator loves, which would be forbidden or condemned by his Communist cohorts. Claude secured the narrator a place at his alma mater, Occidental College, while the General, like the narrator, speaks “precise, formal English.” Both men, too, serve as surrogate father figures to the narrator, creating opportunities for him and teaching him more about himself than his own father did.

Claude found the narrator in 1954 on a refugee barge, as the latter was making his way south from North Vietnam. Claude recognized the narrator’s “talents”—that is, his good English skills. However, Claude may have also recognized the narrator’s ability, like that of Ho Chi Minh, to see “both sides at once.” Like the legendary leader, the narrator has a deep understanding of American history and culture and sees its potential to aid the Vietnamese people, just as Claude aided him in leaving the North and acquiring an education in the United States.

Similarly, the General is both an authority figure and someone who depends on the narrator’s counsel. However, the narrator later realizes that class and racial differences still distance him from the General. In Saigon, the narrator lives with the General and his wife, Madame, at the family’s villa and retains a close relationship with them when they all relocate to Los Angeles. His relationship with Madame and the General is spoiled when they discover his attraction to their daughter, Lan. Despite the narrator’s loyalty to the family, they regard him as “a bastard,” who isn’t good enough for Lan. The narrator realizes that his loyalty to the General and Madame will never erase the perceived stain of his illegitimate birth. He feels betrayed by the General’s dismissal, particularly after the narrator demonstrated enough devotion to be willing to kill the crapulent major and Sonny on the General’s orders.

The narrator’s other key bond is with his school friends, Man and Bon. Unlike his relationships with Claude and the General, which complement each other, the narrator’s friendships with Man and Bon illustrate the schism within himself.

When the three boys are fourteen, they slice open their palms and make a blood oath, promising undying loyalty to each other. Bon, who is a committed South Vietnamese soldier, never learns that his best friends are Communists. While Man’s betrayal is mitigated by distance—he remains in Vietnam—the narrator lives with Bon in Los Angeles. There, they carry out the General’s killing orders. Meanwhile, the narrator maintains an epistolary relationship with Man. The narrator technically maintains his commitment to both men, but he can only do so by betraying both.

The narrator’s blood oath with Man, who represents the Communist Viet Cong, and with Bon, who represents South Vietnam’s muddled democracy, exemplifies the country’s civil war. The narrator doesn’t declare full loyalty either to Bon or Man because both men are a part of him. The narrator’s blood is literally and figuratively mingled with both Man and Bon, with both North and South Vietnam.

Through his friendships with Man and Bon, the narrator expresses his divided loyalty to North Vietnam—his birthplace and the source of his political loyalties—and to South Vietnam, where he reaped opportunities and became known as more than the result of an unfortunate union. Though the narrator’s positions as both a South Vietnamese Army captain and a Viet Cong spy are duplicitous, they’re also indicative of his commitments both to Western civilization and to Communist ideology. He is loyal to both value systems because they both represent who he is.