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Saigon, the capital of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War

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1:33 minutes long

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The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen is made up of eight short stories that relate to each other through Vietnamese history.
1. Black-Eyed Women is about a person who’s older brother sacrificed his life to keep her safe from pirates on their way from Vietnam to the United States. 2. The Other Man is about Liem and how he came from Saigon, Vietnam to San Francisco and moved in with a gay couple.
3. War Years is about the struggle of getting by and the difficulties of regaining control of Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War when the Communists took over.
4. The Transplant is about Arthur Arellano and how his near death experience with liver failure and gambling addiction took everything away from him.
5. I’d Love You To Want Me is about Anh Khanh, a professor who has dementia, and his wife who took care of him although she was not his true love.
6. The Americans is about an American girl with a Vietnamese soul named Claire and her father, James Carver. His near death experience with pneumonia made him realize that despite their differences, he would do anything for her.
7. Someone Else Besides You is about Thomas and second chances, including possibly another chance with Sam, his ex-wife.
8. Fatherland is about Phuong and her desire to choose another life for herself, just like her half-sister Vivien who shares her birth name.
The author’s purpose is to inform the audience about the lives of Vietnamese immigrants who left their homeland for a better life.
A possible theme of The Refugees would be to treat others kindly because one does not know what they are going through or what has happened to them.

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My opinion of The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen is positive overall. Although it was difficult to enjoy at first, I eventually got into it because I appreciated learning the characters’ life stories and I liked empathizing with their feelings. This book taught me many life lessons that I took to heart. For example, I’d Love You To Want Me taught me that difficult circumstances usually cause people to either get closer or further apart depending on how you deal with those challenges. In addition, it taught me about Vietnam's culture. I would recommend this book to people who want to understand immigrants' perspectives of leaving their home for better opportunities and people who want to connect to the characters.

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1:18 minutes long

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Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh in 1945

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14:37 minutes long (Skip to 14:22 for final product)

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IMPORTANCE TO ME:

The characters from The Refugees made me want to become a better, stronger person. I admired them and their strength they continued to have even after they dealt with loss. They remind me that I should be grateful for what I have because I was never diagnosed with a illness that could kill me or was forced to flee the country I call home because it was being destroyed by a war. They remind me of my family and friends and how grateful I am to have people who love and support me.

IMPORTANCE TO SOCIETY:

Not only do these characters remind me of the important things in my life, they are also a reminder of the importance of this book to society. The Refugees can teach you, as a citizen of the United States, so many things based on your life experiences and your interpretation. It can remind us to be good people because we don’t know what other people are going through or to remind us that war is not something that should be glorified because it affects real people and real places. Although The Refugees is just a book, it is also something that shows its audience different perspectives to help spark empathy, passion, and open-mindedness, which is crucial in being a good person.