A Man of Two Faces Literary Elements

A Man of Two Faces Literary Elements

Genre

Autobiography

Setting and Context

Set in 1975 in Vietnam and San Jose.

Narrator and Point of View

First-person narrative

Tone and Mood

The tone is wretched, and the tone is gloomy.

Protagonist and Antagonist

The central character is Viet Thanh Nguyen, and the antagonist is the Americans.

Major Conflict

The major conflict is between Nguyen and the Americans who perpetrated the Vietnam War.

Climax

The climax comes when Nguyen visits his hometown, Ban Mê Thuột, in Vietnam for the first time after fleeing the country when he was four.

Foreshadowing

The shooting of Nguyen's parents foreshadowed his hatred for the Americans.

Understatement

Nguyen understates the risks of aging when he says his parents will forget their past problems. However, as his parents grow older, the wounds of their painful past start reopening.

Allusions

n/a

Imagery

The description of the violent Vietnamese films shows how the Americans plotted to kill Vietnamese people for their selfish interests.

Paradox

The primary paradox in the memoir is that America makes promises that it secretly breaks. For instance, America promises to rebuild Vietnam, but behind the scenes, it plots how to destroy the country.

Parallelism

There is a parallelism between the incident involving the shooting of Nguyen’s parents and the violent scenes in the Vietnamese films he watches.

Metonymy and Synecdoche

n/a

Personification

The author personifies the Vietnam War as futile and brutal to innocent citizens.

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