The Sympathizer Literary Elements

Historical fiction, spy, thriller

Vietnam and Los Angeles, aftermath of Vietnam War

An anonymous Vietnamese army captain and spy for the communist forces

Unsettling, tragic, violent, ironic

The book is filled with characters who are both protagonists and antagonists at different points in the novel, as the narrator's perspective shifts and we become privy to their motivations, misdeeds, and positive qualities.

Even after the war is over, both the Vietnamese army and communist forces continue to vie for control of their country. The Vietnamese immigrant community also fights to control their own narrative in the United States, which depicts them unfairly and in racially charged tones in Hollywood and the media.

The narrator defies his communist handlers and returns to Vietnam to protect his friend Bon, supposedly to fight with the Vietnamese army but perhaps hoping to join the communist party he has spied for. He is captured by communist forces and held prisoner, where he finds himself tortured by one of his best friends.

The narrator is seriously injured while helping with the filming of a theatrical Vietnam War film, foreshadowing his gradual break from reality and his renewed involvement in the conflict in Vietnam.

The Hollywood director says he wants the narrator to help him portray authentic Vietnamese culture in his film, but he ultimately manipulates his advice to create an inauthentic portrayal of the Vietnamese characters in his film.

There are constant illusions to the clash between eastern and western cultures and to American imperialism.

There is constant imagery drawing a contrast between Vietnam and the United States. The author vividly describes gleaming white American toilets as compared to Vietnamese outhouses, the moisture in the air in Asia as compared to the relative dryness in America, and the wildness of the Vietnam landscape as compared to the ordered houses and apartments in California.

The narrator says that he is motivated by a desire to protect his best friend Bon, but he feeds intelligence to the communist forces who are working to undermine the military forces Bon is a part of. In going to Vietnam to protect Bon, he ultimately plays a part in Bon's imprisonment.

While filming the Vietnam War film, the Asian Hollywood film star jokes about the many times his character has been killed in movies and how this time, he will exaggerate the death even more in hopes of winning the supporting actor Oscar. This parallels the way in which the narrator fills multiple roles to help the army and communist forces, but while consulting on the film he exploits his own identity and culture to an even greater degree.

Nguyen uses metonymy in the naming of his characters. Many of the characters do not have names but are rather called by the roles they fill, suggesting they stand for a larger concept. Characters include the General, the Madame, the Congressman, the Crapulent Major, the Auteur.

In Chapter 6, "the Clark Gable mustache playing dead on his upper lip."