In the short story Village by Kim Lân, the beloved character of the village is portrayed.

Prompt: Analyze the character of the village lover in the short story Village by Kim Lân.

Sample essay: The Beloved Village Character in the Short Story Village by Kim Lân

Sample essay: The Character of the Village Lover in the Short Story Village by Kim Lân

There has been much written about the ancient Vietnamese village, from the vast treasury of folk songs and proverbs, to studies of customs, traditions, and journalistic accounts... even to novels where the village encapsulates the destinies of many characters. The village, it's not just an administrative unit, a geographical entity, but it's all of social life for the ancient farmers, where everything that binds them, makes up their lives... The village, it's their first and perhaps ultimate concept of 'homeland'.

But in Kim Lân's short story Village, it's clear that the village is just a backdrop, a stage that highlights a character, a 'villager' who is the character of Mr. Hai. Because the story doesn't take place on the land of the village as it's already predetermined, throughout the story there's not a single sentence, not a line describing that Chợ Dầu village at all. People only know about Chợ Dầu village through the words of Mr. Hai, through the words of the wandering woman, through the rumors of the villagers fleeing, through the words of the landlady... But most of all through the stories and nostalgic sentiments of Mr. Hai, through his strange love for everything belonging to his village.

The character of Mr. Hai is not a typical character in the village, perhaps quite ordinary like any village in the land of Vietnam.

He doesn't belong to the courtly class whose fate can be emblematic like a former farmer like Mr. Pha, Mrs. Dậu; nor does he belong to the category of figures with 'status' or 'reputation' in the village. He's just a hardworking farmer, maybe skilled with his hands too. But he's not the gentle, contented type of farmer, full and heavy, whose thoughts never stray beyond the village bamboo hedge. Mr. Hai is cheerful and good at storytelling, and cunningly shrewd, the kind of cunning shrewdness of a farmer who has been here and there, who has had many experiences. Whatever is amusing - also - known: 'very adept but seemingly aimless', the scene where he goes 'to listen to the news - he's very troubled but doesn't want anyone to know he reads poorly -' He hates especially those who pretend to be literate, read the newspaper but read quietly by themselves, not reading aloud for others to hear. Just a scene of the old farmer listening to what seems like a new story by the militia man, guessing which word he's reading, the pen of Kim Lân's story has vividly created the atmosphere of resistance of a time. He discusses 'national affairs', as if to say Dai-gia-cua-li went back and forth is his own misjudgment. I arrange it like this, I arrange it like that, I politicize it like this, I politicize it like that...' truly engrossing, invigorating and enthusiastic, even though he himself knows it's just 'plagiarism', but still takes pleasure in it.

With just a few strokes of description, author Kim Lân has recreated the portrait of an interesting, very real, very lively, very common person around us. Mr. Hai's personality is immediately apparent through his words, gestures, and one feels as if one can easily know everything: people like him endure the hardships of living in the cramped quarters of a refugee camp, in the flickering light of kerosene lamps, in the confusion and madness of daily pennies gathered by his wife... He has to seek out someone to talk to, and storytelling is often a natural thing in the character or story, sociable, interested, knowledgeable due to the eavesdropping of the poor. As mentioned for farmers, the village is everything and Mr. Hai likes to boast about the village, boasting about everything 'better than others' in his village, because the village is himself, is the best of him. The political awareness of this farmer is simple yet decisive and precise: he used to be infatuated with the village of the village governor, but when he saw the hatred, the suffering because of it, he boasted the opposite: his own world. He went to listen to the days of general uprising, the days of resistance... it's still that village, but now it's the village 'of us,' of him and people like him.

Now, while far from the village, in this cramped, cramped life, the village becomes even more beautiful. The things he used to say about the village while boasting are now drawn as beliefs, passions, aspirations. Night after night, he talks about the village, 'as if Mr. Thứ (his neighbor) is familiar with and concerned about those things by means of a dialogue criticizing his negligent neighbor, but in reality, Mr. Hai doesn't need that much, he talks to himself, to satisfy his longing, his aspirations. More touching when describing the life of 'three or four families of refugees' in quirky landlord families like Mrs. Hai's landlady. This landlady character faintly echoes the greed and cruelty of the rural women before the August Revolution in Nam Cao's short story. The ugly rural women who are so tightfisted that they don't know they're evil. The author sketches the landlady a bit carefully, to contrast sharply with Mr. Hai's image. He's easygoing, outspoken but can't accept, the beauty in him sharply contrasts with the normal, dark side with the landlady. He hates even the innocent husband of the landlady because he doesn't know how to 'educate' his wife. The hardest thing for Mr. Hai is having to confine himself in a cramped house, dealing with a woman as tight-fisted as this one. So, there are times when he leaves home immediately, leaving everything to his son, even though he still knows to advise his son: 'He needs to draw blood...'.

The most refreshing, joyful moments of Mr. Hai were perhaps that noon, when he strode along the village road 'The sky was blue and clear, with bright shining clouds... Mr. Hai walked proudly down the empty street...' he escaped the awkwardness, plunged into his own world. He listened to the news, he was excited about the victories of the resistance, he was even happy with the scorching sun because 'The Westerners are sitting in prison at this hour' - 'His heart danced with joy...'. Just then, the thunderbolt struck his village. The ominous news was not that the beautiful village was burned down, the houses, fields, and the graves of his ancestors were lost, but that the whole village had turned traitor to the West...'. The old cheerful man, fond of storytelling, eagerly awaiting news from the village, now had to 'pretend to move to another place' and then 'bow his head and walk straight', 'his throat choked with bitterness again, his face numb... He walked silently as if unable to breathe'. The events in his village were perhaps something he had never imagined, and the pain and humiliation coming upon him were perhaps unknown. Perhaps at this moment, for the first time, he had to use his reason to think about his village, to worry about his love for the village. The village now was not just a cluster of hamlets, alleys, traffic intersections, village ponds, stone wells, and unpaved footpaths... the things he used to boast about. The village now is something bigger, it's honor, it's standing, it's the reason to be human. Mr. Hai felt sorry for his children: 'Tears streamed down his old face... are they also traitors?', 'Oh God, how humiliating! The whole village is traitors! How will they do business now? Who will they harbor? Throughout this country, people abhor and detest those who betray their nation...' In Mr. Hai's consciousness, the village is now linked to the country, to the resistance.

But not only Mr. Hai. That was the perception of the people at that time in the liberated areas as well as in the temporary war zones, from the refugee woman who unknowingly brought news, from the landlady with the vague order: 'drive out all the people of Chợ Dầu village' - perhaps that order showed a slightly extremist attitude at that time. The story adds another knot to Mr. Hai's anguish. 'Where do we go now?'. In that dark moment, Mr. Hai still didn't lose his clarity, he believed there would be a place to stay. That's 'because of Uncle Hồ's policies, they won't chase us away', but even so, there's still nowhere to go...

Reading this far, one might feel like they haven't fully understood the person as well as it's easy to understand everything when you first meet, the simple and straightforward person like Mr. Hai. Or is it Mr. Hai himself who hasn't fully understood himself yet? Love for the village starts with pride in the village, enjoying stories, as a habit, a pleasure, to the point of missing the village, as if it were everything beautiful and intimate about the homeland, contrasting with the cramped, miserable refugee life - now it has become revolutionary awareness: 'going back to that village is pointless. They've sided with the West, so they've abandoned the resistance, abandoned Uncle Hồ'. And the love for the village in him now truly is a conscious love: 'I love the village, but if the village has gone to the West, then I must resent it'... It's touching, the scene where Mr. Hai only whispers to his child - the child is also very adorable - their conversation seems like a release of his pain and suffering: 'Comrades, take care of your father and grandfather. Uncle Hồ scrutinizes your father and grandfather...'

Readers are drawn into Mr. Hai's stream of consciousness, into the art of describing the character's psychological developments so naturally, so skillfully, into the author's storytelling charm that they forget the simple way the story is 'unraveled', which seems absurd. How could the chairman know about Mr. Hai's situation, about the village of Chợ Dầu - a remote refugee location that appears at just the right time? Perhaps because there were no shortage of coincidences in the resistance, but the main thing is that people were convinced, just like Mr. Hai, nobody believed the rumors about his village. Just a few words from the chairman is like a resurrection spell, Mr. Hai returns to his former self. Perhaps there has never been anyone boasting about the fact that 'The Westerners burned down my house, burnt it flat' in such a jubilant, joyful manner like him. In the ashes of his house, is the resurrection of another village: the Chợ Dầu village in resistance... Everyone was happy for the old man, even the quirky landlady. Not only Mr. Hai but perhaps everyone was surprised by the cheerful, easy-going attitude of the landlady. But thinking about it, it's not surprising, because that woman is also an independent Vietnamese living in the atmosphere of the Revolution. Kim Lân is truly talented when just a few strokes reveal what a people's war is all about.