The Dutch historian Pieter Geyl once stated that "Imagination plays too large a role in the writing of history, and what is imagination if not the projection of the author's personality? "(1) If we If we were to replace the word "story" with "a story based on history", isn't this also the case with Nam's novel Le The Boat? Of course, one must acknowledge the fact that Le's book is indeed a work of fiction, yet there are so many true historical elements in his stories that one could be forgiven for believing that Geyl said this with Le's writings in mind - assuming that Le's book is indeed a work of fiction. the first had lived to see our times. In each story, the author tells about someone's struggle to find their place in the world, often against the background of an event of a certain historical significance, placing their own fictitious mark on it. This essay will explore some of the ways Le portrays and ties together some of the complexities of truth, fiction, and identity in the world we live in. Let's start by defining what this means before applying it to Le.Say's text no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Quid est Veritas? What is "truth" for Nam Le? Perhaps it is the “ideal or fundamental reality separate from and transcendent of perceived experience.” Or is it simply “conformity to facts or reality”?(2) It might be suggested that Le skillfully juggles both of these versions of “truth” in his stories. Let's examine its opening story, "Love, Honor, Pity, Pride, Compassion and Sacrifice." This story is a great example of this statement. As reviewer Charles D'Ambrosio writes: "there are the old truths, stubborn truths that survive." , insisting on oneself...” One of these 'truths' is the natural bond between father and son - the family bond that endures everything. Blood is thicker than water, as is clear in the exchange between Linda and Nam: “'I thought you hadn't spoken to him at all.' 'He's my father.'” (3) (p. 5) Three little words contain so much meaning, despite the fact that for many they have lived separate lives. For years now, Nam still harbors that childish desire to please his father. "He would read it, with his book-learned English, and recognize himself in a new way... He would be happy with me."(4) (p. 29) Even after Nam's father burns the precious manuscript, and there we expect the rift between father and son to be irreparable, reading more carefully we can see from Nam's tone that this is not the case: “If I had known then what I knew later, I would not have said the things I said. I wasn't going to tell him he didn't understand, because he clearly did. I wasn't going to tell him that what he did was unforgivable. That I wished he had never come, or that he wasn't a father to me. But I didn't know it and, while I waited, feeling the wind change, I only saw a man coming towards me... who had destroyed himself, once again, in my name."(5) (p. 30 )All he may have felt this way at the time, but now, as he recounts the event, he realizes that his father had acted for his good, and "the old truths" - the family bonds - survive. Honor, etc.” it also illustrates the other definition of 'truth' as ​​it is clear that Le based this story on his own life experiences. The protagonist shares his name, childhood and professional choices. At first we get the impression that this is authentic in every way, an autobiographical account of his experiences while writing The Boat. However, we soon realize that this is not the case, when we see the fictional Nam decide to follow his friend's advice to “'exploittotally the Vietnamese thing...'” (6) (p. 9), in view of the deadline looming before him. Evidently his intentions in recounting his father's experience were therefore not entirely pure - perhaps his father was right when he declared that Nam would not have been able to write the story(7) (p 25), in all its raw, undeniable authenticity . Nam himself said in an interview that “there was always a reticence on the part of my parents to resist that moment in their lives. There is always a cultural reticence among Vietnamese to discuss it... in a sensationalistic way...”(8) Hence the reason why Le feels obliged to tamper with the story and put his own brand of narrative on it. “I am committed not to doing something right, but to doing it justice. Capturing not the essence but an essence.”(9) He may use authentic historical events, but he chooses to include caricatures instead of real people in these stories (10). In this way, it loses some of the sympathy that we might have felt towards them if they were real, since in our subconscious the thought remains that they are only a figment of a writer's imagination, and therefore, much more difficult to identify with - we are still moved, but not as much as perhaps he would have liked us to be. Deviating from the story can also make it difficult for him to convey the desired meaning to us, as we come with our own preconceived notions of how things happened. When we discover that his stories are not as authentic as we believed, we inevitably lose faith in the historical credibility of the rest of his stories: if he sensationalizes what he knows, are the rest of his stories mostly confined to the limits of his imagination? How much is based on truth and how much is pure fiction? But we underestimate Le, of course, because he knows he has set himself a difficult task by choosing to write this way, striving to maintain “that kind of ringing” authenticity that allows for “that true empathy, that deep, clear, intimate inhabitation on the part of the reader of another consciousness in another context". This is the key, the gold in the ore – where imagination and understanding meet, recognizing familiarity in strangeness, truth in otherness, and yourself, in a complicated mess of words' (11) , because as he continues to say in another interview: “Fiction makes even the places we know strange” (12). On the other hand, as he loses our faith in his historical accuracy, he gains our admiration for his abilities as a writer. Indeed, although some of his other stories (such as "Cartagena", "Meeting Elsie" and "Halflead Bay") may not be based on historical or ethnic principles like "Love and Honor etc" or "The Boat", in these stories provides more information about the characters themselves. Historical events are placed in the background that forms the backdrop to the action, while in “The Boat” the focus of the story is essentially on the harrowing journey of the Vietnamese boat people, the trials they endured and the sacrifices they had to endure. Of course there are the ever-present protagonists (Nam and Mai), but they must be included if the author wants his story to move forward. In "Cartagena," however, we are allowed to get to know the boy-turned-hitman intimately, and in this way we are forced to endure the dilemmas and heartaches he faces throughout the story. It is also in this way that he presents us with the complexity of identity. Throughout this story the protagonist Ron strives to find his niche in the world, while playing catch with his fellow children, or playing catch for his little girl mother. But it would seem, by a cruel twist of fate, that there really is no place in the world for a "misfit" like him: unless this place is Cartagena, that place where when the sun rises, "it's a movement at,/7-9780307268082-3