Ru Novel Analysis

Kim Thuy’s novel Ru follows the life of a Vietnamese family escaping the war-torn country. The story is told through the eyes of a girl named Nguyen An Tinh and she takes us through the journey of being a Vietnamese refugee. From her childhood life in Vietnam and Malaysia to Canada we witness her transformation from a young girl to a woman. She takes us through her story of finding her identity amidst all the chaos and eventually returning to Vietnam. Throughout her life Nguyen realized that she has become estranged from her roots. In other words An Tinh is now considered an outsider because she successfully achieved the “American dream.” “That American dream had given confidence to my voice, determination to my actions, precision to my desires, speed to my gait and strength to my gaze... I no longer had the right to declare I was Vietnamese because I no longer had their fragility, uncertainty,
Nguyen was glad when people thought she was her boss’s escort because it showed that she was still young and fragile. On the contrary, Nguyen witnesses a group of girls picking up money thrown at their feet and as a result stopped feeling flattered. “...behind their dreamy bodies and their youth, they carried all the invisible weight of Vietnam’s history...I left the restaurant deafened by the imperceptible sound of the shock of bills against their skin”(125). She was feeling a boost of self confidence but just as fast as that had come it went out the window. She saw the reality of what the girls had to deal with. Not only has it made her feel a sense of guilt but distant from what she thought was real. In conclusion, Nguyen An Tinh realizes the truth of what really happens behind her ignorance and her perception. She realized the gap between her and the other women in Vietnam was bigger than ever. In the process of realizing so we see that she is an outsider even