Negation of Archetypal Hero in Viet Thanh Nguyen's The Sympathizer

Abstract

This research paper investigates Viet Thanh Nguyen's novel The Sympathizer, which counteracts the concept of archetypal heroes by depicting the protagonist in his narrative. In the novel, the historical interaction between the protagonist and the Vietnamese-American war situation brings a different perspective to the war and its consequences. The unnamed protagonist is a narrator. He is an Americanized Vietnamese with double mind. By using such protagonist, Nguyen subverts the portrayal of the archetypal hero in the novel. It seeks the reason about narrator's presentation is different from the heroic characteristics of traditional novels. This research paper uses Northrop Frye's five heroic model concepts clarified in "Anatomy of Criticism" and portrays the protagonist as a modern hero to prove Fyre's ironic intentions and proves Thanh's hero as an antihero. His modern heroes are lower than normal people, so they are anti-heroes. The protagonist does not portray his heroism, and readers feel the need for heroism. Instead, he gets rid of the difficult situation of heroism that people expected. The captain as the protagonist is similar to Northrop Frye's satirical hero, an anti-hero. In addition, this paper also discusses Joseph Campbell's concept of the journey of archetypal heroes called 'monomyth' by world mythology. Nguyen views the concept of war situation from a different perspective through his anti-hero.