OUR CLASS NOTES

The Courage of Soldiers - By Pauline Nguyen

Discussion questions

1. How is Pauline’s father becoming like the regime he ran away from?

 Pauline’s father’s insistence on the children following Vietnamese traditions

means he becomes extremely controlling and dominating. To ensure they are
not corrupted by Australian society he allows them no freedom at all. Any failure
to follow his rules results in anger and beatings. Nguyen compares his
tyrannical control of the household to “the oppression of the communist regime”
that her father had fled from.

2. Describe the relationship the characters have with eachother.

 Pauline’s relationship with her father is marred by fear. His constant anger and
his use of humiliation and violence to control the children means they live in
constant fear. She bitterly relates how “fear and the dog shit covering my yard

were the smells of my youth.”

 Her brother’s love Pauline and are prepared to help her to escape. She feels
grateful and even a little guilty about leaving them. Pauline feels very attached to
and protective of her brothers, “Leaving my three brave brothers was the most
painful part of running away.” (They are the ‘courage of soldiers’ referred to in
the title)
 Her mother is lost without Pauline, suggesting that her daughter is central to her
life, and her most important child. Pauline describes how after she left her
mother, “became emaciated, letting grief eat away at her.”

3. What makes Pauline leave home?

 Pauline writes “I ran away from home as soon as I was old enough.” This
suggests that life was so poisoned by fear, that she started planning to escape
when she was very young and was quite determined. Without joy in her home,
and no hope of change in her father’s abuse – leaving is just assumed as
obvious “as soon as I was old enough.” It is expressed logically, and without
need of elaboration or justification, or any kind of deep inner conflict.
 4. How does she feel about leaving her brothers behind?

 The only tinge of regret she shows about leaving home is for her brothers, she
writes how she regrets ‘leaving them to face the consequences and pick up the
pieces.’ However, there is not much sense that she ever intended on staying.
She shows clear and almost detached commitment to her escape.

5. What impact does this have on her parents?

 She describes how her mother becomes “emaciated, letting grief eat away at
her.” It seems her mother is almost mourning the loss of a loved one. She
becomes a vegan, abstaining from meat and seeking forgiveness and strength
from Buddha.
 She describes how both parents are “emptied of all hope”, and “finally
surrendered to their own sorrow.” They appear to change, and try to repair their
relationships with their sons after closing down the family restaurant, but there
is a sense that it is a household pervaded by despair and sadness. They are still
cut off from mainstream society, “a monastic existence”.

PRACTICE PARAGRAPHS: TOPIC SENTENCES

 REBELLION AGAINST PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS CAN BE IMPORTANT TO

ESTABLISHING AN IDENTITY.

 MANY AUTHORS DESCRIBE UNHAPPINESS IN THEIR FAMILY LIFE AND THEIR

RELATIONSHIPS WITH CONTROLLING AND EVEN ABUSIVE PARENTS.

 PARENT’S ATTEMPTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM AUSTRALIAN SOCIETY

CAN LEAD TO CONFLICT AND CRISIS.
 EXAMPLE PARAGRAPH

Some writers explore their rebellion against parental authority,

T TOPIC SENTENCE
and how it is essential to developing an identity.
EVIDENCE (eg.s In Pauline Nguyen's short story 'The Courage of Soldiers' she
E
from the text) relates how she runs away. . .
 EXPLANATION
E (what the example asf
shows)
LINK SENTENCE
L (link back to the topic sdf
sentence / theme)

READ and WRITE

Use the board notes to develop your own answers to each question. Please write detailed
responses, at least a paragraph in length (when possible). Remember - this is reading
and writing in preparation for a full essay, so you want to write something that will be
useful to you in doing that.

When you are finished the questions - write a paragraph using one of the above topics as a
start.