Open Wounds

Chapter 3

Term: flashback

At the end of chapter two, Le Ly is at The Embassy of the Socialist Republic where she filled out papers regarding her visit to Vietnam. She met a kind, European man named Per who will go with her to Ho Chi Minh City (the new Saigon). As Per and Le Ly talk about going back to home in chapter 3, Le Ly begins to remember that home is where one finds their heart. This book, even though it is a narrative, it consists of a plethora of flashbacks. A flashback is an insertion of an earlier event into the normal chronological order of a narrative. Many of Le Ly's flashbacks and memories of her childhood are what made her a strong woman. Le Ly was a spy, along with many other children, on behalf of the Viet Cong. In order to succeed as a spy, each person had to know all of the signals and different codes for situations. For example, one evening when the Republicans were about to move out, the signal for communicating this to everyone was hitting a broom on the roof of one's house. Each person had to also think quickly on their feet whenever they were questioned by Republicans. One night, Le Ly was out in a field when she saw Republicans making their way towards the village and she was able to alert her village by the color of her shirt. This action ultimately saved her village from a major threat. However, Le Ly was arrested and taken to the Don Thi Tran prison. Fortunately, Ba, Le Ly's sister, had a husband who was able to order for Le Ly's release from prison. After returning home, Le Ly was praised for her bravery by the village and was seen as a hero by smaller children and adults. Le Ly was later arrested and taken to My Thi torture camp, which was the torture camp feared by most. After three days of gruesome torture in the camp, Le Ly was released from the camp due to a family connection on the Republican side. The fact that Le Ly was released so soon from My Thi aroused much suspicion in her village. Many believed she had revealed secrets about the Viet Cong, and she was going to be killed because of her suspected betrayal to the Viet Cong. However, Loi and Mau, the two men who were going to kill her, raped her instead and she was taken to a relative's house after. She was not to tell anyone of her double rape and she would continue to live. After she came back to her cousin's house, she had told herself, "From now on, I promised myself, I would only flow with the strongest current and drift with the steadiest wind-and not resist. To resist, you have to believe in something." Of course Le Ly learned at a young age, if she was going to go against the majority(the current) then she would have to have a strong conviction in the opposition. This chapter showed how Le Ly had gone through tortures at camps and through rape, but these only made her stronger. This quote sums up Le Ly's experiences in chapter three: "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger." -Friedrich Nietzsche. Even when things were nothing short of unbearable for Le Ly, she survived, and those experiences shaped her.