Forgotten

Tell what you noticed about the characters or people in this section. Try to analyze what made them act as they did or the decisions they made.

When the Vietcong started attacking Vietnam the life of Kien Nguyen changed forever. Because his mother was wealthy, everything would be taken away from them and because his father was an American, he would always be looked down upon for being a "half breed". When the Vietcong was close to their town, his mother was advised to flee their village, took them away to Saigon. Her problem was that she waited too long to get out of the country. She acted this way because, for one she didn't want to leave her parents behind and they refused to leave their country. She also didn't realize the severity of the situation, so they waited in Saigon and after a series of events watched the last plane, out of Vietnam, fall from the sky.

After the Vietcong took over Saigon, all people were forced to go back to their towns. People everywhere were scared into spying on their neighbors. Those who were once poor and who had become part of the cong party weaseled their way into the wealth of the capitalist families. Everyone was afraid and so they picked on this "half breed" child. During this time people were not able to be who they wanted to be.

Both Kien's mother and her servant, Loan, were pregnant with Lam's child (he was Vietnamese) and both of them tried to abort the child after Lam deserted them in Saigon. Because Loan's child was younger, she was able to abort it. Kien's mother, however, ended up giving birth to a mentally challenged child. She was desperate and sold everything that she had left to feed her children. She even secretly gave blood to get money for Kien's schooling, because he was a very smart child. In her desperate state, she would go into fits, scaring and hurting her children. She covered their heads with black dye and had their hair cut short to hide their blond curls.

After Lam's escape from Saigon failed, he came back to their family. Kein's mother did not want him back, but because he was the only male (minus the elderly father) their "leader" put him in their family. She wanted nothing to do with him and so he raped Kien to get relief. This made the boy scared to death of him and eventually the mother was able to pull it out of him. He wanted to leave them because he was miserable and she "helped" him out, but really she was able to get him arrested by using the fact that he raped her servant Loan, among other things.

Other events happened as well which made his life worse. I think that everyone acted the way that they did because either they were desperate and didn't trust anyone or they wanted to get money/power out of this "communist" community.