The Mountains Sing

How might the fate of Diệu Lan and her children have been better or worse had she heeded Tú’s advice and fled to the South?

This is Nguyễn’s first English-language publication. Defend or critique her decision to write this story in the language of one of modern Vietnam’s greatest oppressors.

Nguyễn frequently includes the Vietnamese language in her novel, and she preserves Vietnamese spellings and diacritics wherever possible. What is the impact of these choices?

Compare Minh’s decision not to accompany his family to the United States with Hạnh’s choice to leave Minh on his deathbed.

In a novel where names hold enormous importance, it is telling that the only characters not to be dignified with real names are villains. Defend or critique this choice.

Analyze Nguyễn’s decision to leave Hoáng’s fate unclear. How would definitive evidence of his death have impacted the story?

Little House in the Big Woods plays a major role in Nguyễn’s novel. Analyze the use of this book in particular for this story,

To what degree does Nguyễn’s novel minimize the plight of the peasant class in the years leading up to the Land Reform? How might Nguyễn have remedied this minimization?