Genre
Thriller
Setting and Context
Paris in the early 1980s.
Narrator and Point of View
The story is told from the first-person point of view of the Sympathizer, who is the narrator of the novel.
Tone and Mood
Violent, brooding, solemn, oppressive, and scheming.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Sympathizer (protagonist); The Commandant (antagonist).
Major Conflict
Sympathizer's attempts to assimilate in a new country, deal with the people in the country, and make a living for himself.
Climax
When Sympathizer's re-education is completed.
Foreshadowing
The rape foreshadows what will happen in the mind of the narrator.
Understatement
The extent to which Sympathizer is degraded by his profession is understated through sections of the novel.
Allusions
To the history and culture of the United States, France, Vietnam, religions of the world, popular culture (other novels, including those of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and films), as well as the geography of France.
Imagery
As Sympathizer's life grows more dark, more intense imagery surrounding drug use is used.
Paradox
Sympathizer is an intelligent man but decides to sell drugs, a profession typically for those with lower-than-average IQs.
Parallelism
The story of many immigrants from Vietnam are paralleled with each other: their struggle to make money and fit in and their experiences in their old and new countries.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
n/a
Personification
France is personified in the novel.
