The Emperor of Gladness Literary Elements

Literary Fiction

The novel takes place in a town called East Gladness, which is located 12 minutes by car from Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. Most of the scenes occur at Grazina's house or at HomeMarket, though Hai and his found family occasionally venture elsewhere.

The novel is primarily written in the third person from Hai's perspective, though certain sections move into a third-person omniscient perspective. This lyrical and detached voice describes the town of East Gladness or narrates future events. Certain sections of the book are also written in the second person. For example, the introduction to the town of Gladness reads like a tour guide who brings the reader closer and closer to the heart of things.

The tone is a blend of existential, sardonic, disillusioned, and hopeful, while the mood is haunting, at times hilarious, and tender. Critics commend Vuong for his unflinching portrayal of pain, addiction, and the false promises of the American Dream.

Hai, a young adult struggling with depression, addiction, and economic stagnation, is the protagonist. The antagonist includes the forces that conspire to keep him and the other characters isolated and impoverished. One example is the ruthless capitalist society they live in.

The major conflict is Hai and other characters' struggles with addiction and depression. For instance, Hai, Sony, Grazina, and others struggle to reconcile their past traumas with their current lives. Systemic poverty also leads to precarious circumstances.

The climax may be identified at various points such as when Sony discovers the place where his father died or when Grazina is forced into a nursing home. The novel does not follow a traditional narrative structure.

–The opening scene in which Hai nearly takes his life foreshadows his ongoing struggles with despair, grief, and addiction.
–The gritty, post-industrial setting foreshadows the lack of an idealized resolution.

Addiction is normalized throughout the novel without there being any high-drama depictions. Instead, many of the characters quietly drink or take pills during their shifts. Overall, the novel mostly avoids tropes of sweeping, transformative changes. Instead, Vuong focuses on ordinary people attempting to preserve their dignity.

–Vuong alludes to various political and historical realities, from the prison- and military-industrial complexes to various global wars that impacted the characters' lives. The latter includes World War II and the Vietnam War.
–The novel is filled with religious references. For instance, the narrator describes the people of East Gladness as "biblical" in the first chapter. Some characters express religious beliefs or at least use divine language as profanity. When Hai goes to rehab, religious imagery and quotes are ubiquitous.
–Sony refers to himself and Hai as "beautiful, short losers" in Chapter 15, an allusion to Vuong's poem of the same name.

–Various establishments in the novel work to give the impression of warmth and closeness but in fact are run with the exclusive intention to make a profit. For example, HomeMarket, the fast-casual restaurant where Hai works, advertises the feeling of home-cooked Thanksgiving meals despite serving unhealthy, processed food. Maureen informs Hai that they are selling a lie, especially since BJ secretly adds vanilla cake mix to the corn bread (Chapter 9). Another example is the rehab center where Hai sought treatment before the events of the novel. The New Hope Recovery Center leans heavily on religious imagery, but according to Hai, "a rehab, under God or not, was still a business" (Chapter 5).

–Hai and his coworkers forge strong bonds of friendship even amidst economic hardship, addiction, and loss. They do so in a space designed by a corporation.
–Past memories haunt nearly all the characters, but Hai, Sony, and Grazina in particular discover the importance of remembering others. Hai honors his love interest Noah, Sony honors his father, and Grazina has moments where she honors herself through remembering.

In Chapter 11, Grazina tells Hai a story about her childhood friend named Marta. When Hai asks what happened to Marta in the end, Grazina replies, "'[n]othing,'" an answer that Hai finds difficult to accept. Later in Chapter 13, Russia discusses being haunted by the story of a man from his father's village who disappeared one night. The human desire for denouement echoes throughout this book, but it is never resolved in the characters.

Grazina calls Hai "Labas," which is the Lithuanian word for greeting another person. This is an example of metonymy.

–In Chapter 1, schoolbuses are personified when they are described as being "in various stages of amnesia."
–Hai looks up while on a short road trip to see that "the stars were already shivering above them" (Chapter 22).
–Hai describes dawn as "peeking its red eyes through the tree trunks beyond the lot" (Chapter 24).