Free Essay On Nam Le’s, “The Boat”

“The Boat,” by Nam Le is a collection of stories based on the perspectives of children from around the world. They range from children growing up in poverty in Columbia, to a sinking South Chinese ship. The stories are Le’s successful attempt to show what it means to be human, as well as what it means to be a child around the world, showing the different ways in which people develop and grow, sometimes shirking childhood entirely. “The Boat,” argues that while children all have different perspectives based on cultural upbringings, when a violent cultural pattern exists, children are forced to shift their perspective and give up their youth.
Le uses interesting and engaging narrative techniques in many of the stories that keep the reader engaged in the novel’s writing. For example, in the two stories entitles “Cartagena,” and, “Hiroshima,” he best illustrates his use of the first person technique. The stories both contain children as the main character, and they use similar narrative techniques to illustrate the theme of the story, which of course is the individual’s experience with childhood or lack thereof. Le uses this primary narrative technique throughout, “The Boat.” He begins, initially, by introducing the reader to two young children living in separate parts of the world: young Juan Pablo, and little Mayako. The reader becomes emotionally invested in the two children, their lives, and their experiences throughout childhood thanks, in part, to Le’s narrative technique. The reader also becomes personally invested in the destiny of the two children. First person allows the reader to feel a personal connection with the characters in the book, as though they are there, experiencing what the children experience. Moreover, first person narrative does not tyrannically tell the reader what to be feeling, but instead shows them how the children are feeling, allowing the reader to follow along in sympathetic emotion which is more effective. The characters typically feel between two extremes: anger and peace, eliminating the reader’s judgment of them or their circumstance when learning about their story. The narrative allows the reader to feel closer to the character, as if they are learning intimate details about them. In Cartel the story is personal and the reader becomes attached to the child because there is no judgment; only the feelings of the character are relayed. Similarly, in Hiroshima, it allows Westerners to understand the opposing side of the atomic bomb story especially that of a child, and what was robbed of them for the rest of their lives. The narration does give a different view of the “boy vs. girl” argument, allowing the reader to get the whole picture, while also gaining a different perspective of “us vs. them” as it offers a new mentality that takes particular impact toward the end of the novel.
Hiroshima was, perhaps, one of the most traumatic of the stories included in the book. It showed how intense and dramatic the situation was from a child’s perspective in Japan. The story set in WWII during Japan’s battle with allied powers, young Mayako is being sent to a camp for children in an effort to help save her, and other children like her, during the war. She acts as our narrator throughout the novel. Supplies are low in the camp due to the war, and luxuries are few. The children are unable to see their parents as often as any child should, further decreasing their already deteriorating quality of life. Sometimes they go months without seeing their families, which goes against many of the cultural values the Japanese hold dear. In Japan, family, as well as the family’s honor, is held in the highest regard. Keeping a close family unit, and keeping close in contact is important to the Japanese, demonstrating how difficult these separations were for Mayako, her family, and other children like her in Japan during World War II.
Cartagena was also a story that showed the intensity of life for a child who had, essentially, no business being that stressed. The story depicts Juan Pablo, who plays the narrator. In it, Juan Pablo is a fourteen-year-old Columbian boy who could have been considered normal by any other accounts, except for the fact that he is a child mercenary, or an assassin. His story is one of death, violence, and ultimately his own survival as we learn just how much of his childhood was squandered in an attempt to survive to being an adult. The primary themes of Juan Pablo’s story are death, violence, poverty, and a severe lack of authority, structure, and education, with the presence of chaos and criminal power. Survival, as well as loyalty, and individualism are also present. Lacking the proper role models as a child, Juan Pablo was susceptible to following the wrong crowd, and eventually becoming an assassin or mercenary simply in order to stay alive himself. He adopted a kill or be killed mentality, though was still able, somehow, to maintain qualities like that of a child, because he still was the age of a child, which perhaps is what made his story so compelling.
The stories give a compelling, albeit sad, realization on the impact violence had on children of different ages around the world. Mayako and Juan Pablo’s stories both display what the phrase, “survival of the fittest” means, especially when one is a small girl, and one is a pubescent boy, both living in relatively hostile circumstances. Mayako would have benefitted from the comfort of her mother and father during such a tumultuous time, rather than the rambunctious cruelty of the other children. Juan Pablo could have benefitted from anything beyond that of the cruelty around him in Columbia, as he was surrounded by murder and brutalization instead of love and concern. Mayako and Juan Pablo both showcased survival of the fittest, as well as how they both came to have those attitudes, sloughing off the innocence of childhood in the extremely stressful situations they were in so that they may live to survive another day. They had to be considered the fittest, lest they be one of the few who did not survive. An interesting contrast between the two characters, though both in chaotic and dangerous circumstances, was how they came to adopt this attitude. For example, Mayako was calm about her circumstances. In Hiroshima, she exhibits the naivety only a young girl could exhibit in a time of war. She has no true knowledge of the opposing forces or the capabilities they possess, nor of the true horror and pain that could be unleased upon her at any moment. Through that calm, naïve outlook, she is brutalized, and the violence makes her hard. She does not remain the innocent child that entered the camp. When we meet Juan Pablo, however, he has an opposite reaction. When we meet him, he is angry. Furious with his life and his actions, the sociological status he has been forced into, he is wild with rage. The violence, however, begins to soften him, changing his outlook on the world. It appears he attempted to be hardened, or to be what he considered to be “a man” before he was ready psychologically, and the impact of the violence reverts him back to a more innocent state.
Violence and the circumstances throughout the book also had an impact on the children’s outlook on life. For example, in Cartel, Juan Pablo believes that, at fourteen he is an adult. As the grown man he believes he is, he thinks he is the breadwinner, and in order to survive he must kill. Violence is his form of survival, which ultimately leads him to commit the acts he does. Hiroshima attempts to justify the suffering of an entire country as a means of propaganda in the novel. It also uses loyalty to the country as a means of justification for the atrocities suffered by young Mayako and the children around her. Essentially, “The Boat” sought to show the children depicted had a chance at a childhood, but it was stripped from them. Though they appeared as children, and still had many childish qualities, in the end they were not children at all because that part of their lives was stolen from them. In Hiroshima, Mayako was so young when sent to the children’s camp during the war; it is argued childhood did not even exist for her. She was forced out of her naïve and innocent state before she even truly had a chance to experience it, forcing her into a premature adulthood in order to survive. Cartel shows how difficult the world can be in some places, especially for young boys, and young men, such as Juan Pablo. Forced into a situation where he must provide for himself and his family, he had no choice but to be an adult, because only adults provide for families. Perhaps he had a chance to be a child for a brief period, bit was eventually forced into an exponentially speedy period of growth wherein he was forced out of childhood in hopes of surviving.
In sum, “The Boat,” by Nam Le is the tragic, but accurate view of what it is like to be a child, or to grow up too quickly, in different parts of the world. It offers perspective on what it is like to be culturally diverse, while also offering new perspective on what it means to be a boy or a girl when growing up. Le also adds to the argument of sociological structure in terms of who stays a child, and who does not, while commenting on the psychological aspects of childhood and adulthood as one is forced to grow in order to survive in harsh circumstances. “The Boat,” shows how damaging the effects of a childhood ripped away can be and how, no matter the child’s gender, demeanor, economic status, or location, it can happen. Given the right circumstances, any child can be forced to grow up too quickly, setting them up for what promises to be a regrettably tragic story that garners nothing but sympathy from anybody who hears it.