Last Night I Dreamed of Peace Essay

What will you sacrifice in times of hardship?

One will in return for self reward, satisfaction, happiness will sacrifice themselves for a belief or cause and that is exactly what Dang Thuy Tram does throughout her diary. In the book there are many themes such as inspiration, love, war, youth, grief, among others, but a recurring theme that stands out is the theme of self sacrifice. Dang Thuy Tram. Chose a life of sacrifice. She spent many years of her life at the front lines in South Vietnam treating wounded soldiers while battling sadness, grief and of course love. But Dang Thuy Tram shows this theme of self sacrifice throughout the book in a very subtle or sometimes very open. Since the book is a diary, it shows a lot of emotions from Dang Thuy Tram. This is why the theme of self sacrifice varies in recurrence and in degree of exposure. Of course the theme of self sacrifice comes to Dang Thuy Tram in many ways wether is internal or external. This essay will examine the theme of self sacrifice in the book "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace" showing how Dang Thuy Tram portrays the role of self sacrifice between the years of 1968 and 1970. by looking at how she is fighting to put her sentiments aside and focus on her tasks. Also by examining how she devoted her self to the cause of the North Vietnamese at such a young age and how this impacted her both emotionally/mentally and physically. Another point of interest is the fact that she is able to recognize her imperfections and tries to overcome them for the greater good.

First of all, we can see that throughout the book, she is fighting her sentiments whether they are sentiments of love, hate, remorse, grief, sadness, etc. We see her constant struggle to keep her self at bay. There are entries where we see her happy and full of love but just as there are entries filled with great sentiments there are entries filled with grief and sadness and hatred, but interestingly enough she recognizes these feelings and knows that they are not well for her because when she feels this way she cant performed to her full potential and we can see how she is fighting to put her sentiments aside and focus on her tasks. For example on the 11 of February 1969 there is a small but very powerful and interesting entry that shows how Dang Thuy Tram recognizes her sentiments and knows that she needs to put them aside. Thuy Tram says, "Thuy you must never let sentiment be separated from reason. Therefore... put away the longings that are burning in your heart to focus on your tasks..."(pg.90) In this entry we see Dang Thuy Tram struggle with herself and her sentiments but she is fighting to put them to the side and "focus on her tasks" now it is very interesting how the passage doesn't say what are her sentiments or task so there are many interpretations that one could express from this passage, my interpretation is that she knows that her feelings are not adequate for the common cause, that her sentiments are getting in the way from her doing her tasks and duties in representing the communist party. She needs to give herself completely to the North Vietnamese government that has a "greater common cause" and she is unable to do so because of her "bourgeois" background, however, she eventually overcame this by her dedication, humbleness, sympathy, skill and compassion. Her dealing with these sentiments and feeling clearly shows the theme of self sacrifice expressed by Dang Thuy Tram emotional distress.

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