Sunny Yu answers “I loved the book and thought it taught me...”

Ray asked this question about The Sympathizer (The Sympathizer, #1):

I loved the book and thought it taught me a lot but I was confused and disappointed at the final chapters. The narrator is captured and tortured by his best friend, now the commissar of a POW camp. He is deprived of food, sleep, given sensory deprivation. All of this is done according to the friend "to save him". Eventually, the author is "saved". Why did the author need to add these chapters?

Sunny Yu I think the ending section of the book is one of the best parts of the book. It serves as a reflection of the protagonist's identity, fear, guilt, and…moreI think the ending section of the book is one of the best parts of the book. It serves as a reflection of the protagonist's identity, fear, guilt, and forgotten memory, and also brought to attention the final answer the Commissar has been looking for--Nothing. The "nothing" here is not only the literal nothing but also individualism. This is because in the first chapter of the book, the nameless protagonist called himself nothing. In the book, his name is never revealed, and his very identity is being torn apart. The "nothing" here refers to the opposite of collectivism, which is individualism, and that is the answer to the question what is more precious than freedom and independence.
Also, I find the resemblance to the ending section of 1984 very interesting. Whether a coincidence or delicate act of reference, the plot of interrogation and torture reveals the essential conflict of being a sympathizer of only one regime and the double (duality) identity of the protagonist who is himself mixed-raced, has lived in Northern and Southern Vietnam, and can not identify between American and Vietnamese. The interrogation is a great way to purposefully showcase the identity crisis of the character and his internal and external conflicts.
Also, another very interesting thing is the use of "we" in the last chapter. When the author realizes his "two sides", namely the "me" and "myself", he starts using the pronoun we instead of I in the narration, which sounds very psychotic. As weird as it sounds, it is a sign that the protagonist has finally embraced his complex and conflicted identity as a son, a revolutionary, and countryman of the country that has torn apart from war. (less)

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