The book A Good Scent from a Bizarre Mountain written by Robert Olen Butler, a famous modern American fiction writer, includes several short experiences which can be narrated by the Vietnamese who reside in the United States of America. This assortment of short stories is made so that the people are interrelated and provide to develop the primary theme of the reserve: to depict both Vietnamese and the Americans. All of the narrators are the immigrants who emerged to Louisiana from Vietnam to be able to get their life again together after the Vietnam Warfare. Their communities are segregated by the North and the Southern lines as well as these were in Vietnam. Additionally they fluctuate in the spiritual views as Catholics and Buddhists.
It is well known that this booklet AN EXCELLENT Scent from a Bizarre Mountain was a great success with the readers and even triumphed in the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 1993. That is why it is very important to pay special focus on some facts from the author's biography in order to make a good evaluation of the literary work and also to compare the Catholic and the Buddhist as required in the essay.
Robert Olen Butler has a certain relation to the Vietnamese because he offered in Vietnam in 1969-1971 as a counter-intelligence agent and later as a translator and even obtained a get ranking of your sergeant. May be that was the primary reason of his great desire to create short experiences which depicted the Vietnamese whom he considered to be "the warmest, most beginning and welcoming people". Because of his literary works a large number of People in america as well as the viewers from other countries of the world have observed what kind of individuals are the real Vietnamese and the Vietnam War's effect on them.
All the tales included in the book touch upon the theme of faith both the Catholic and the Buddhist. It's important to say that the main characters speak in the way of great spirituality and they're sure that that religion is a vital thing for the coffee lover.
Let's compare and contrast the Catholic and the Buddhist and then prove the fact that Robert Olen Butler made everything possible in his book AN EXCELLENT Scent from a Strange Mountain showing the readers the importance of faith in the life of anybody. This theme is close to the author because he was the participant of cruel military actions of Americans in Vietnam, he noticed the death of peaceful people, he experienced their sufferings and sorrows, he obtained the knowledge of their culture and terms.
It is well known that Buddhist does not have confidence in God and also have no prophet. The Buddhist have neither a prayer nor a Bible. But the main thing is usually that the Buddhist believes that whenever you dye you will reborn once again.
Speaking about the Catholic they may have quite different characteristics of their religious principles. The Catholics believe in God. They have Jesus. They can tell about their sins to the priest. They pray and have a Bible. The Catholic thinks that after death they'll go to heaven or hell.
All the happenings described in the e book are linked with the other person in ways. Listed below are the titles of the brief reports which form the e book:
- Open Arms
- Mr. Green
- The Trip Back
- Fairy Tale
- Crickets
- Letters from my Father
- Love
- Mid-Autumn and in the Clearing
- A Ghost Story
- Snow
- The American Couple
- A Good Scent from a Peculiar Mountain
I believe that it is necessary to examine some of them to be able to see that the personas have a spiritual basis in their activities.
For example the first brief story Open Forearms which begins through the Vietnam War pays off the viewers' focus on the unmoral activities of the Australian troops who made the key identity Thap to display pornographic movies. Thap was a North Vietnamese Communist who became the spy in the Australian forces. He cannot put up with injustice and cruelty and by the end of the story he kills the Australian soldier and himself.
The second tale told with a Catholic woman shows that she will not want to put up with her grandfather's notion of misogyny. She actually is Catholic, she lives in the USA. However the parrot is the only thing that remind her of her ancestors. She says: "I'm a Catholic, the girl of a Catholic mother and father, and I really do not believe in the worship of my ancestors, especially by means of a parrot". Her grandfather discussed her that "the souls in our ancestors continue to need love and attention and devotion" but he didn't allowed her to worship her ancestors because she was a girl.
A Ghost Account says us about the nature of some woman who was very beautiful. First she helps the men to avoid their death but after that she returns in order to eat them.
A STORY BOOK, the other story of Robert Olen Butler, notify about Vietnamese prostitute Miss Noi who came up to the USA with her man. She results to the task of any prostitute again. But her meeting with a Vietnam Conflict veteran changes her life.
She is a Catholic woman. Here the writer again changes his persona to religion: "I pray in my little room in Saigon. I am a Catholic gal and I have a large statue of Mary in my own room. That Statue is Mary the mom of God I pray to Mary and I speak to her".
Here and in the rest of short testimonies included in the book A Good Scent from a Bizarre Mountain we find that the writer always identifies the religion. And that is the key point of all his works.
In conclusion I should say that Robert Olen Butler was the first writer who did not concentrate on the American Troops and the Vietnam Battle itself. His personas are mere Vietnamese using their problems and with the sorrows and joys. That's great that such a person as Robert Olen Butler could speak on behalf of the Vietnamese Us citizens. Although there are a few critics who think that he preserves aloofness to the Vietnamese culture which only true Vietnamese can write such testimonies. I really do not think so because I am sure that Robert Olen Butler is an honest and high-hearted one who respects the terminology, the culture and the religion of the Vietnamese.
