Tôi Thấy Hoa Vàng Trên Cỏ Xanh (I see the yellow flowers on the green grass)

Source: Google Image

Student: Tammy Nguyen

Country: Vietnam

Language: Vietnamese

Title: Tôi Thấy Hoa Vàng Trên Cỏ Xanh (I see the yellow flowers on the green grass)

Author: Nguyen Nhat Anh

Year of Publication: 2010 ( best seller )

Summary:

This diary is about an adolescence boy’s life in a small countryside. His name is Thieu.  At the time, he was in seventh grade, living in a poor town with his little brother Tuong.  He loves his brother very much. Thieu has nature of being gentle, generous and innocence.  He also likes to play with little animals such as small snakes and insects.

He has desire and love for reading fairy tale books, especially the tale about the Frog and the Prince. For this fascinating reason, he looks after a frog underneath his bed. In contrast, his older brothers are the opposite of him, sly, and selfish. Serval times his little brother has been burden with heavy responsibilities because of many disruptions caused by the older brothers.

Thieu’s diary talks about an open harmonious relationship between brothers and classmates during their  childhood time. Dan is the name of his uncle who usually talks about the ghost at night. The brothers get scared but also excited even when they hear the same ghost story so many times.

Behind two brothers’ house is a burial-ground on a huge land.  After school, all the kids, go to this place and play fun games like Tick-Tack-Toe,Tag and I-Spy . They also collect leaves and flowers, which they break up pretending it is part of noodle soup or they are chicken or beef to purchase and sell.  The kids are so poor that their parents cannot provide meat for them to eat on a regular basis. When they play, they imagine that it is the leaves and flowers are real meat in order to prevent the craving.

The burial-ground is between Thieu’s parents’ house and Man’s house. Every time his mom tells him to go there to buy an egg or fish sauce. When Tuong wasn’t home, he is the one who always help his mom do things in the house because Thien is very good in school so they let him concentrate on his studies.

One day, Thieu has to pass the cemetery to get to his house. Initially, he was very scared to pass this area because of an image of a ghost came to his mind. He ran very fast as possible to get home. However, his house somehow was destroyed from a fire. His mom was suspected in the destruction of her home. There were bonds discovered in the ashes. Eventually, the authorities arrested his mom.

Thien likes Man but he is shy so he is not able to talk to him very much. Tuong and Man usually play together because they enjoy the same hobby. Thien used to play with other children,  but now he feels that he is too big to play kids’ games. Whenever the kids laugh,  they are actually trying to make Thien jealous of his brother.

Another day, Thieu heard someone talking and hiding behind the wall. It was Tuong and Man talking to each other about eating a chicken. He thought that they hid the chicken so they don’t let him eat. Thieu is angry although still caring, but now he is hurting. Now all the bad feelings is under his lip, and now he feels like he cannot breathe. As Thieu trembles, he goes and sees his brother and grabs the switch which his father uses to punish them. The poor little brother receives repeated beating on his skinny bear back by Thien until he collapsed on the floor. Then he looked on the table, surprisingly, there is not a single piece of chicken but rather just leaves. He was shocked and felt sorry for beating up his little brother for unjustified reason. However, Tuong has a big heart, so he forgave his big brother.  He always wanted to protect his big brother, especially from bullies. His love for his brother is huge and wide as the sea. After that incident happened, he told his brother and Man that if anybody ask about what happened, just tell them I fell down from a tree. However, they know that their father is going to beat Thieu with his switch or may even kill him. Thien felt regret about about this incident and about his obsession he felt for Man. He carries this burden to this day.

Recommendation:

Nguyen Nhat Anh wrote this book is about a diary of a young adolescence boy. This book is a best seller in Vietnam. You will really enjoy the vivid details of the country side life where children play simple imaginary games and fight over small things. You will get to read about exciting things like fairy tales and ghosts. In this diary, the children pretend that they are eating meat like chicken or beef when they know they will seldom have this luxury in life. There are a lot of emotions felt while reading this book, such as love, kindness, anger, sadness and forgiveness.