The Ideals of Two Worlds: America and Vietnam

It is difficult to see beyond our field of vision. It is difficult to empathize with people we do not know exist. It is impossible to truly understand someone else’s pain, for we are not them. Those who live in developed nations can never truly know the hardship of those who live in third world countries; and by the same token, those who live in third world countries can only dream of a life where every day is not a struggle for survival. Through the comparison of The Notebook and Journey from the Fall, I will attempt to provide a never-before-seen perspective into the lives of American and Vietnamese. My essay will be an ideological analysis of the two films, with the intention of examining the cultural differences and maybe similarities in the United State and Vietnam.

To start, ideology stems from ideas, but it is more than just ideas. Ideas can be so powerful that, according to Terry Eagleton, “ideas are what men and women live by, and will occasionally die for” (13). According to Looking at Movies, a film can express ideological meaning; such meaning is the product of social, political, economic, religious, philosophical, psychological, and sexual forces that influence the filmmakers’ perspectives and decisions in making the film. It could be intentional or unconscious, but either way, it is a reflection of the ideology of the time and place in which the film was made. Another definition of ideology is that
“ideology signifies ideas and beliefs which help to legitimate the interests of a ruling group or class specifically by distortion and dissimulation” (Eagleton 30). Therefore, according to Eagleton, ideology can be a dangerous instrument, used in suppressing the interest of a certain group. To watch films passively is to watch it without discerning these ideas, to allow these ideas to continue to distort and dissimulate our sense of reality as being absolutely true. With ideology defined, we can move on to the analysis of the two films.

The Notebook is an American film made with all the formula of a Hollywood’s romance movie. The movie begins with a man named Duke who reads a story from a notebook to a female fellow patient. The story that Duke reads is an epic love story between a poor country boy, Noah, and a well off young women, Allie. The two had fallen in love, but due to the objection of Allie’s parents, they ended their relationship. As the years move on, the two also moved on with their lives. Allie had found herself a new man and fiancé. Due to a turn of event, Allie saw Noah in a newspaper standing beside the house they once loved each other in. It is this moment that Allie went back to Noah, not quite physically yet, but emotionally. The story ends with Noah and Allie living side by side until the day they passed away.

The Notebook may come off as just any other romantic movie, and the director might be offended if an implicit, ideological meaning was to be derived from it; however, ideological meanings do exist within The Notebook; it might not be an intentional decision on the writers and director part, but nonetheless, the ideologies exist. The American way of life and the American dream are portrayed in The Notebook. What was the problem with Noah being with Allie? Noah is a poor country boy, who just is not fit for Allie. Their social status is not the same, so Allie’s parents disapprove of Noah. Would this matter in a third world country where wealth is not the primary concern? In a capitalistic, “material world”, only the best will do (Dargis). Allie, with the pressure of “a disapproving mother”, she eventually “fell in love” with a “more socioeconomically appropriate fiancé in the wings” (Schwarzbaum). Even though the film did not hint at Noah’s own motive, it is not unreasonable to wonder why of all the females in the county, Noah had chosen to court Allie, initially with several failed attempts, but he continue to pursue her. It could be that Noah experiences love at first sight, but Allie’s grand inheritance could also be his motive.

Another ideological meaning portrayed in the film is women’s inequality to men. Women have for a long time, been in the shadow of men, and some may even say this inequality still exists today. The saying goes that behind every great man, there is a great woman. It is ironic how the same saying is not commutative - and behind every great woman, a great man exists. In the case of The Notebook, Allie was pressured into choosing the wealthier man by both of her parents but most strongly by her mother. The irony stems from the fact that Allie’s mother once too had loved a poor lumber worker, but had given that love up for Allie’s father, because he is wealthy. Instead of Allie’s mother siding with Allie on the issue of love, she insists that Allie marry rich. Allie’s mother had also been the victim of a society where decisions are implicitly handed down to women. It may seem that the ultimate decision to make is decided by women, but with a demanding society, it may not be a choice by them at all.


Journey from the Fall is a Vietnamese movie, directed by Ham Tran, depicting the harsh life after the Vietnam War for those who stayed and those who left Vietnam as refugees. After North Vietnam defeated South Vietnam in 1975, Long Nguyen, a former South Vietnamese officer, refuses to leave Vietnam and was sent to Reeducation Camp, while his wife, mother, and son fled by sea. After some time, Long thought that his family had died, and he gave up hope. However, when he realized that they were still alive; he tried to escape and rejoin his family. The story continues with Long’s attempted escape at home and his family’s attempted escape at sea in which they all met grave obstacles. The film ended with Long’s death while escaping from the imprisonment and his family arriving in California, “where they are confronted with diluted versions of the same problems they faced in Vietnam: deprivation, discrimination and a hostile dominant culture that pushes them to assimilate” (Seitz).

An ideology in Journey from the Fall, similar to that in The Notebook, also concerns women’s inequality. In third world countries, women tend to have even less rights than women do in western countries. Long Nguyen, while refusing to leave the country, “orders his wife, Mai, his mother and small son, Lai, to flee by boat” (Thomas). Mai did not want to leave her husband behind, but his order is the final decision, because he is the “man of the house.” Fast forward to when Mai arrived in America, she now faces the pressure to assimilate into American culture. Matt Seitz describes Mai as “a newly arrived Vietnamese-American woman repudiating her ethnic identity.” The patterns seem to repeat that society often forces women to adhere to its ways.

The next ideology in Journey from the Fall might be more obvious. The ideal of loyalty was prevalent in Vietnam during the civil war between North and South Vietnam. Long Nguyen “stubbornly, even nobly but certainly foolishly, refuses to leave Vietnam, out of his loyalty to the fallen South Vietnamese government and a desire to continue in some undefined way to fight for his country” (Kevin Thomas). The film portrays Nguyen as being patriotic and as someone who truly loves his country. However, this love cannot be for his country, because both sides are his country. He is a victim of ideology, in which society pressures him to be loyal to his region and his region’s ways.

In conclusion, life in America and in Vietnam is very different. The American dream influences Americans to make decisions based on capitalistic motives, including when it comes to love. In Vietnam, the ideal of loyalty causes the death of Long Nguyen; ideal, even though it is an abstract concept, causes men and women to die for it. In both films, it seems to convey the ideological meaning that women often are controlled by society, or at least society attempts to. Journey from the Fall and the Notebook showcase how ideology can be used to suppress the interest of women and the poor. Ideology is not just an idea, it’s “the way” of life.