Between 1930 and 1945, Vietnamese people suffered immensely under French colonial rule. Poverty and hunger were pervasive, pushing people to their limits. This tragedy reached its peak during the final stages of World War II, when the Japanese replaced the French but continued the brutal exploitation. Natural disasters, crop failures, the forced cultivation of jute instead of rice, and the disruption of food transport from the south to the north resulted in mass starvation.
Literature often reflects the realities of its time. During this period, the fear of hunger dominated all literary trends, from critical realism to romanticism, and across various themes, from farmers to intellectuals. Writers explored individual fates, thereby reflecting a broader societal picture. In *Nam Cao - The Glorious End of the Realistic Literature Movement*, Professor Phong Le noted, "Entering the 1940s, realistic literature gained a new characteristic - a grayness, a growing anxiety about hunger - hunger as the culmination of widespread impoverishment in many forms."
During the famine, people had few choices. For them, having something to eat was enough. The bran meal of the prostitute Chuot and her child (*Poverty* - 1945, Nam Cao) is consumed in silence, their only focus on swallowing to alleviate their hunger. Many families didn't even have bran; they ate bran mixed with sawdust, water hyacinth, and clay to survive (*Making Full* - 1938, Ngo Tat To). Later, in *Stories of Old Hanoi* (1986), the story *Starvation* by To Hoai describes Di Tu struggling to survive on dried oil cakes: "The dried oil cakes swelled in her stomach, but after several days, her stomach remained bloated."
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Giap Bat Camp, Hanoi, where famine victims gathered in 1945. Photo archive |
Giap Bat Camp, Hanoi, where famine victims gathered in 1945. Photo archive
In 1945, hunger escalated into a widespread famine. More than 2 million people died, leading President Ho Chi Minh to compare, "Famine is more dangerous than war. For example, in six years of war, France lost only 1 million people, Germany only about 3 million. Yet, in half a year, the famine in North Vietnam killed more than 2 million" (*President Ho Chi Minh's Appeal Against the 1945 Famine*).
The landscape was bleak and desolate, covered in a gray pallor. Groups of people wandered, begging from province to province. Corpses littered the streets, indistinguishable by age or gender. This haunting image is captured in Van Cao's poem *The Hearse Passing Through Da Lac Ward* (1945):
"At the tilted intersection, the hearse
Enters the smoky alley of Cong Yen
A sense of unease on the ethereal grass path
The scent of opium lingers in a hazy dream
The wheels grind on the asphalt
- Who scraped the bones, poured skulls into the cart?
The Devil's chariot passes through four desolate roads
Carrying tens of thousands of lost souls out of the abyss"
This situation was later recounted starkly by Bang Ba Lan in his 1957 poem *Hunger*:
"A nauseating stench, faint yet horrifying,
A heavy, strange, bland odor,
(A stench that lingers, haunting me,
Making meals tasteless for a month!)
Those corpses fainted, slowly dying,
Lying crooked, eyes wide open.
Tears still lingered in their pupils,
Mouths twisted as if in unfinished cries.
Some corpses lay there for three days,
Flies from all directions buzzing around...
Then, by the roadside, a few careless shovelfuls
Hastily covered the shallow, deceitful graves!"
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Children suck on rotten snail shells picked up from the street in Nam Dinh city. Photo archive |
Children suck on rotten snail shells picked up from the street in Nam Dinh city. Photo archive
Beyond the physical realities and the struggle for survival, writers also delved into the psychological tragedies of the famine. Literature questioned how human morality and conscience were challenged. Food could become a source of shame.
The old woman in *A Full Meal* (1943, Nam Cao) humbles herself to beg for food, ignoring her fear of the two vicious dogs at Mrs. Pho Thu's house to eat leftovers, and then dies from overeating. The author describes, "The old woman hurriedly ate. But they ate too quickly. Everyone was silent, focused, and eager. As one pair of chopsticks lifted, another descended. Continuously. The old woman's hands were clumsy, unable to take advantage of a moment to pick vegetables into her fish sauce bowl. In her haste, she spilled the fish sauce… She scraped the pot vigorously."
Commenting on Nam Cao's works on this theme, Professor Nguyen Dang Manh wrote that they are "a cry for help to save the personality, dignity, and humanity of people being eroded, stunted, and destroyed by hunger and food."
Not only farmers but also formerly well-off intellectuals like Sinh and Mai (*Hunger* - 1937, Thach Lam) succumbed to hunger. Mai, in destitution, accepts to sell herself, sacrificing her dignity and honor for a meal for both of them. Sinh is angered by Mai's actions, but he too gradually loses his self-respect, unable to resist food. He "looked down at the scattered food under the table, glanced around furtively, and didn't see Mai there anymore… Hesitantly, fearfully, Sinh reached for the piece of red meat. He ate quickly, without chewing or swallowing properly. He clutched the greasy meat in his hand, without thinking, continuously bringing it to his mouth."
Through their predominantly realistic style, writers from 1930 to 1945 exposed the suffering of people whose humanity was tested by their efforts to survive. Most of these works end in tragic, hopeless situations.
After the August Revolution, reality changed, and so did the perspectives of writers. While also reflecting on the 1945 famine, Kim Lan's *The Acquired Wife* (1954) offers a different ending. When the woman mentions the Viet Minh, Trang remembers the hungry people raiding the Japanese rice warehouses. The image of "the hungry people and the fluttering red flag" appearing in Trang's mind brings hope for a different future for the poor, a journey from "darkness to light".
Khanh Linh
