FAMILIAL BONDAGES AND SUBJECTIVITY IN OCEAN VUONG'S THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS

Abstract

The Emperor of Gladness (2025) is the second novel by Ocean Vuong, published by Penguin Books, which involves a thorough investigation of the two-sidedness of familial bondages ties that both restrict and at the same time nurture, and also attempts to explore the subjectivity of identity, in the form of memory, trauma, and relationships between people. The story unfolds in the crumbling fictional East Gladness, Connecticut, where a 19-year-old Vietnamese-American with a depression problem, an addiction problem, and a family secret, Hai, develops a deep connection with an 82-year-old Lithuanian widow, Grazina, with dementia. Vuong opposes the biological family requirements with the so-called found or chosen ones, through the experience of Hai as her caretaker and his work in the HomeMarket fast-food restaurant, the problems of subjective perceptions, that are shaped by the cultural displacement, loss and mental health and redefine belonging. This paper discusses these themes by using close readings of major passages based on the poetic prose of Vuong to assert that subjectivity is a transformational one, that the characters can move in and sometimes even surpass the repressive frameworks of the traditional family relations in a socioeconomically disadvantaged American setting. Giving literary analysis intertwined with arguments of reviews and interviews, it points to the fact that Vuong rejects the idea of linear progress, believing that development arises due to the subjective, empathetic reinterpretations of relationships.