The same can be said about Truong Cho. "The romantic story ends in a
motif typical of depicting utter despair (his heart turned into a transparent
deep-red crystal). And here, again, the closing outcome is broken by the
last detail: the tear drops of My Nuong broke the cup made out of that red
block. Is it the positive symbolism typical of Eastern optimism - a
dissolved despair or the implication that any love passion, however great,
cannot break down social class barriers?" (Nguyen Dong Chi: 2515). The
reader can also see humanistic feelings and the love for natural justice
behind the rational strains of thought. Nguyen Dong Chi also warns against
taking rigid contemporary views in analyzing folk tales, for example,
attaching ideological "labels" as it has been done with written literature,
because folk stories came into being as result of naive artistic inspiration,
"the expression and implication" are "the realities of the folk culture"
(Nguyen Dong Chi: 2463).
Nguyen Dong Chi was also successful in presenting even the minute details
in a systematic way. Commenting on the active roles of female characters
in Vietnamese folk stories, various stereotypes (motifs) are identified in
terms of their behaviour and role relationship. Two main types are:
rebellious and defending females. From these two, three sub-types are
derived:
. Rebellious female: awakening / riotous / heroic.
. Defending female: persevering / witty / martyr.
His classification has summarized all the characteristics and personalities
of the female characters in Vietnamese folklore.
The link between folk stories and the geographical features of the region
where whey came from were also identified in Nguyen Dong Chi’s work.
This is a two-way relationship, Le, life provides the background and the
