Rucksack

The narrator receives a rucksack with a false bottom from Claude when he graduates. The rucksack represents not only his friendship with Claude, but also his life as a spy. He carries the tools he uses to report on the General's activities in the false bottom of the rucksack. When he returns to Vietnam, he feels the rucksack grow heavy because it carries the guilt he's assumed in maintaining his false identity, namely the deaths of the crapulent major and Sonny. Finally, as the novel comes to a close, the narrator carries the lengthy manuscript of his confession in the rucksack so that it literally contains the story of his life as a spy.

Red Envelopes

The narrator recounts the first New Years in his memory in which he and his cousin received red envelopes with money in them from their aunts. One aunt refused the...