Phuc Tran does an amazing job in the prologue to “Sigh, Gone” (Prologue is entitled The Picture of Dorian Gray) in extending the themes of identify and allusion to the admittance of another Vietnamese refugee in his small-town.

After years, of dire-less attempts at American assimilation, the presence of Hoang Nyguyen (new refugee) takes on the fun-house mirror reflection of everything Phuc Tran attempted to discard in building new identify; thus the new student reflects the underlying (self-perceived) ugliness of his soul as a refugee.

> Hoàng was a fun-house mirror’s rippling reflection of me, warped and wobbly. I was Dorian Gray beholding his grotesque portrait in the attic, and I was filled with loathing. My disgust for Hoàng was complicated and simple at the same time: I was the Vietnamese kid at Carlisle Senior High School. Just me. Fuck that new Vietnamese kid.

> When Dorian Gray beholds his portrait in the attic and shows his friend Basil the horror of the painting, Basil is sickened. The portrait reflects the rot of Dorian’s soul, and it repels Basil just as I was repulsed by Hoàng.