Abstract: Taking the ethical choices of characters as the core, Viet Thanh Nguyen, a Pulitzer Prize winner, explores the relationship between self and the other in his representative novel The Sympathizer. From the perspective of a double agent of the Viet Cong, the novel shows the ethical dilemma of dual otherization because of the protagonist's complicated ethical identity. Facing the dilemma of ethnic ethics, “I” directly encounter two cultures with both the marginal stance of the other and the devil face of “uncanny” instead of choosing any culture. Finally, “I” disclose the inclusive logic of the cultures and deconstruct the oppression of false civilization on zoē, thereby resisting the subject's desire to digest the alterity. On the ruins of civilization, “I” choose to return to the essence of life to build the compassionate ethics based on zoē and form an ideal zoē community in the “face-to-face” communication of affection. With the help of dialectic of no choice and choice, Viet Thanh Nguyen contemplates how to construct the new ethical relationship between self and the other in the context of the other's return. This provides useful reference for the development of contemporary immigrant literature and cross-cultural ethics research.

Key words: Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer, the other