The Sorrow of War Essay - 1244 Words

The Sorrow of War Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel that is a personal view of the Vietnam War from the perspective of a Vietnamese soldier. Like the American novel â€Å"The things they carried†, this novel brings about the effects of war on people, and especially how it defeats the human capacity for things such as love and hope. Bao Ninh offers this realistic picture of the Vietnam War’s impact on the individual Vietnamese soldier through use of a series of reminiscences or flashbacks, jumping backwards and forwards in time between the events most salient in memory, events which take on a different theme each time they are examined. His main protagonist Kien, who is basically Bao himself, looks back not just at his ten years at†¦show more content†¦Along with not seeing the bigger picture soldiers lost their ordinary lives due to the war and the contrast was so different between pre and post war that it was hard to cope with life for the men fighting in the war. â€Å"For Kien, the most attractive, persistent echo of the past is the whisper of ordinary life, even though the sounds of ordinary life have been washed away by the long storms of war. It is the whispers of friends and ordinary people that are the most horrifying.†(63) The strongest emotions occur as the story unfolds and life takes over from childhood fantasies, destroying individuals and their families as a whole society is remade for instance Kien’s sweetheart before the war. Kien abandons his lover and instead spends the next years plodding through the jungle where everything dies. no jungle grew again in this clearing. No grass, no plants (26). He had no true friends and he learned not to fear death but rather wish it. When war ends he has a struggle to rebuild that was once loss, he can no longer see the good of things while he slowly goes insane with out love and hope and of course no sweetheart to aid him. A very sad and classical effect of a war that was wo rthless to its soldiers and people. The war had changed people in so many ways, as their former character of being sincere, at peace, and loving was slowly changed to chaotic, indecisive and unhopeful lives. People began to forget who they really were all due to the war, â€Å"ItShow MoreRelated The Sorrow of War Essay1313 Words   |  6 PagesIt can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effectsRead MoreThe Sorrow of War: Book Review998 Words   |  4 PagesThe experience of war brings out the moralities of war and the tragedies of loss and death. Bao Ninh portrays these realizations and tragedies throughout his novel The Sorrow of War. The stories told follow the central character Kien whose story shows the moralities of war and tragedies of loss and death. Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War is a novel depicts the horrors that are a result of war. 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Then, based on the summary, the similarities and difference s between the novel and the movie will be pinpointedRead MoreThe Sorrow Of War And Full Metal Jacket Essay1287 Words   |  6 PagesThe Sorrow of War and Full Metal Jacket both have one main element in common – the Vietnam War. Other than the similar time period, these two representations of the Vietnam War differ drastically. The Sorrow of War, a novel written by Bao Ninh, follows a North Vietnamese solider named Kien during his years fighting for the communist regime and documenting his hardships before, during, and after the war. Full Metal Jacket is a movie that depicts the American side of the war in Vietnam, focusing onRead MoreCharacterization In Bao Ninhs The Sorrow Of War1381 Words   |  6 Pagesmeaning of the work. Hoà  ng á º ¤u PhÆ °Ã† ¡ng is a Northern Vietnamese veteran of the Vietnam War. Under the pen name Bao Ninh, he is the author of The Sorrow Of War. In his fictional memoir, there is no chronological order and the memoir transitions from event to ev ent based on what triggers the next memories. Ninh recounts the hardships of the war and life after as a catharsis for the trauma he is inflicted during the war. As the memoir is a reflection of Ninh’s traumatized mind, Ninh utilizes an intendedRead MoreThe Character of Kien in The Sorrow of War Essay692 Words   |  3 Pagesand believed in the importance of a proper burial of the dead.nbsp; The survival and honor of the family rested on these beliefs.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Through the course of the war, Kien lost these values: his father was not properly respected, the dead were not appropriately buried, and were even forgotten.nbsp; After the war, the Kien spends his time struggling to return to these values and purge his soul of these sins. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; At the beginning of the novel, we learn that KienRead MoreSorrow Of War : The Thought That Goes Into The Title Of The Book 1121 Words   |  5 PagesSorrow of War: the thought that goes into the title of the book, or the translation in this case is what is important for anyone who is curious. It is short and efficient, if a bit simple, because it exposes the main theme of the book immediately while inviting the reader to see how and why. Survivors lucky that I cursed because they have to adapt to a society zombified by infected wounds bled past. What is curious alternative translation: The understanding of love. Labeling it a book of war in itsRead MoreVietnam War Themes in Books Wandering Souls and The Sorrow of War2283 Words   |  10 Pages Themes of a Soldier’s War The Vietnam War was hard for the country to handle, let alone a single soldier. Many soldiers dealt with different personal and physiological effects of this war. This war in Vietnam was different than any of the other wars. This war was unconventional, when we first entered it was more about the fight against the spread of communism then slowly changed over the years. Going into Vietnam was different in all senses from battle conditions, weather, and heavy jungle environment