The Sorrow of War

"The Sorrow of War" clearly depicts the result of the Vietnam War. The war was fought in Vietnam, therefore impacting Vietnamese people even more than just the loss of countless lives. Culture, landscape, society, and traditions were all devastated by the war. Kien has lived through the war as a solider and as a veteran. Even though the war was over memories and flashbacks continued to haunt Kien. Even though he physically survived the war he was mentally lost. His relationship with Phoung had been forever changed, not only because the course of time but because of war. The war affected Kien, he continuously narrators his stories but in the middle of his story he jumps to a flashback. I think that Kien wants to go back to his childhood, with Phuong, before his mother and his father died. He doesn't want the burden being one of the only men out of his platoon's comrades to survived the war. Kien writes, "What remained was sorrow, the immense sorrow, the sorrow of having survived. The sorrow of war" (Ninh, 193). Kien displays in this passage that no one is a survivor of war and if one survives, it is a burden they have to live with for the rest of their lives. Here is a link explaining the after effects of the Vietnam war. That even after 25 years, the war continues to impact many Vietnamese people.

http://www.commondreams.org/views/041700-106.htm