Jakara's AP Blog

Review      The novel, The Sorrow of War was about a Vietnamese solider struggles before and after the war. The story shifts between pre-war events and post-war events. the novel is told so out of order, at times it was hard to comprehend if Kien was telling a flashback or if he was in present times.The book overall is about love and loss and also about how soldiers and civilians deals with the aftermath of the war. After reading the novel, not only do I know the American point view of the Vietnam war but I now know some of the Vietnamese point of view about the war.      Reflection      The Sorrow of War was such a heartbreaking novel. Some scenes in the novel were so vivid that sometimes it was hard to read. Though the scenes were gruesome, I am happy that I was given the chance to experience some of the events of Vietnamese war. The story was so detailed that it was hard not to turn the next page. Kien and Phuong relationship was not some fairytale out of a Disney story

1. "You're really beautiful." Then as a veiled warning he had added, "You will be unhappy. Most unhappy. These are perilous times for free spirits. Your beauty one day will cost you dearly." (Pg 129) This quote characterize Kien's Father as a mysterious man because he never states why Phuong beauty will cost her. 2. "A sudden, darkly powerful sense of guilt had struck home; he responded prudishly, tearing himself from her arms." (Pg 133) This quote represents the man vs. self conflict. Kien wants to be with Phuong but his going off to war soon is preventing him from getting close to her. This quote characterize Kien and Phuong as a couple who is in love but the war is stopping them from being together.

1. "Peace had rushed in brutally, leaving them dazed and staggering in its wake. They were more amazed than happy with the peace." (Pg 107)   This quote represents the man vs. self conflict. The man are so used to being in war they are uncertain of what to do now that there are at peace. This quote represents the theme of PSTD. The man are having a hard time recovering from the traumatic events of the war. 2. " There are times when he feels that only death will give him a real rest. In his childhood he heard the saying: One's life is only a handspan; he who sleeps too much shortens it by half. (Pg 116) This quote represents the man vs. self conflict. Kien feels as though he is running out of time to complete unfinished tasks. This quote characterize the man as lost. The war was all the man knew, now that it is over they are unsure of what to do with themselves.

1. " The sorrow of war inside a soldier's heart was in a strange way similar to the sorrow of love. It was a kind of nostalgia, like the immense sadness of a world at dusk. It was a sadness, a missing, a pain which could send one soaring back into the past." (Pg 94)   This quote characterize Phan. Phan is characterized as a man who will always suffer from a traumatic memory of war.   This quote represents the theme trauma. Because Phan was not able to save the drowning and wounded man he is tormented by the memory. 2. " Now, even after many years, whenever I see a flood I feel a sharp pang in my heart and think of my cruel stupidity. No human being deserved the torture I left him to suffer." (Pg 94) The quote is the man vs. man conflict. Because Phan was not able to save the man he will always wonder what he could have done different in order to save him.  This quote relates to the theme survivor's guilt. Phan survived the bombing and the flood but,

1. "He thought of them as part of his life being blown away in wispy sections, leaving vast, open areas of complete emptiness, as in his own life" (Pg 68)    This quote represents the themes loneliness and suffering. Kien has no family he can confide in, resulting in him suffering postwar trauma alone.    The setting  in which the scene of this quote takes place is lonely and calm. 2. " Nothing lasted forever in this world, he knew that. Even love and sorrow inside an aging man would finally dissipate under the realization that his suffering, his tortured thoughts, were small and meaningless in the overall scheme of things." (Pg 71)    This quote relates to the theme hope. Kien realizes that the problems he are facing today probably will not matter in about ten years.    This quote characterize Kien. Although Kien is facing many postwar problems he is not letting them make him give up hope on a better future.