Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Sorrow of War, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory, Trauma, and Moving On
Love in Times of Hardship
Coping Through Writing
Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism
Summary
Analysis
Kien thinks back to 1965. He was still in school, and he would soon head to war. One day, the headmaster commanded all of the students to start digging trenches, but Phuong and Kien didn’t listen. Phuong had worn an attractive bathing suit beneath her clothes, so she and Kien snuck away to go swimming in the lake. As they swam together, they heard a choir singing in the schoolyard, and Kien was enthralled by Phuong’s beauty. This memory remains his last happy, peaceful memory. The rest of his memories are full of violence and horror. Now, as he writes, he feels fatigued by his own life, wishing he could just slip away into a state of eternal peace. But he can’t, he knows, until he finishes writing, as he feels like he carries the “burden of his generation” to finish this book.
Although the novel has already given readers a glimpse of Kien’s life as he finishes the novel, the narrative circles back in this section to a time when he’s still working on the book. And as he writes, he thinks back to what he regards as his last happy memory. The novel thus continues to spiral into the past, creating a nonlinear timeline that, though somewhat difficult to piece together, resembles the reeling, listless feeling of looking back on past moments of joy after a lifetime of grief—an undoubtedly discombobulating feeling.
Themes
Kien thinks about his parents. His mother was a devoted communist and urged Kien to look forward to when he’d be able to join the Youth Union. His father, on the other hand, was a somewhat reclusive painter whose art didn’t conform to communist standards, since the Communist Party frowned upon what it saw as overly intellectual art. Since his father’s paintings weren’t easily understood by working-class people, he fell out of favor with the art community, at which point his health declined and he went—according to Kien—a little crazy. He ended up taking his own life, though he didn’t die right away. He stayed alive long enough to say to Kien that times were changing, and that he would now face great hardship and sorrow.
Kien doesn’t have a particularly happy family history, suggesting that the war isn’t the only sad or troubling thing in his past. His father, though, seems to have predicted the outcome of the Vietnam War, recognizing that it would take a devastating toll on both Kien’s life and Vietnamese society as a whole.
Themes
Kien’s father burned all of his own paintings before his death. Kien resented him for a long time, not understanding why he would want to kill himself and destroy his own life’s work. Now, though, Kien has a better understanding. On the day of his father’s death, the air-raid sirens blared for the first time in Hanoi, and though it was only a drill, it still felt like the promise of the terrible hardship still to come.
To a certain extent, the death of Kien’s father signaled the death of Kien’s innocence, since Hanoi plunged into conflict on the very same day. There’s a very stark dividing line, then, between Kien’s prewar life—when he still had a father—and his wartime existence, when he found himself fatherless in a city speeding toward violent conflict.
Themes
Although Kien wasn’t close with his father and didn’t understand his eccentric ways, Phuong had a tight bond with him. She seemed to understand his artistic view of the world and would often come up to the attic to view his paintings. They often sat next to each other in complete silence as he worked. Once, Kien’s father noted that Phuong was very beautiful and that she would surely experience great unhappiness—it was inevitable in a world like the one she was growing up in. When he finally burned his paintings, Phuong was by his side, helping him and acting as a witness to the act.
Both Phuong and Kien’s father seem to share a certain cynicism or skepticism about the surrounding world. Kien’s father, for example, thinks that Phuong will experience hardship simply because of the way she moves through the world, which he implies isn’t able to accommodate people like her. Of course, it’s not all that clear (at this point, at least) what, exactly, Kien’s father means by this or why Phuong doesn’t fit into the world around her. Regardless, though, what’s important is that Phuong and Kien’s father are closely connected, which strengthens her bond with Kien while also creating a small amount of tension, since he himself doesn’t feel close to his father.
Themes
Get the entire The Sorrow of War LitChart as a printable PDF.
It wasn’t until they skipped the trench-digging to go swimming that Phuong told Kien she had watched his father burn the paintings. Kien had already volunteered for the army and would soon be leaving the city, so this was the final period of their youthful romance. In fact, Kien would be leaving the very next day. After they swam out far from the shore, they returned and lay on the banks at dusk. Lying close to each other, they watched a reddish glare appear on the western horizon and wondered if it was a flare alerting the city to an attack, but there had been no siren.
The narrative returns once more to Kien’s last truly happy memory, which takes place when he and Phuong lie next to each other by the lake shortly before he goes to war. This is most likely his final happy memory because it’s the last time he and Phuong are able to be with each other without the trauma of war interfering in their relationship. Of course, the war is very much present in this moment, since everyone else is preparing for violence and there’s an ominous glare in the sky, but these things haven’t yet fundamentally altered Phuong and Kien’s bond.
Themes
Even as it got cold that night, Phuong and Kien stayed on the banks of the lake. Phuong moved closer to Kien, pulling him toward her. He was nervous, but he gave in and kissed her passionately—until he was suddenly overcome by anxiety and guilt. He ripped himself from Phuong’s embrace, causing her to ask him if he was afraid. She was afraid, too, she said, but admitting that actually made her want to embrace the feeling anymore. But Kien said he didn’t think they should have sex, since he’d soon be leaving for war. Phuong was disappointed, saying that there would never be another moment like this, to which Kien simply insisted that he would come back some day.
Kien’s previous experience with Hanh—in which he came on too strong and then felt too embarrassed to see her again—has likely impacted the way he behaves in this scene. Even though Phuong actively wants to become sexually intimate with him, he can’t bring himself to let things progress too far, perhaps because he’s still reeling from what happened with Hanh. The entire situation once again calls attention to his lack of experience, thus highlighting the fact that he’s still quite young even though he’ll soon be going off to war.
Themes
Phuong noted that it would likely be years before Kien would return. What’s more, they had no idea what, exactly, he’d be coming home to. This conversation transitioned into a discussion of Kien’s father. Phuong claimed that she glimpsed into the future when Kien’s father burned the paintings. She then went on to lovingly criticize Kien’s commitment to the army and to the war. Unlike him, she felt like a “free spirit” who didn’t belong in this period of war—just like Kien’s father.
The reason Phuong doesn’t fit into the surrounding society becomes a bit clearer in this moment, as she explains that she’s a “free spirit” who is out of place in a culture fired up by wartime patriotism. Unlike Kien, who is—at this point, at least—enthusiastic to join the war effort, she feels more like his father, who valued things like art and beauty more than war and patriotism.
Themes
Phuong kissed Kien and told him she had always loved him. From now on, she said, she would be his wife—wherever he went, he would know that she was his wife, and then perhaps they would reunite someday. For now, though, they should take advantage of their last private moments together. Saying this, she drew Kien toward her, and he finally gave in, eventually baring her chest and kissing her breasts. But still, he couldn’t bring himself to have sex with her.
Phuong makes an emotional commitment to Kien in this moment, essentially assuring him that he will always have her heart. This, however, doesn’t change the fact that Kien is still quite young and unready to have sex, once again spotlighting the disturbing fact that the country has called on people as young and inexperienced as Kien to go off and kill others on the battlefield.
Themes
During their conversation by the lake, Phuong had challenged Kien’s ideas about the valor of war. She didn’t think killing enemy soldiers was an inherently honorable thing to do, as many other people seemed to think at the time. Later, when Kien forced the four commandos to dig their own grave after they killed the three young farm women, he was about to shoot them but then recalled Phuong’s words: “So, you’ll kill lots of men? That’ll make you a hero, I suppose?” He ended up sparing their lives.
In this moment, the novel circles back to a previous section—a section that actually took place many years after this conversation between Phuong and Kien, when Kien found himself rounding up four Southern commandos after they killed and raped the three farm women. Again, the fragmentary nature of the narrative represents how such traumatic experiences impact the way people think about their pasts, jumbling the memories because almost nothing can actually make sense of the horrific events. Readers now learn that Kien ended up sparing the Southern commandos because of the conversation he had with Phuong by the lake, in which she criticized him for thinking that wartime violence would make him a hero. By saying this, she essentially helped him see that patriotism doesn’t automatically justify violence and cruelty.
Themes
In 1969, when Kien was one of the only people in Battalion 27 to survive a nasty fight in the Jungle of Screaming Souls, he managed to hobble through the landscape and meet up with some other soldiers, who took him to a small field hospital. The entire operation was hardly equipped to heal anyone, but Kien convalesced there for two months, all the while drifting in and out of consciousness and dreaming of Phuong. He even thought the nurse attending to him was Phuong.
When Kien mistakes the field nurse for Phuong, it becomes quite clear that his memories of Phuong are responsible for helping him through some of the most trying and painful times of the war. Of course, Phuong isn’t actually there to care for him, but the mere thought of her seems to sustain him as he lies wounded in a shoddy, dangerous field hospital.
Themes
Later, Kien was transferred to a bigger hospital and wanted to know what had happened to Phuong, but another soldier—who had also been at the field hospital—explained that the nurse who helped him was someone else. She was almost certainly dead by now, the soldier said. The field hospital had been bombed just two hours after Kien was transferred.
A significant aspect of Kien’s overall experience in the war is that he is quite lucky. All around him, people are dying terrible, gruesome deaths. And though he does sustain some serious injuries, he manages to escape the war with his life still intact. This episode at the field hospital is a good illustration of just how lucky he is, considering that the tents were bombed mere hours after he left. With such luck on his side, it’s no wonder that he and the other surviving soldiers often invest themselves in supernatural explanations of what has happened to them, since these are perhaps the only ways of making sense of their otherwise unbelievable fortune (and, conversely, the misfortune of their deceased compatriots).
Themes
After Phuong and Kien ended their romantic relationship in the aftermath of the war, Phuong continued to live down the hall. Kien could hear the many men who came to visit her, but she eventually slowed down her practice of entertaining such guests. Still, when Kien realized it was her birthday and brought her flowers, he was surprised to see that she wasn’t alone: there was an older man in the apartment, and though she claimed that he was simply an artist, it was evident to Kien that there was something else going on between them.
It's clear that Kien has trouble moving on from his relationship with Phuong. This isn’t all that surprising, considering that they have such a long history together. Plus, the mere thought of returning to Phuong helped Kien through the worst moments of the war, so it’s undoubtedly hard to simply forget about their relationship now that he’s back. In turn, it’s even more difficult for him to ignore the idea that she might be seeing other people.
Themes
Kien went back to his room and stared at his novel pages. After a moment, Phuong came in and said she wanted to tell him something. She explained that she had to do certain things to support herself during the war—things that sometimes made her feel “like an animal.” She now felt “badly soiled,” but she also couldn’t simply stop living the lifestyle she had created for herself; this was how she would surely live out the rest of her life. Kien tried to convince her to come back to him, but she refused, saying that it wasn’t worth thinking about. It seemed like they could have been happy together, but that’s not how things went, and now they should finally part for good.
The implication here is that Phuong has been supporting herself as a sex worker for the past decade or so. The novel also suggests that Phuong feels guilty for earning her living this way but, at the same time, doesn’t know how else to live, since this is what she has been doing for so long. In turn, the novel indicates that it can be quite difficult to move on from certain lifestyles, especially if those lifestyles were adopted as a means of survival. Similarly, it has already been made clear that Kien has found it hard to abandon his soldierly way of moving through the world, as he responds to everyday life with the violence and fear of wartime.
Themes
Phuong told Kien that she was finally leaving their apartment building for good. She would leave that very night, she said. He embraced her, and they kissed for a while, but she cut it off and said it was time for her to go. He asked her if she was in love with the older man he found in her room, but she said she had only ever loved Kien. Then she left forever, leaving Kien to consider the fact that he only ever had two true loves in his entire life: Phuong before he went to war, and Phuong after he came back.
Despite the challenges Kien and Phuong have faced in their postwar lives, they still seem to love each other. In fact, their feelings for each other are quite strong—so strong that Phuong finds it necessary to completely leave Kien behind in order to get on with her life. The idea here is that sometimes things simply don’t work out, and though love is capable of enduring even the most trying circumstances, that doesn’t always mean people should let their romantic feelings keep them from living fuller, more rewarding lives.
Themes
