The paintings Kien’s father creates and then destroys at the end of his life symbolize a fierce devotion to art for art’s own sake. Kien’s father doesn’t paint for any other reason than to express himself through art, which is why he refuses to conform to the Communist Party’s demand that all art should be a certain way—namely, accessible to the working class. Because he continues to paint the way he wants, he is cast out of the art community. And yet, this doesn’t stop him from painting, indicating that he doesn’t use art as a way of attracting attention and praise. Similarly, his decision to burn his work before killing himself solidifies the idea that the point of the paintings was to help him express himself through art, suggesting that artistic creation in and of itself is an inherently worthwhile endeavor, regardless of whether or not the work reaches other people. This idea eventually resonates with Kien, who turns to writing as a way of processing his war-related trauma. Instead of writing his novel in the hopes of getting it published, he writes it for the sake of writing it, since doing so helps him work through everything that happened to him. At the same time, though, Kien does have another purpose for composing his novel about the Vietnam War: to make sure the stories of what happened don’t fade away in the aftermath of the war. Although The Sorrow of War celebrates the mere act of creation, then, it also suggests that art can communicate important messages.
The Paintings and the Novel Symbol Timeline in The Sorrow of War
