The Sorrow of War

by

Bảo Ninh

The Second Narrator Character Analysis

A second narrative voice enters the novel in the final pages of the book. This secondary voice belongs to a former soldier whose path briefly intersected with Kien’s at the very beginning of the war. After the war, he often saw Kien walking around Hanoi and knew that he was a reclusive writer. When Kien finished his novel and left his apartment once and for all, the second narrator eventually came into possession of the unfinished manuscript and was drawn in by Kien’s writing. He ultimately decided to compile the many stories and try to organize them in a way that made sense, presenting the book as a jumbled and fragmentary collection of tales about war, loss, and love.
Get the entire The Sorrow of War LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Sorrow of War PDF

The Second Narrator Character Timeline in The Sorrow of War

The timeline below shows where the character The Second Narrator appears in The Sorrow of War. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 228-233
Love in Times of Hardship Theme Icon
Coping Through Writing Theme Icon
A new narrative voice explains that the writer who penned the previous pages left his apartment without telling anyone.... (full context)
Memory, Trauma, and Moving On Theme Icon
Patriotism, Sacrifice, and Skepticism Theme Icon
The new narrator became enthralled with what the writer had created. As he read the pages, he realized... (full context)