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Pages 8-26
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
One year ago, Kien’s unit came to this very place in the Jungle of Screaming Souls. They built small huts at the foot of the mountain that now towers over him, and though it was a good place to set up camp, the environment felt somehow mysterious. Two nights passed, and Kien sensed that something strange was happening to his platoon. He himself had developed a fever, but he had also seen ghostly shapes whisking by in the night. On the third night, he was restless and rose from his bed before dawn. Walking through the rainy dark with a machine gun slung from his shoulder, he heard laughter and what sounded like a young woman’s voice.
The narrative has already suggested that the sound Kien hears while working with the Remains-Gathering Team is the sound of “love’s lament.” This section elaborates on that idea, and though it’s still not clear what it would mean to hear “love’s lament” deep in an eerie jungle, it now seems that Kien once heard the sound of a young woman in the Jungle of Screaming Souls, ultimately suggesting that he didn’t just experience violence in the jungle—he also seems to have encountered love in the most unlikely circumstances.
Themes
Kien burst into his soldiers’ hut and demanded to know who had laughed. They seemed confused and assured him nothing had happened—nobody, they told him, was in the hut with them. Leaving the hut, Kien was sure he’d heard a young woman, not a ghost. As he walked through the dark, he heard movement and halted. In the reflection of a nearby stream, he saw the image of a young woman with long hair and a bare stomach. He shouted at her to halt, but she left. As he threatened to shoot, “Lofty” stepped out and told him to calm down, assuring him that nobody was there.
Kien’s experience in this scene highlights the wartime paranoia and confusion that is common in such settings. Under the constant threat of violence, even the smallest sound in the middle of the night is capable of putting Kien on high alert. And yet, what he sees is a mysterious woman, not an enemy soldier—a confounding sight that taps into the somewhat mystical, superstitious mindset that often emerges in stressful situations in which people fear for their lives and are surrounded by death.
Themes
The next morning, nobody talked about what Kien had heard, but he still felt like the other soldiers were hiding something from him. In the coming nights, he became increasingly confident that something strange was afoot, though there were no more ghostly women slipping into the camp. Instead, three figures seemed to quietly escape the camp each night and then return just before dawn. Kien became accustomed to the nightly commotion and started caring for the strange shadows, finding himself unable to sleep each night until they had all returned to the camp. He then remembered that there was a farmhouse nearby and that three young girls had lived there before the war. He realized that the girls were now teenagers and that they had returned to their home even though it was unsafe.
Although Kien originally thought ghostly figures were flitting into the camp each night, he comes to realize that there’s a much simpler explanation: his men have developed romantic relationships with three local women. What’s surprising about this is the fact that his men manage to find love in the cruel, dangerous environment of war, ultimately suggesting that love can prosper in even the most devastatingly unromantic environments.
Themes
As commander of the platoon, Kien knew he should stop his men from sneaking out each night to visit the young women at the farmhouse. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it—he felt for these enraptured lovers and would never deprive them of this brief period of romance. So he let it go on, all the while falling into dreams of Phuong, fantasizing about the love they shared as 17-year-olds. But that was a long time ago—now he was in his mid-20s, and the romance that once existed in him had been broken by war. Unfortunately, he now thinks as he lies in the hammock a year later, the love his soldiers felt for the young farm women only led to sorrow and pain.
Although romance can blossom in unlikely circumstances, the novel suggests that this doesn’t always lead to happiness. To the contrary, the novel implies that love can actually make things quite difficult—after all, people have much more to lose when they tie themselves emotionally to another person. Kien knows this firsthand, and though it’s not yet clear what happened between him and Phuong, it’s evident that the love he felt as a young man for Phuong—before the war—has only led to heartbreak.
Themes
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Kien remembers the tragedy of the young farm women. The three soldiers who had fallen in love with them went racing to the farm one day, desperate to find the young women. Kien followed them and stood in the rain—a machine gun hanging at his side—as they called out for the women. But they were nowhere to be found. Then, however, Kien found a bra lying on the rocks near the farm’s bathhouse. It was white and torn, and there was blood on it. It immediately became clear to him and the others that enemy soldiers had come through the farm and taken the women.
It now becomes clear why the novel suggests that love in times of war can lead to terrible heartbreak. Although Kien’s men experienced happiness in unlikely circumstances, they are now forced to face the harsh cruelty of war, which is ultimately defined by loss and sorrow.
Themes
That evening, Kien and the others finally caught up with the commandos who had taken the young farm women. Three of the commandos died right away in the fighting that ensued when Kien and the others ambushed them, but four survived. “Lofty”—who was one of the lovers—died in the fighting, too. After rounding up the four remaining commandos, Kien demanded to know what they’d done with the women. He learned that the commandos had already killed them. They taunted Kien and the others by talking about how long the women had cried as they died. These comments infuriated Kien’s men, but he stopped them from killing the commandos right away, suggesting that perhaps the commandos should be made to suffer before dying.
Kien’s dark side comes out in this section, as he treats the commandos with a ruthless sense of cruelty. Of course, he only wants to take revenge on them for what they did to the three farm women, but his merciless rage is still rather surprising, especially because until this point in the novel he has seemed quite sensitive to the harsh realities of war. Now, though, he shows the same kind of cutthroat mentality as the commandos themselves.
Themes
Kien wanted to know why the commandos had bothered to kill the three women. They’d come to the jungle for Kien’s platoon, so why spend time brutally murdering innocent women? But the commandos didn’t answer, simply telling Kien to hurry up and kill them if that’s what he planned to do. He then ordered them to dig their own graves. When they finished, they asked if they could smoke before dying, and he granted them this wish. As they smoked, one of them approached Kien and offered him a cigarette. He was young and claimed to not have participated in the rape and murder of the three farm women. He pleaded for his life, even showing Kien a picture of a woman waiting back at home for him. But Kien just told him to get back into the grave and prepare for death.
Kien allows the commandos to have a final smoke before they die, but he doesn’t actually show them compassion. Even the young man’s comment about a young woman waiting at home for him doesn’t seem to impact Kien, despite the fact that he’s sympathetic when it comes to love. In turn, it seems likely that he has gotten wrapped up in the harsh violence of war, making it difficult for him to show his enemies mercy. Cruelty, then, emerges in the novel as an all-consuming force capable of refiguring the way a person views the world.
Themes
Suddenly, Kien shouted at the commandos, telling them that their time had come. They hadn’t even finished their cigarettes, but he didn’t care. One of his fellow soldiers whispered to let them finish, but he ignored him and instead fired his gun—but he aimed the shots over the commandos’ heads. The young commando dropped to his knees and pleaded with Kien for his life, but Kien simply asked if the young boy had volunteered to go first. He pushed the end of his gun hard against the boy’s forehead, sending him falling backwards. Still, the boy kept begging.
Again, it’s quite clear that Kien has gotten swept up in the terror and violence of war. He normally seems like a rather sensitive, kind person, but in this moment, he loses his sense of compassion and takes out his anger and grief on the commandos, indicating that it’s easy to reach a breaking point after years of enduring harrowing violence.
Themes
Just then, one of Kien’s men came up and suggested that Kien should spare the commandos for now, saying that they could let their superiors decide what to do. But Kien turned his rage on his fellow soldier, yelling that he was welcome to go stand in the grave and wait to be shot along with the commandos, if he cared about them so much. “I’ll kill you too!” he screamed.
Kien is in such a rage that he finds himself threatening his own comrades—a good sign that years of war have brought him to an emotional breaking point, where it’s difficult for him to not only show compassion to enemy soldiers but also to treat his fellow soldiers well.
Themes
Kien wakes up in the present. The Remains-Gathering Team’s driver is asking him why he’s crying so loudly in his sleep. But he already knows why: it’s because Kien slept near so many dead bodies. The driver himself knows what it’s like to dream of the many people who died here in the Jungle of Screaming Souls. The bodies they collect seem to come alive at night and tell their stories. The driver has encountered many people from his old unit, but it’s not like conversing with normal people. Kien knows what he means. Talking to these listless souls at night is troubling because it’s impossible to do anything to help them.
One problem with returning to old, disturbing memories is that there’s nothing that can be done to change the outcome of those memories. Kien and the truck driver are thus forced to relive past traumas as they return to the Jungle of Screaming Souls, finding themselves unable to do anything but rehash the terrible things that happened in the area. This approach to memory is worth noting, as the novel later suggests that it’s possible to return to happy memories as a way of recapturing joy.
Themes
Kien wonders if it would soothe the ghosts of fallen soldiers to know that the North won the war, but the driver doesn’t think so. War doesn’t matter to the dead. Plus, the driver is skeptical of the peace that the North has achieved. Everyone has been trying to make something of their lives in the aftermath of the war, but hardly anyone has had any success. And the current economic and political system isn’t all that great, leading the driver to wonder what, exactly, all of the dead soldiers gave their lives for.
The driver is deeply skeptical of whether or not the Northerners who died in the Vietnam War ended up sacrificing their lives for a worthy cause. Of course, it was considered very honorable to devote one’s life to North Vietnam in the lead-up to the war, but now it’s not so clear that the North’s victory actually improved society all that much. In turn, the entire idea of dying for one’s country comes to seem a lot less worthwhile.
Themes
When Kien asks the driver what he’s getting at with this pessimistic outlook, the driver says he’s not necessarily getting at anything. He’s just pointing out that life is hard these days, despite the North’s victory. Soldiers like Kien will now have to figure out a way to live as civilians, but they’ll never again lead a “normal” life. Still, Kien plans to go back to school when he’s finished working for the Remains-Gathering Team. He wants to get a university degree so that he can learn to do something other than fire machine guns. As for the driver, he plans to travel around with a guitar and sing songs about the war. Kien laughs and says that what he should really do is tell people to forget the war, but the driver points out that it’s impossible to forget it.
One of the driver’s most important points is that the soldiers who fought in the war will find it incredibly hard to lead a so-called “normal” life. Even though the North Vietnamese soldiers who survived the war were ultimately on the winning side, learning how to live after seeing so much violence and death is an undoubtedly difficult thing to do. What’s more, it’s not entirely clear that the war was worth fighting, since society hasn’t necessarily improved all that much as a result. Kien, however, appears somewhat optimistic, as he plans to earn a college degree and make something of his life—plans that will be harder to execute than he thinks.
Themes
