The novel has already shown Kien’s pessimistic view of the present and the future, as well as his skepticism of the war. He no longer believes that the Vietnam War achieved what it was supposed to, and he has no hope that the future will bring the many things the war promised it would. He is, however, invested in the present in one very specific way: he cares about writing this novel about the Vietnam War, seeing it as an important thing to do. In fact, he believes it is his “duty” to write this book, indicating that he thinks society needs to know what the war was like from a soldier’s perspective. By investing himself in this belief, Kien ultimately invests himself in the present and the future, even if he otherwise feels jaded.