Summary Of The Sorrow Of War By Bao Ninh

Although the soldiers are expected to be emotionless and tough their mind still produces ideas to get themselves out of the war, but they never actually carry out any of the acts thought of. The temptation was always there, “They imagined the muzzle against flesh. So easy: squeeze the trigger and blow away a toe. They imagined the quick, sweet pain, then the evacuation to Japan, then a hospital with warm beds and cute geisha nurses” (O’Brien 459). The soldiers would have an easier time at war if they did not have to balance their imagination and emotions.

The new warfare of the Europeans was a large defect to the Mourning Wars, however it was not the leading factor that diminished this ritual along with majority of the population of Native Americans. Disease was the primary murderer of the Indians. Once the Europeans initiated the Columbian exchange, which brought various goods and livestock over to the Americas, their epidemic diseases came too. The Native Americans never had to deal with or experience an epidemic disease and that is why they were hit so hard. Since the smallpox was an indirect agent there was no direct murderer. There was no one to place the blame on in order to capture for the Mourning Wars. This made capturing people much more difficult for the Indians because sometimes they did it without being prompted by any opposing tribe or colony. The other and primary issue was the rate at which the Indians were being killed at

War is woven into the familial aspects of this novel. It not only separated families, but also separated Vietnam itself, dividing the people and therefore compromising the idea of unity and cultural identity. The Vietnam War left a residue of resentment

In combat situations soldiers rarely have time to think they must react quickly. They are in the middle of a war zone and in physical danger. They are forced to take the lives of others and many soldiers regret doing so. Soldiers have to live with the constant fear of dying and showing their fear will reveal their vulnerability to both the enemy and fellow soldiers. “Afterward, when the firing ended, they would blink and peek up. They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, and then quickly hiding it. They would force themselves to stand. Awkwardly, the men would reassemble themselves, first in private, then in groups, becoming soldiers again.” (O’Brien 18) After a mission is complete a soldier is full of emotions but is most thankful they are to be

The soldiers were forced to endure the burden of war that affected them emotionally and mentally. The Things they carried by Tim O'Brien was about soldiers who were impacted to hold the burden of the vietnam war and brought things emotionally and physically to the front lines which affected their mentality. Tim O’Brien used many literary techniques in this book but the ones that stood out to me were listings and point of view he used these literary techniques very often. Tim O’Brien used listing to explain why the soldiers carried a variety of certain things and how all of them mostly have the same main things to survive but other than that they have unique things that relate to the soldiers for example a quote from chapter

During the Vietnam War, the official ideology of North Vietnam was Marxism-Leninism, which the government tried to force onto their citizens. The majority of the citizens were indoctrinated with their ideology, however, a small number of citizens were not. The most championed campaign was the “‘Three Don’ts,’ which forbade sex, love, or marriage among the young people” (131). This political indoctrination on the citizens of North Vietnam was of great importance to Kien and Phuong’s relationship in Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War. This was shown through both Kien and Phuong’s rebellion of the ideology, Kien beginning to agree with the ideology, and Phuong giving into the ideology controlling her.

In this interview Luis Le answered some question about his experience during the Vietnam War. He was born in Vietnam and during the time the was happening. Mr. Le explains in this interview what it was like when he was a child in the war. His mother and father were killed by the communist government and was constantly moving from place to place. He tells us in one of the questions that when Saigon fell after the Paris Peace Accords many people were scared and that this was the real start for a terrifying life for many families. One of the answered questions states, “ War is ugly. I saw so many people died. The family lost their fathers, brothers, and sisters.” During the war many people had lost their homes, villages, and loved ones just as

More specifically, he argues that the fear of dying is not the main reason behind distress, but the idea of taking another’s life. Soldiers put their survival at risk to spare the possibility of not taking the enemy’s life, going through with strategies such as frightening their enemy in hopes of their retreat.

Edwards expected war with the Vietnamese to be a nightmare for him but instead he got along with many of the Vietnamese. He thought the purpose of going into war was to shoot his enemy and try to win the battle but that was not the case when he was in the actual combat. He believes that black soldiers got along with the Vietnamese because they understood the hardship the Vietnamese was going through as being looked down on. The realism of the war was stated in “Bloods”, “one patrol came back in earlier than they were supposed to my platoon headquarters. They should’ve came in after daylight. So one of my men on the perimeter threw a grenade out at the noise, thinking it was enemy movement.” (Terry, 224) During war the soldiers had no time to think whether the movements they see are of their enemies or their own kind so all they can do is shoot to protect themselves from any harm. They are willing to sacrifice the life of their own men to save the life of their own. Another astonishment about war was stated in “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, “the pain had started suddenly with the swelling after he had moved and he said, maybe I’ll just do it now.” (Hemingway, 469) Their intentions in the beginning of war was to survive and get back home to their family but they quickly realized that once they were wounded and the pain is intolerable, the last thing on their mind was trying to survive. Robert Jordan’s friend named Kashkin was wounded and he urged Robert to kill him so he can stop the pain but Robert was reluctant to kill his friend because he did not understand the pain and he wanted his friend to survive. When Robert was wounded himself after the explosion of a bridge, he realized how excruciating the pain was and he could not tolerate it himself so he wanted to kill himself to end the pain. The soldiers realized that war is not about

Paragraph one: The vietnamese fought very dirty throughout the war. They set unexpected deadly traps for the American soldiers that caused many casualties. They disguised themselves as civilians making it difficult to determine who exactly they were fighting. The United States had to fight dirty too in order to protect themselves.

Many of the people who physically and/or tortured other people during the Cultural Revolution were never actually punished or judged for what they did after the Cultural Revolution ended. At the end of the memoir, Ji-li wrote “Those who persecuted others, even beat or tortured them, were victims too, after all.” (page: 270) This quote is very important because it might’ve been weird for some people because the torturers were not punished.

This proves that the soldier did not have time to think twice, but had to react instantly. He was compelled to “get up close to the parapet”, or he would be seeking death. Given a choice, no human would “sit on top of a dead man” because it is inhumane and cruel. Therefore, these instances tell of the severity the soldiers had to deal with physically and emotionally in the midst of the death and despair. The dire situations left them with no choice but to forgo human morals to survive. Also, the fact that “shells were falling all round” shows how much artillery was used. It depicts the perilous

   Bao Ninh's The Sorrow of War is a contrapuntal reading to American literature on the Vietnam War. But rather than stand in stark contrast to Tim O' Brien's The Things They Carried, The Sorrow of War is strangely similar, yet different at the same time. From a post-colonialist standpoint, one must take in account both works to get an accurate image of the war. The Sorrow of War is an excellent counterpoint because it is truthful. Tim O' Brien writes: ". . . you can tell a true war story by its absolute and uncompromising allegiance to obscenity and evil." (O' Brien, 42) Bao Ninh succeeds in this respect. And it was for this reason that the Vietnamese

General Marshall’s observations revealed that there are two groups of combat soldiers who don’t perform as expected; one being those who intentionally miss, while the other never even fired their weapon. (Marshal 23) As a disclaimer to explain away some of the second group, during an engagement it might not always be a tactical choice to fire one’s weapon. A soldier might accidentally hit his own units, reveal his position, be unable to make a clear enough shot, or be facing suppressive fire from the enemy. (Dark) In the context of the study the second group is looked at over the entire campaign, rather than firefight by firefight. A prime cinematic example of a soldier who can’t fire his weapon comes from the war film The Big Red One where one of the best marksmen in the division during training cannot bring himself to pull the trigger once in combat. This fear of killing sounds absolutely ludicrous for a soldier, but I’ve seen it myself. During combat exercises we were loaded out with real weapons that fired simunition, essentially a paintball projected by gunpowder. In the beginning of the training exercise, not too many people were thrilled about getting shot, as it hurt quite a lot. Most people would take cover and refuse to leave, others would wildly fire about, hoping the aggressors would become discouraged. After several tries at this, nearly all of us got used to the idea of being shot at, and shooting back. It simply stopped bothering us so much. Advanced training

It is my believe that most civil wars are unnecessary and horrible. Civil wars divide families, and can make friends have to meet on the battlefield as foes. They also ruin innocent lives, and can uproot people from their homes. Civil wars are terrible, and make even the strongest of people lose faith. Because of reasons like these three, I believe civil wars should not be fought.