The Role Of PTSD In Bao Ninh's The Sorrow Of War

War is something that changes someone and their live so much to even year after they are still affected by what they experienced and saw. A common theme in “Soldier's Home” and The Things They Carried is going to war, which is an experience that affects people emotionally, mentally and changed their ability to connect with people.

For this review I choose a book called “The Sorrow of War”, which was written by Bao Ninh. Ninh fought for the North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and recounts his time as soldier. He served in the 27th Youth Brigrade in 1969 when he was 17. Ninh was one of only 10 soldiers in the brigade that survived the war. From just before the war started to the end, and all of his experiences throughout the war. Instead of using his own name to tell about his experiences he used a character named Kien. During the time it was

To witness other people being killed and letting your mind run its course and eat away at you asking yourself are you the next one? This is one of the main reasons why we need to appreciate the soldiers and veterans who have served for their country, they are brave people and have made huge sacrifices for us all. They do stuff that others are not willing to do to protect the freedom that was one of the main reasons why this great country im glad to call my home was established in the first place. These experiences that these soldiers go through can change them for the rest of their life. War and the tramuatizing stuff that goes with it can cause psychological problems that are hard to live with. My girlfriends father served in the military and has gone through some of these terrible things first hand and they have definitely changed him for life. Mr. Thornberry had been in the milirary for 8 years and was in combat during the desert storm. He saw things that no man would ever wish to see in his life. A friend taken away right before his own eyes while he was under fire but managed to get out of it with the help of his comrades. Although he was not really hurt physically he was mentally. He has reoccuring flashbacks of the event that took place and has gone through treatments and is now taking medicine but still that is not enough he still wakes up somenights from the night terrors that infest his mind. He once told me “I will never be the same man” (Thornberry 2016). In the things they carried there are many examples of ptsd throughout the book. For example when Norman Bowker witnessed Kiowa sucked into a pile of crap right before his eyes and had a chance to save her but risked being sucked in as well so he decided he would just save himself. This death changed Norman

Along with not seeing the bigger picture soldiers lost their ordinary lives due to the war and the contrast was so different between pre and post war that it was hard to cope with life for the men fighting in the war. “For Kien, the most attractive, persistent echo of the past is the whisper of ordinary life, even though the sounds of ordinary life have been washed away by the long storms of war. It is the whispers of friends and ordinary people that are the most horrifying.”(63) The strongest emotions occur as the story unfolds and life takes over from childhood fantasies, destroying individuals and their families as a whole society is remade for instance Kien’s sweetheart before the war. Kien abandons his lover and instead spends the next years plodding through the jungle where everything dies. "no jungle grew again in this clearing. No grass, no plants" (26). He had no true friends and he learned not to fear death but rather wish it. When war ends he has a struggle to rebuild that was once loss, he can no longer see the good of things while he slowly goes insane with out love and hope and of course no sweetheart to aid him. A very sad and classical effect of a war that was worthless to its soldiers and people.

In the book The Things They Carried, Tim said that it had been over two decades and every time O’Brien remembers it, makes it as if it was currently happening. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien claims, “Forty-three years old, and the war occurred a lifetime ago, and yet remembering makes it now.” (36) Everything Tim experienced when he was at war, still haunts him. The memories are basically nightmares which transport him back to being in the war. In a different article, Vietnam Veterans Still Have PTSD 40 Years After War, it states, “ "They started to come back one by one," says Evans, 69, of the nightmares started 13 years after she returned home from her one-year deployment in Vietnam from 1968-1969." I would see the fire, and then I would wake up in a cold sweat." ” (Traci Badalucco 1) Every time she would go to sleep, these memories - in the forms of nightmares - would come back. Everything experienced haunted her sleep making her unable to sleep. Psychological effects can affect everyday life, some people don’t even know the effects of war but yet they are still against

Veterans suffer from PTSD in multiple ways with sleeplessness, nightmares, and flashbacks (Bender). Veterans use different coping mechanisms to prevent themselves from triggering memories of the traumatic event. It has been found that veterans may become emotionally detached. Mintze reports, the Veterans Administration estimates that 830,000 Vietnam vets suffered symptoms of PTSD; of that number, 480,000 were so deeply affected that they were considered disabled. The effect of such cruel attacks has made it difficult for soldiers to adjust to life post combat (Price). This sickness can happen within three months to years after the unpleasant event. Frequently, veterans and victims of war suffer relentlessly from PTSD. Many poets, authors, and directors write to portray the lasting memories that cause one to suffer from this disorder.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is "an anxiety disorder, characterized by distressing memories, emotional numbness, and hyper vigilance, that develops after exposure to a traumatic event" (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 490). Traumatic events include physical abuse, rape, military combat, death of a close friend or family member, natural disasters, or witnessing events such as terrorist attacks, a violent crime, or a horrible accident (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 490). All these different events lead men and women to have nightmares, flashbacks, and tormenting memories, especially the men who fought in the Vietnam War. Around "19% of Vietnam veterans developed PTSD at some point after the war" (Doyle-Portillo, Pastorino 491) from the events they witnessed out in the Vietnamese jungles during combat that it would have been highly unlikely for them not to develop PTSD.

“When I was in serious danger I was almost completely paralysed by fear, I remember sitting with a coffin (a fellow soldier) on the fire-step of a trench during an intense bombardment, when it seemed certain that we must be killed”(The Psychological Effects Of The Vietnam War). Our soldiers that we send to war to protect us against the countries trying to harm us are put into dangerous situations that affect them physically and mentally and leave them with permanent damage to their minds and bodies. The server damage that our military soldiers faced when returning from war is PTSD which stands for post traumatic stress disorder and is the most common disorder that returning soldiers are diagnosed with , but a more tragic diagnosis from war

The wartime lives of the soldiers who fought in the war were in a state of mind of mixed feelings. Happiness and devastating are two adjectives that can describe the soldier’s feelings in the war because at one second they can be happy that they succeeded on a mission, but on the other hand, it can be very devastating because one of their own soldiers could have been killed during the war. Aside from physical danger losing one of your own soldiers or having your family worry about you every day and night are some negatives and unpleasant parts about fighting in a war. For example, soldiers loved ones worried each day, and hoped that they would not get a knock on their door by someone who was going to tell them that their fathers, husbands, sons, or brothers have died in the war.

In the novel, The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh, many conclusions can be drawn from characters through observation. One can learn certain characteristics about a person, like their interests, goals, and skills, by simply observing. Being an observant individual, one is in touch with their surroundings and behavioral patterns of those around them. Learning about someone through observation is .

The Sorrow of War and Full Metal Jacket both have one main element in common – the Vietnam War. Other than the similar time period, these two representations of the Vietnam War differ drastically. The Sorrow of War, a novel written by Bao Ninh, follows a North Vietnamese solider named Kien during his years fighting for the communist regime and documenting his hardships before, during, and after the war. Full Metal Jacket is a movie that depicts the American side of the war in Vietnam, focusing on one group of Marine recruits and their journey to the frontlines. Both representations contain similar themes of mental illness, personal sufferings, and unfathomable wartime situations. Nevertheless, I believe that The Sorrow of War captures human emotion and turmoil more precisely than Full Metal Jacket does through the author’s word choice and exemplary descriptions of his sorrows experienced due to the war.

Bao Ninh is a Vietnamese war veteran and the author of what is said to be "one of the most moving war novels of all time" (Gareth Smith), The Sorrow of War. In the epic tale, Bao tells the story of Kien in a nonlinear narrative, weaving in and out of stories of young love and war, each failing to complete its own objectives: to come home and live in peace with those they love. It compares the 'sorrow of war' to the sorrow of love, both nostalgic as Kien looks back on what has been lost, and the heartbreak created. Bao compares the two sorrows by intertwining flashbacks and events occurring in the present.

The memories and thoughts of war is really a cliché. In this passage, some of them may be the unresolved traces of traumatic experiences, but they are also the inspiration for the author’s writing. The distinction between trauma and inspiration is frequently blurred: Many of the pieces dramatize traumatization and various reactions to it, whereas others show how trauma

As the memoir was written as a catharsis to Ninh’s experiences in the Vietnam War, the narrative structure of the memoir is made to mimic the effects of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder (PTSD). The symptoms of PTSD involve vividly recounting trauma through flashbacks and nightmares, as well as attempting to avoid prompts that would trigger a victim’s memory of the trauma they faced. The flashbacks can occur at anytime and often immerse the victim as if the recollections are reality (NIMH). As PTSD was not yet recognized as a mental health

In the novel, The Sorrow of War, Bao Ninh uses loss, flashback, and morality in order to show an unforgettable memory of the character Kien and how it had impacted his life. Before Kien went to war he didn’t have any flashback and he had not lose many people around him. But since he had started his war journey he was slowly losing everyone around him. During the war, people who is close to Kien may not die physically but he had loss them mentally and emotionally. After the war had ended, Kien would constantly have flashback about the war. As Kien would often remember the war, it seem like the war can’t leave him alone even when it had ended. Kien no longer have any moral boundaries for himself when the war had ended. He no longer see things