The Sorrow of War

What is important to anyone curious is the thought that goes into the title of the book, or translation in this case: The Sorrow of War. It is short and effective, if a little plain, as it exposes the main theme of the book right away while inviting the reader to see how and why. It says what it says: war is bad. War will do nothing but take away everything one knows and loves. War shows the worthless sacrifices of the noble and the virtuous. War forcibly warps human beings into inhuman beasts capable of heinous deeds much like any serial killer. Lucky survivors are themselves cursed as they have to adapt to a society zombified by the infected wounds of past bloodshed. What was curious was the alternative translation: The Understanding of Love. Labeling it a war book in its title shows the most accuracy of what readers expect, but showing this loss through the perspective of love does not change the overall imprint the book leaves.

Through all the wars and torment, Kien often feels that he was kept alive through God’s will and that the purpose of it all is to get the message out. Not only is the writing process shown, but Kien fumbling through what to show is reminiscent of his sporadic memory. He is a sufferer of PTSD, manifesting through key moments to him while leaving other people clueless to the origin of his torment. His way of writing is a way of relieving this torment, but it is an everlasting cycle of reliving and relieving that leaves Kien as empty as a ghost. This torment begins when Kien was in high school. Kien’s luck in surviving skirmishes enables him to become commander in his twenties. However, this stroke of fortune serves as an eerie reminder of an early stamp upon his identity as a battle-hardened veteran s...

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...Kien and his companions break down in the gears of the war machine, Phuong stands as the one idealized image in which he maintains his true being. Without that which completes him, no amount of drinking could fill in the hole of his true self.

Perhaps it would be a better idea to combine the two titles as such: The Sorrow of War and the Understanding of Love. Rather than contrast them to see which theme is more important, it is a better idea to see how an overarching theme like the loss that war brings fits into a more specified theme of Kien striving ever so much for his beloved Phuong. Understanding why Kien feels like striving for the everlasting love even as the world threatens to take it all away gives the book a better feel than if it stuck plainly with loss, loss, and more loss. To remember what was lost is to see the true tragedy of a destructive action.