Character Analysis Of Kien In Bao Ninh's The Sorrow Of War

In Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War, an overwhelming sense of Kien’s longing leads him on a journey of self-destruction. Ultimately Kien finds tolerance in his life, bringing to light how war veterans are destroyed by the gruesome Vietnam War. Kien had only craved the embrace of Phuong once he returned from war, but all that awaits him is a constant struggle to stay afloat in his post war life of solitude. Kien is the character in The Sorrow of War who absorbs the most misery, and because he is unable to cope he ends up being deprived of what is most cherished to him. He craves Phuong, but a forgotten and altered version of her. Before the war he thought of her as a “pure, sweet and simple girl” (Ninh, 222) and is infatuated with her. She claims upon his return she “would be [his] wife and see him to the gate of the battlefield” (Ninh, …show more content…
His heart had also been pulverized by her “[open torment] of him” and the nights where she would bring home “other lovers” (159). Kien visits Lan, the daughter of a kind-hearted woman who helped the soldiers during the war, and she greets him joyfully. She confesses to Kien that he was her “first love and it took all this time for [her] to realize it” (54). Lan exemplifies the possibility of euphoria and a better future for Kien. But Kien gently refuses her offer and she walks him to a road where he withdraws from her. Ninh chooses to incorporate their brief visit to reveal Kien’s ongoing struggle to tame his inner demons. Although, Phuong has left him, Kien is unable to obliterate thoughts of her because of his guilt. As a result, Kien is incapable to move on with his life. His culpability ties him to the past and unavailable for the possibilities of prosperity in post-war Vietnam. Therefore, he will fall into a continuous route of drinking and attempting to expel his thoughts through