Cause Of War By Bao Ninh: Summary

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Bao Ninh writes about soldiers turning to superstition during the war by the way he portrays soldiers lives and deaths as having a deeper meaning than war, and Kiens thoughts both during and post war. The deaths having a deeper meaning is shown when Kiens entire platoon was killed. Kiens thoughts towards what kept him safe during the war, and his father's death show his superstitious thinking. Bao Ninh opens the book by talking about Kien collecting the remains of fallen soldiers while he reminisces about times in war. He thinks back to his regiment trying to do damage control, saying “The regiment sprayed gasoline and set the village on fire to cleanse it, but after the fire the soldiers were still terrified and none of the would go near the place” (Ninh 7). The village had been wiped out, with many innocent civilians killed. This was a common scenario in the war, as there were millions of Vietnamese citizens killed. While the soldiers could have just moved on, they become superstitious and feel the need to release the souls, which is …show more content…
When his father passes away Kien goes up to his studio and realises “This was a graveyard. Every image, every trace of his father had been wiped away, replaced by a nothingness. His father had quit the world, gone in a sleepwalkers dream, taking with him forever the deathly yellow paintings” (Ninh 128). While Kiens fathers studio was not literally a graveyard, and his father had not even died in the room, everything about his father was gone.This leaves Kien to forever feel a strange way about the place where he once felt love. Ninh choosing to write the death of Keen's father, and make him almost disappear altogether shows that he wanted to show that his father's death was very meaningful and had long lasting effects on