The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh links the tragedy of wartime to the loss of youth and love. It is the story of an idealist named Kien and his first love, Phuong, and how the dramatic events of war caused their pure love to gradually diminish, until the relationship that had once ceased to exist. Ninh writes: “Kien thought back to the source of his own love when he was young. It was hard to imagine now, hard to remember, a time when all of his personality and character remained intact, a time before the cruelty and destruction of war warped his soul. (30). In The Sorrow of War, Kien discovers that the pure love he experienced as a seventeen-year-old boy is unattainable in the post-war era due to the disturbing events of the Vietnam War. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before the war, when Kien was still young, he had a very romantic view of the love he shared with Phuong. It was essentially love in its purest form. It was "so intimate, so perfect that it made [Kien] suffer." (118). There was very little sexual interaction between Kien and Phuong, which emphasized the innocent state both characters were in. Although they had time and access to privacy, making them capable of physical interaction, Kien maintained Phuong's virginity for the sake of purity and perfection. . It was a simpler time when virginal love could easily exist, because bloodshed, rape and war did not provoke and lurked at every corner. Kien idolized this idea of ​​innocence and virginity, especially in Phuong. When the two lay down next to each other, it was Phuong who insisted on kissing Kien, urging him to be more physical with her, while Kien was described as "nervous" and afraid to touch her "beautiful body". (119). He was never able to fully consummate their youthful relationship, which shows how much value he places on purity. “It was a desperate, pure love that hurt inside them.” (131). Ninh associates the word “pain” when talking about Kien and Phuong's pure love in several passages. He does this to highlight how much value Kien associates with the days of his youth with Phuong. It hurt him to remember those times, because he would never be able to experience purity on this level again. He idealized his age of innocence. The love Kien and Phuong shared before the war also functions as a metaphor for pre-war Vietnam. As in the relationship between the two lovers, everything was simpler and purer. The natural imagery used by Ninh in The Sorrow of War helps to emphasize the idea of ​​innocence before the war. Kien fondly remembers walking around Hanoi as a young man: "Memories of a midday in the dry season, under a beautiful sun, flowers in radiant buds in the little forest clearing." (88). A similar, springlike description was used to describe Kien and Phuong's relationship: "What a beautiful, warm, sweet April day it was." (118). The spring images are very effective, because they reinforce the idea of ​​a simpler time when innocence existed easily. Pre-war Vietnam was like Kien's relationship with Phuong in the sense that both were representative of his youth. It was a more beautiful time that had not yet been tainted by the cruelty of war. However, like his relationship with Phuong, the city gradually went from innocence to darkness as the war continued. It was inevitable and painful for Kien, because he placed so much value on the memories of his youth. During the war, Kien struggled to maintain his visionidealized of Phuong. It is his love for Phuong that essentially keeps him moving. “'I wonder if they will bomb Hanoi,' Huan asked. But Kien did not respond, realizing that he had only come to see Phuong and that no one else mattered. (161). Kien's memories of Phuong before the war are predominantly positive, and these are the memories he has no difficulty recalling. Remembering Phuong-in, his youth became his oasis amidst the turmoil. It is his love, or his idea of ​​love, that drives Kien to fight and move forward. On page 44 Kien's nostalgia for the past is described: “At night, as I sleep, I hear my footsteps from a distant time of peace echoing on the sidewalk. All I have to do is close my eyes to recall the past and completely erase the present." (44). Love acted as a fuel to help Kien function in the midst of war. As Kien was pushed deeper into the war, Ninh used more winter imagery to describe the bleak and deadly times in which Kien lived. burning to the ground. The war came with heavy baggage: death, bloodshed, rape and prostitution. The winter images signal a change in tone. Unlike his pre-war memories of Phuong, it is as if Kien voluntarily got rid of his memories of Phuong during the war. Rather than making him suffer, these memories are like a sharp pain. Kien meets many women during the war, mistaking them for Phuong, as if he silently wishes they were his young love. These women, who have been so negatively affected by the war, become representatives of Phuong. Despite how beautiful and delicate these women were, they too were affected by the war. Kien slowly begins to fully understand that the disturbing effects of the war were universal throughout Vietnam. Like many other women in Vietnam, Phuong becomes a victim of rape. After that, Kien is at odds with keeping Phuong close to him. His world seems to be falling apart and he resorts to robotic interaction with Phuong, relying on instinct instead of passion and love. The woman he was once so attached to, who was described as a shadow beside his body, was now a casualty of war. She was part of the disorder and destruction. Kien began to direct some of her hatred for the war towards Phuong, due to some cruel comments made by several soldiers labeling her a whore. The physical rape of Kien's beloved also works as a metaphor to describe that the country of Vietnam was also being raped. It was stripped of all the goodness and purity Kien once saw in it. Although the war eventually ended, Vietnam had become tainted, “bitter and sad.” (193). The country, like its people, had been negatively affected by the war. One of the pains of the war is that Kien fought so hard to protect this idealized vision of Vietnam and Phuong, but what remained after the war was anything but innocent and pure. Like his relationship with Phuong, post-war Vietnam was not the same Vietnam that Kien adored so much in his youth. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Although Kien finally discovered that the soldiers' comments were not true, it was impossible for him to return to Phuong. If Kien had tried to find the Phuong he once loved, it would be a lost cause, because the war had an extreme effect on all of Vietnam, including the two lovers. He loved a Phuong who no longer existed. One of the pains of war is that the boy and girl who entered the war will never emerge the same again. The relationship he had loved and romanticized at the start of the war he did not have.