The Sorrow of War extra reading

I chose this book as it has given me more insight into what the Vietnam war as a whole and then there is a page (92) on the sorrow of war

. This page made "the sorrow of war" more real to me as it explained to me more about the Vietnam war so that the context of the book has become more realistic. I believe this extra reading has also added to my full understanding of the war putting the life of Kien into perspective.

The History of the war also means that because of the non linear timeline throughout the book I was able to gain more understanding of what was going on around the same time period as the war lasted for such a long period.

An aspect I found interesting in "The Sorrow of War" is the extended metaphor of the river. The text even though has a non-linear time frame is tied together by Bao Ninh in other ways like the use of extended metaphors.

The extended metaphor of the river is telling the audience about how turbulent war is and like a river there are twists and turns. It is used to show the audience that life after the war is changed.

The River is ever present throughout the piece after war has occurred. This is showing the audience that war will be ever present in your life. The River is also in the background which could be representing the river in the background of your mind and life affecting all that you do.

If we look at the metaphor at the beginning of the book we see Kien sitting on the river bank fishing. The river in this scene shows Kien thinking about the war. Even in this beautiful moment the war is still ever present. It doesn't matter where you run or push the thoughts in your mind the war always haunts you.