English Commentary :: English Literature

English CommentaryThe following is a commentary on carve up in P.G 211 a 212 in theSorrow of War..The paragraph from page 211 to 212 has a truly important significanceto the story as a whole. It has a lot of metaphors and similes thatadd to the sorrowful mood of the story. In the beginning, theparagraph is very poetic, juxtaposing historical images of life to futureand present images of death and destruction. In ad hoc it juxtaposesthe eternal beauty of his girlfriend Phuong to the tragic finalityof war. The paragraph is compose in the simple prehistorical tense, the perfectpast tense which mode the past before the past and the hypotheticalwould in order to underline Kiens deep longings to experience the past.It also shows us how Kien lost his spirit of fighting, and gave uphope. This is spiritual loss, and it is what most soldiers wereexperiencing. There is basically no more hope, no more life, justdeath. Overall, the paragraph reflects images of the sorrows of war.The sorr ows and effects of war are understandably shown when the tellerreverses traditionalistic symbols. The first very evident example ofreversing traditional symbols is the cashiers use of the concept ofmiracle and fantasy not to talk about a future goal but about thepast. Thus returning to the past and finding it unchanged becomes amiracle and a dream. We usually dream of the future and hope fora miracle that would change our lives. However the miracle thatKien awaits is to find that the past still exists untouched anduntainted. Of course that miracle is impossible and consequentlythe paragraph has a deep nostalgic sadness. Like Kien, we can feelthe harrowing irony of the impossibility of this miracle to happen. Other images function in the same counselling to show Kiens despair and lossof hope. He saw a river stint before him. He saw himselffloating towards his death. Here the narrator compares the river to apath that ends life. However, we usually associate rivers with freedom and ongoing life. The narrator also says fate waited to take him fromthe terrible present to the happy days of the past. The narrator isshowing us how much he longs to relive the past and how he dreads thepresent, and views his future as a horrible degree of time.In the beginning of the paragraph, the narrator creates a beautifulworld untouched by war through many poetic images. The narrator saysshe would arrest been untainted by war. This shows us how war has