English Commentary :: English Literature

English CommentaryThe following is a commentary on paragraph in P.G 211 a 212 in theSorrow of War..The paragraph from page 211 to 212 has a very(prenominal) 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 past images of life to emergingand present images of death and destruction. In specific it juxtaposesthe permanent beauty of his girlfriend Phuong to the tragic finalityof war. The paragraph is written in the simple past tense, the perfectpast tense which means the past in the beginning the past and the hypotheticalwould in order to emphasize Kiens deep longings to relive 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. on that point is basically no more hope, no more life, justdeath. Overall, the paragraph reflects images of the sorrows of war.The sorrows and effects of war are clearly shown when the narratorreverses traditional symbols. The first very evident example ofreversing traditional symbols is the narrators use of the concept ofmiracle and dream not to talk about a future goal but about thepast. indeed returning to the past and witnessing 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 direful irony of the impossibility of this miracle to happen. Other images function in the same way to show Kiens despair and lossof hope. He saw a river stretching in the first place him. He saw himselffloating towards his death. Here the narrator compares the river to apath that ends life. However, we usually associate rivers wi th freedomand ongoing life. The narrator also says need 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 period of time.In the beginning of the paragraph, the narrator creates a beautifulworld untouched by war through some(prenominal) poetic images. The narrator saysshe would have been untainted by war. This shows us how war has