It felt like love. Perhaps it was the recognition of some wonderful truth deep within him” (Ninh 76). He was no longer a prisoner of his thoughts and had the ability to deal with them on his own terms and preferences. From that moment on, he will be in control. As for Ninh, oppression was an understatement for his emotional state, but writing brought him the only joy he knew. In doing so he found something he hadn't been able to find anywhere else. He stated that “from that moment on he felt that day by day his soul was gradually maturing, preparing itself for the task of fulfilling the sacred heavenly duty of which the novel would become the earthly manifestation” (Ninh 51). As the days passed, Ninh felt like he was finally leaving all these painful memories behind and coming to terms with his new identity, a survivor just like Kien. He hoped that the novel The Pain of War would open the eyes of many who are unaware of the effects of war and at the same time help anyone who is in the same boat as him. By the end of the novel, Kien has regained his self-confidence and focuses more on improving his life in the future instead of remembering the past. The pain of war ended so abruptly that it shocked most, if not all, readers. Ninh commented on this fact by claiming that the only reason he chose an ending like this was to reflect on the