Can
A frightened, despairing soldier whose desertion and death resist easy labels of courage and cowardice.
To escape a war he can no longer endure.
The book
At a glance
- Soldier in Kiên's wartime circle
- Desertion
- Death
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeCan voices fear and exhaustion that heroic accounts often suppress.
His fate asks readers to see desertion as part of war's human damage rather than a simple absence of character.
How the book draws them
- Open despairHe says what others may conceal.
- IsolatedFear separates him from the unit.
- DeserterHe acts on the need to leave.
- Remembered casualtyEscape does not return him to life.
Can deserts and dies. His body and memory return to Kiên without yielding a reassuring moral lesson.
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