“Anyone who stood apart stuck out like a nail that everyone–the cowards and the heroes, the vindictive and the tolerant alike–yearned to pry out. They wanted me to submit to the will of the group, if only to demonstrate its power…” 

While in this case Quan is speaking specifically about his unwillingness to eat orangutan, his comment may be applied more generally to how Communism has affected the country. Ostensibly pushing an ideology in which all are equal, Communism in practice more often punishes those who are different and refuse to submit to collective will. Huong’s distaste for Communist principles comes through here very early in the story.

“The more we were tortured by the consciousness of our appalling indifference, the more searing the memory of our mothers’ tears. We had renounced everything for glory.” 

Quan says this in assessment of how things have changed from when he and his friends first enlisted. As young men going off to war, Quan and his fellow soldiers thought only of future glory, disregarding how their mothers felt about their leaving to fight. Years later, after seeing and participating in countless horrible things, the same soldiers think more of their mothers. That pain their mothers felt is juxtaposed with the numbness they feel after experiencing war for so long.

“I had never known happiness. So this was it, just this moment? I had never known freedom. Maybe this was it. Just this instant.” 

When Quan first leaves his unit in search of Bien, he emerges from the jungle and feels instantly freer. For a few moments he is able to enjoy the beauty of nature–warmth, sunshine, and grass–as opposed to the oppressive heat, humidity, and closeness of the jungle that he has been in for so long.