Characterization In Sweetheart Of Song Tra Bong

Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is a story told by Rat Kiley about a girl named Mary Anne arriving in Vietnam. The chapter begins with Tim listening to Rat’s story as a distraction. Rat begins to explain the story of how Mark Fossie got his girlfriend into Vietnam with a long and expensive process. Mary Anne then arrives in a plane and surprises all the men in the platoon. She’s naive and innocent to this other world at war. Mary sticks around Mark most of the time until she takes and interest in the Green Berets ambushes. Eventually these ambushes begin to warp Mary's’ mind and change her. These ambushes eventually corrupt her into a different person scares the other men. Eventually she disappears into the night and that’s the last anyone hears of her.

O’Brien starts off the chapter with Rat telling the story of Mary coming to Vietnam. Tim gives hints about Rat’s character when he tells about how he tells stories like “he wanted to heat up the truth”(85) or “facts were formed by sensation”(85). After Rat is given a short background, Tim moves on to explain his story of Mary. Rat describes her characteristics like “barely out of high school”(86) and “white culottes and this sexy pink sweater”(86). Rat’s choice of words helps describe Mary’s innocent tone and portrays her naive and new mind to Vietnam. The men were surprised with Mary’s arrival at Vietnam since it would of likely never happened. It looks like Mary helps portray a symbol of sanity in this section because it shows how she is like a new bright light in the dark room of Vietnam to these other