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Mary Ann's Innocence In 'Sweetheart Of The Song Tra'

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War is a convoluted system that strips civilians of their innocence, and morphs them into heartless, savage creatures. Having lived in a foreign place for so long without any lawfulness, many of the soldiers lose their morals. Due to their severe disconnect from American civilization, and inhabitation in a brutal and eerie new place, people resort to violence and ruthlessness to survive. Tim O’Brien portrays this concept of corruption within “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bra”. After being specially shipped to her lover’s base in Vietnam, Mary Ann conveys her loss of innocence through a decline in human like tendencies, and ultimate regression into a barbaric state of being. She transforms from a dainty young woman who wore a string of pearls …show more content…

In his gripping poem entitled, Losses, Randell Jarrell normalizes war and the barbarities that it induces. Unlike Mary Ann in The Things They Carried, who feels invigorated and fully embraces war, Jarrell describes how war causes men to become insensitive and dazed. Seemingly, as a result of being constantly exposed to such horrors, soldiers lose their understanding of loss, and see death as an insignificant, ordinary occurrence. The narrator articulates, “With enormous adrenaline rushing through you, friends and fellow soldiers dying left and right, bullets of varying size and sound whizzing past you...stopping to help carry a wounded friend to safety and taking a bullet as a result, this is all a "mistake" on your part... How cold and unforgiving the world of war is.” (Jarrelll). From this statement it is made clear that war strips young and thriving men of their innocence, just as it did to Mary Ann. However, while Mary Ann had been changed by war for the better, these soldiers are being changed for the worst. This experience changes people, distorting their perceptions and chilling their

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In Tim O’Brien’s “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” Mary Anne Bell’s evolution into adulthood is driven by her acquisition of the knowledge that she is a predator. From the beginning, she is absorbed by the carnage and danger of war, even “fascinated by it. Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job” (O’Brien 7). Mary Anne accepts, and even welcomes, her predator lifestyle, and presents herself as “someone perfectly at peace with herself” (O’Brien 17). Mary Anne may crave the kill because it gives her a goal and an objective, while life as Mark Fossie’s wife would not provide such a purpose.

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This description paints the scenes of the poem as they happen, the powerful connotations of the words battling against each other, and to the grievance of the reader, the negative feelings prevail. This battle illuminates the brutality and fear experienced by soldiers, in WWII, during their final moments on Earth - their fear, sadness, and horrified disgust all hidden between the lines of these two sentences. Foreshadowed by the soldier's machine like tone, the speaker alludes to the fact that he will fight for his life, and

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reality is illustrated through the transformation of Mary Anne Bell, a young American girl who accompanies her boyfriend to the Vietnam War. At first, the soldiers are attracted to Mary Anne's beauty and femininity, expecting her to remain innocent and fragile during the brutality of war. However, as she becomes increasingly fixed in the harsh realities of combat, her transformation is described: "She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill. She was 17 years old, a kid, but she'd crossed the border into womanhood…

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Through centuries of great wars and battles, history has displayed brave men and women who have fought for their countries. These audacious people have helped propel countries for the greater good. However, the weight and responsibility, of the war, takes a heavy toll on soldiers that is often overlooked. Tim O’Brien, author of the novel The Things They Carried, records his stories, and the stories of his fellow soldiers during the war. However, three of these soldiers are affected in an outlandish way.

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The loss of innocence Mary Anne Bell experiences revives the soldiers memories regarding the time when the soldiers first got drafted, when they were as innocent as her. “Mary Anne made you think about those girls back home, how clean and innocent they all are” (113), but Mary Anne changed drastically. She lost all of the innocence she had left in her. The Vietnam War changed her completely due to all the horrors that come along. She departed from her

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In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the author retells the chilling, and oftentimes gruesome, experiences of the Vietnam war. He utilizes many anecdotes and other rhetorical devices in his stories to paint the image of what war is really like to people who have never experienced it. In the short stories “Spin,” “The Man I Killed,” and “ ,” O’Brien gives reader the perfect understanding of the Vietnam by placing them directly into the war itself. In “Spin,” O’Brien expresses the general theme of war being boring and unpredictable, as well as the soldiers being young and unpredictable.

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War is the opposite of purity where corruption evolves soldiers into dehumanized reflections of themselves. The nature of war shows how dehumanizing it is, turning soldiers into savages as seen in the story, “How to Tell A True War Story”. War stories, as told by Tim O’Brien,

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The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.

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