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Summary Of The Sweetheart Of Song Tra Bong

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In the short story “The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong,” one of Tim O’Brien’s purposes is to describe how society wrongfully and differently characterizes women from men, believing that women are one-dimensional beings simply present to offer men comfort. O’brien uses irony to portray and help develop this theme and idea O’brien mentions through this short story. Rat Kiley would snap when someone questioned one of the details in his story and always say
, “Like you and me. A girl, that’s the only difference” (93). Here O’brien portrays Mary Anne and women in general, as fair equals of men and simply no different. Gender isn’t in charge of defining an individual, but it’s the individual that is in charge of defining themselves through their actions, ideas, and …show more content…

This is shown through Mary Anne and her actions/behaviors throughout her transformation she undertakes in Vietnam, same as many men that did before her and will after her. Rat Kiley would always like to insert little clarifications or bits of analysis and personal opinion when he told the story, so he stops telling the story, throwing off the flow, stating, “She was a girl, that’s all. I mean, if it was a guy, everybody'd say, Hey, no big deal, he got caught up in the Nam shit, he got seduced by the Greenies… You got these blinders on about women. How gentle and peaceful they are… Pure garbage. You got to get rid of that sexist attitude” (102). Here O’brien portrays the idea that women are characterized as sweet and peaceful beings with no violent thoughts and actions, yet, here Mary Anne is simply a regular girl who has become swallowed by the war as has happened to many men showing the false expectations society holds against women and their abilities. She is transformed by the war and has ironically become hungrier for adventure than her soldier boyfriend who had brought her over to be a comfort for him while he was in the midst of war.

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