Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong Analysis

The story Sweetheart of The Song Tra Bong by Tim O’Brien is about the decline of human innocence. Throughout our lives we face many changes whether it be by choice or by the environment we are surrounded in. Although change can be good it can also decrease the morale of those around you. Mary Anne is the face of such a change that will make brave men cower in fear; her change signifies a falling of the most beautiful of angels, the epitome of light but who has been seduced by the hatred and darkness. Even the most beautiful of people can metamorphose into something that gives us great despair in every possible way.
Thomas C. Foster is a university professor in Flint Michigan who wrote How To Read Literature Like A Professor. Foster helps explain biblical illusions in literature that some people may have trouble noticing. In the text he explains “In modern literature, many Christ figures are somewhat less than Christlike…”(Foster 48). I argue that Fossie could resemble a figure of God because of his power over Mary Anne. Later on in the story after Mary Anne has tried to be more independent Fossie begins to watch over her more attentively. “…he’d tighten up and force himself not to watch her. But then a moment later he’d be watching”(O’Brien 104). His watching is like God looking over his creation, waiting for something to occur.

“… she was seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland High Senior High. She had long white legs and blue eyes and complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too”(O’Brien 93). Her beauty is both inside and out which can even make the most loyal of men jealous. It can even be compared to Lucifer’s beauty in the bible, “…You were the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty”(New International Version, Ezekiel 28.12). Lucifer and Mary Anne both carried the appearance of beauty; a beauty that had undoubtedly made some men awe at the sight of