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Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong Summary

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O’Brien’s writing in chapter Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong (85) reflects a lot on how real war is. He gives a great description of how war changes you but he adds a little bit of extra and unreal details in parts of it.When Rat Kiley is telling the story everyone knows that it is going to be a little bit of false information in between. You have to really pay attention to understand what O’Brien is getting at with the story.Reflecting the surreal nature of war helps to get a somewhat perspective of how war was and how it took its pull on people. When reading this chapter you start to really visualize everything he describes about the villages,people,and everything else.O’Brien is very descriptive when he describes how Mary Anne is changing …show more content…

You would not think that war cause change such a kind good hearted person in such a matter of time.In the beginning he descibes her as ‘’She had long white legs and blue eyes and a complextion like strawberry ice cream.Very friendly too.’’ (89) before she started to change Mary Anne was bubby and always smiling and laughing,she was to never thought kill a person let alone be in the army. As time went over O’Brien starts to write how she changes emotionally and somewhat physically. She was changing completely it was surreal you would never have guessed it,’’ Really,nothing. To tell the truth,I’ve never been happier in my whole life.Never.’’ (95) I do not really believe that the place she is now is like a kid going to Disneyland ‘’The Happiest Place on Earth’’ they are happy they are there.’’Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back. No body was ever found. No equipment,no clothing. For all he knew Rat said, the girl was still alive.’’ (110) Mary Anne could have been captured by the enemies but the way O’Brien describes her patterns it is hard to believe she would not come back. O’Brien also lead you to believe that she was now apart of the forest staring at you or just a shadow you see as you continue your walk through.

Surrealism can tell a lot about a person just by hearing them tell their story to you.It helps develop character, you can tell if they like to exaggerate the truth or if they like to keep it completely true. In O’Brien’s book the chapters I have read so far you can tell that on some of the stories he stretched the truth

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Mary was a woman, and women were not allowed to fight in the war, so she changed herself into a man. Mary ann is now Thomas Edward “I always get looks, do you think they know?” So how did Mary do it, how did she trick the recruitment officers into thinking she was a man. In her diary herself she tells us everything, she was a twisted woman.

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Tim O’Brien listens to a story told by one of the soldiers Rat kelly. In the chapter “Sweetheart of the song Tra Bong” O’Brien learns of Mary Anne Bell and how the war changed her. Mary Anne was a girlfriend of Mark Fossie, who was one of the soldiers Tim O’Brien knew. Mark Fossie brought her out to Vietnam to show her off. When Mary Anne first got to Vietnam she was nervous about the outcome.

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As she becomes engaged in the war Mary Anne evolves to embrace the savage beauty of the land and is lured by the mysteriousness of war. Mary Anne’s presence represents a semblance of normalcy and beauty, contrasting with the harsh realities and horror of combat. This beauty lies in her determination to follow her heart despite the dangers surrounding her. Her interest with Vietnamese culture and integration into their way of life reveals both the allure and the terrifying consequences of war. The beauty lies in her curiosity and willingness to embrace new experiences, even in the midst of a war zone.

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For example in the chapter, O’Brien announces that “A true war story is never moral”(O’Brien 65), but, later on in the chapter he contradicts himself conveying that “ In a true war story, if there's a moral at all, it’s like the thread that makes the cloth ”(O’Brien 74). He starts off saying a true war story has no morals, but then he explains that the moral means everything to a war story, which contradicts his earlier statement. This contradictory excerpt from the chapter parallels the idea of the Vietnam war in the fact that to make peace, there had to be war and bloodshed to solve the problem that the United States and North Vietnam had with one another. War is contradictory in itself ,and O’Brien’s contradictory motif illustrates it well. In fact, the idea of war is a reoccurring topic in “How to Tell a True War Story,” and O’Brien illustrates this idea of war with many other devices as

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No matter what the circumstance was, for the first few weeks, Mary Anne was always enjoying herself and was always sprightly. However, people change. She began to blend in by learning “how to clip an artery (98),” or “how to dissemble an M-16 (96).” She began turning into soldier rather than an innocent girl. When she first arrived, Mary Anne did not seem like somebody who would enjoy the gruesomeness of the war, but she began to change into someone that did enjoy it all.

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Similarly, O'Brien continues to describe the diminished character in the story by adding: “Near the end of the third week Fossie began making arrangements to send her home. At first, Rat said, Mary Anne seemed to accept it, but then after a day or two she fell into a restless gloom, sitting off by herself at the compound’s perimeter. Shoulders hunched, her blue eyes opaque, she seemed to disappear inside herself. A couple of times Fossie

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O’Brien goes into great depth in this small quote on how loss of innocence and war can affect people in the war. The quote “Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t” shows how war is so different from what any human experiences at home. After that small quote he follows it up by bringing up how you have to use normal stuff to show how crazy these things are and how much of a pole it can have on somebody during a war. The way that war is treated for many is mostly the mental part that is struggling. But for many "War is hell, but that's not half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love.

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He fought a war in Vietnam that he knew nothing about, all he knew was that, “Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons” (38). He realized that he put his life on the line for a war that is surrounded in controversy and questions. Through reading The Things They Carried, it was easy to feel connected to the characters; to feel their sorrow, confusion, and pain. O’Briens ability to make his readers feel as though they are actually there in the war zones with him is a unique ability that not every author possess.

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Her transformation was shocking. " This Mary Anne wasn 't no virgin but at least she was real. I saw

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1 In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” the protagonist is Fossie’s GIrlfriend, Mary Anne, who comes to the medical base in Vietnam to stay with Fossie. She comes very new and shiny and girly but then becomes dark and manly and obsessed with the war. Figurative Language - In the beginning when Mary Anne first arrives, Rat describes her as, “ She had long white legs and blue eyes and complexion like strawberry ice cream.”

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Mary is very different from all the other characters. One learns never to kill anyone even if they say or do

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