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What Is The Theme Of Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong

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In the story “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” by Tim O’Brien, Mary Anne Bell represents the idealistic view of women which is slowly corrupted by the war. Explaining O’Brien’s commentary on how the war corrupts the youth, marking them whether it is negatively or positively.
In the beginning of the story, Mary Anne Bell is presented as an attractive girl from a small town, she had terrific legs, a bubbly personality, and a happy smile; therefore, she is the stereotypical girl next door. Her arrival in Vietnam roots from her boyfriend Mark Fosee, bringing her after a comment from one of the fellow soldiers. Mary and Mark are a wholesome couple that dream of getting married and living the American dream. However, Mary possesses an important …show more content…

Never.” Mary Anne’s newly found love for the war, made her happy. Here the author suggests that she is slowly letting go of her idealistic view of one day getting married and living the American dream. Consequently, this is fortified by the night she disappears. Because she is an attractive woman in a camp full of men, her partner Mark immediately thinks she is being unfaithful. However, Mary had participated in an ambush and returns completely different, the war has reached her core and is now seamlessly changing the innerworkings of her being. Afterwards, Mark tries to grasp at the last bits of her ideals and officially announces they are to get married. She returns to wearing clean clothes, to wash her hair and talk happily about her future wedding plans. However, this is no longer who she is, all the old aspects of her personality were perceived as forced, evidenced by the following lines: “Over the next several days there was a strained, tightly wound quality to the way they treated each other, a rigid correctness that was enforced by repetitive acts of willpower.” The last strands of her idealistic world view were not enough to retain her from her new form of being. Her ambition towards the American dream, no longer made her happy. In order to complete her new ambition, she had to let go. Therefore, she left

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Mary Anne is flown over by Mark to Vietnam and at first the two are inseparable and extremely happy to be together. Mary Anne is fascinated with everything that is going on in Vietnam. From the culture and lifestyle of the native people to how to shoot a gun, Mary Anne wants to learn all about life in Vietnam. Soon Mary Anne becomes so obsessed with the war that she goes out on an ambush in the middle of the night with the Green Berets (O’Brien 97). Mark Fossie is enraged that Mary Anne would go off on an ambush.

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Once again if you read the whole book, you learn that Mary actually achieves her goal and turns out to be a wonderful person who figures out what life is through traveling. Another example would be aquote such as “ Sometimes you walk into a room one person, and when you come out the other side, you’re someone else altogether.” I believe this uncovers or foreshadows that she will change throughout the

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Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong 1. Tim O'Brien is the main character and the protagonist who after the Vietnam tells his “war stories” to deal with his guilty conscience and his whole perspective about the Vietnam war. 2.

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Mary Ann is the girlfriend of Mark Fossie who is brought in for a visit, however this visit is the start to her obsession with the war. Mary Anne had a normal life with normal goals before she was dropped into the war. O’Brien says, “From the sixth grade on they had known for a fact that someday they would be married, and live in a fine gingerbread house near Lake Erie, and have three healthy yellow-haired children, and grow old together, and no doubt die in each other's arms and be buried in the same walnut casket.” (94) A regular teenage girl with regular visions of the future arrives to aid the hurt and before she know it these goals are just a blurry memory of her old innocent childhood. This girl who had only come down for a visit soon sees the life of Vietnamese culture and learns more, at this point it's seen as just a fun learning experience.

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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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In this evidence, Mary expresses how she’s fed up with the disappointment. But, she also shows

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In “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, There are many ideas and desires running through the head of every soldier in Vietnam. It is a challenging war to fight, and also a very hard one to come home from as it was an incredibly unpopular war. Many soldiers faced conflicting desires on the battlefield, but the most interesting example of conflicting desires was Mary Anne Bell. She was the elementary school girlfriend of the young medic Mark Fossie, who was staying at a base in the mountains of Chu Lai. Many soldiers at the base always joked about it being so safe, and with so few officials, that someone could actually fly their girlfriend in and they would both be fine.

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93-94.) Mary Anne discovers her love for an adrenaline rush, but she does not stop there. She begins to go out on ambushes with the Greenies, and Mark Fossie could barely recognize her with her new look and necklace of human tongues. Mary Anne enjoyed her duty in Vietnam, as said, “‘Got hooked, I guess,’ … You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same. For Mary Anne Bell, it seemed, Vietnam had the effect of a powerful drug” (O’Brien. 109.).

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Mary Anne Bell’s character shows how much war really changes someone. She was shipped over to Vietnam by her boyfriend, Mark Fossie, at just seventeen years of age. She was an innocent, young and pretty girl from Cleveland Heights. When she first arrived,

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"Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” is one of the most influential chapters in the book she shows the changing power of Vietnam, that a sweet innocent young girl can come into this land and became forever consumed by her surroundings. Mary Anne was a young sweet innocent girl unaffected by the war at first. The author shows us character description from what she was wearing when she arrived. "This cute blonde just a kid, just barely out of high school white culottes and this sexy pink sweater.” (P.90.

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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.

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Mary’s desire to be faithful does not stop her from developing a deeper relationship with Ann, however. Although it is never stated explicitly as being romantic or sexual, there are multiple times when Mary hints at it, but then corrects herself. As Johnson argues, “Despite—or perhaps because of—the unconventionality of Mary's attachment to Ann, Mary frequently denies that it is the sort of passion a woman would feel for a man. But denial often implies the presence of something to be denied, and in this novel Mary's attachment to Ann is brought into specific conflict with heterosexual norms” (55). This being said, there is a strong implication that the relationship between Mary and Ann is, indeed, sexual—but it is scattered throughout most

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O 'Brien use the symbolism the dancing Vietnamese and Mary Anne to show that war can destroy your humanity and innocence. It also use the allegory of the letters of Martha, and Linda, are used to show the past can either hurt or help you someone in war. The destruction of humanity and innocence it 's something terrifying, war can transform you completely into someone else that at the end you will no be able to recognize yourself. And in war you will need to take decisions that you may not like, you will need to get ride of things that you don 't want to let go of the past so you can be able to survive, and your decisions can hurt or help

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As the story begins Mary is quite attached to her lover. Throughout the story you can see her descent to madness, and this leads to the eventual murder of her husband. There are many reasons for her drastic change in mood starting with him talking to her about their future. From the moment the story starts it is easy to say she's clearly over attached to him.

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