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Chapter sweetheart of the song tra bong essay
Chapter sweetheart of the song tra bong essay
Literature identity theme
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When Imaginations Run Wild Rat Kiley has a way with words. He may not have the best way, but he certainly has a way that not only keeps the men of the Alpha Company intrigued but also the readers of his overly exaggerated story. With intense devotion and commitment to the tale, Rat Kiley gives us “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” through the genius writings of Tim O’Brien. With layer upon layer of uncertain emotion and continuing conflict, the story hooks the reader in with pure joy, sadness, anxiety and shock, never knowing which way the plot could twist next. O’Brien creates an incredible multidimensional story of questionable love, war, mystery, conflict and the drug like high of cold blooded murder that leaves the reader filled with constant wonder and opened ended scenarios playing through their mind. The narrator of the story, Rat Kiley is portrayed with many different faces and masks throughout the …show more content…
story. The men of the Alpha Company describe Rat as being nothing short of a liar, believing only sixty to seventy percent of anything that exits his mouth. Rat Kiley did not have deceitful intent as much as intense emotion that he wanted the men to feel as they listened to his stories. The men of Alpha Company explained, “For Rat Kiley, I think, facts were formed by sensation, not the other way around, and when you listened to one of his stories, you’d find yourself performing rapid calculations in your head, subtracting superlatives, figuring the square root of an absolute and then multiplying by maybe.” This quote gives the reader a better understanding of how the men of the Alpha Company portray Rat Kiley, giving the reader insight as to how absurd the remaining words might be. Even with that knowledge, Rat’s intense emotion and attention to detail draws the reader in, mesmerizing them with his overly exaggerated imagination. As his story telling progresses the reader is able to sympathize with Rat as you can sense his frustration ultimately growing as the men in his squad poke fun at and antagonize him for his unbelievable portrayal of Mary Anne Bells journey to finding herself. Portrayed as such a sweet, innocent and naïve young girl, Mary Anne draws the reader in and makes them fall in love with her passion for life and love. As her journey starts with conflict and adventure, smuggling herself into base on a supply helicopter, her character never disappoints. Mary Anne demonstrates depth, evolution and constant conflict as the reader watches her eagerness to learn and develop as she falls out of love with soldier Mark Fossie and in love with a war torn country. “Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job, that quick hot rush in your veins when the choppers settled down and you had to do things fast and right.” The defining line is drawn between desire for knowledge and addiction when the reader is able to understand Mary Anne’s thought process as the helicopters are bringing in wounded soldiers. Despite Mike Fossie’s efforts to convince Mary Anne that it was time to go home, she continued on her path of discovery, living fearlessly and constantly searching for her next high that would lead to the ultimate plot twist, murder. Mark and Mary Anne had been in love since the sixth grade brought them together but neither suspected that their desires to keep their flame alive in Vietnam would be their ultimate demise. Blindsided by young love and small town living the two had plans to marry and live out the perfect life however, even with the greatest life planned out Mary Anne could not resist her inner desire for adventure and her love for life outside of the only world she had ever known. The reader is able to engage in the slow process as Mary Anne’s life shifts keeping the reader engaged, worried, connected and ultimately shocked by who she was becoming. “…she took a greedy pleasure in night patrols. She was good at it; she had the moves. All camouflaged up, her face smooth and vacant, she seemed to flow like water through the dark, like oil, without sound or center…There were times, apparently, when she took crazy, death-wish chances…” Piece by piece throughout the story the reader is mesmerized each time a new layer of Mary Anne is revealed ultimately leading to the greedy pleasure of dangerous night stalking. She had taken up a new life, leaving behind the one she thought she so desperately wanted. With little attention to detail when it came to atmosphere or setting of camp, Tim O’Brien left nothing to the imagination when he exploited the reader to the mystery of where Mary Anne had taken up residence.
Leaving the reader guessing that she was in the Greenies hooch, which was initially described as a simple compound located at the edge of camp, the reader becomes shocked with the details of the interior, adding yet another layer of conflict and reveal as to who Mary Anne had become. “Thick and numbing, like flesh-the stink of the kill. But that wasn’t all. On a post at the rear of the hootch was the decayed head of a large black leopard; strips of yellow-brown skin dangled from the overhead rafters. And bones. Stacks of bones-all kinds.” With the authors descriptive and detailed filled description of the hootch the reader was nearly able to smell the described stench and envision the atmosphere inside. The atmosphere became so real and life like that it had the possibility to bring the reader to their knees much as it had done to Mark
Fossie. With the story of love, war, mystery, conflict and the high of murder revealed, O’Brien succeeds at giving the reader an incredible multidimensional story, leaving the reader plenty of room to fill their mind with constant wonder and opened ended scenarios. Much like the powerful drug of cocaine or heroin, war had taken over the love, life and mind of Mary Anne. Like most drugs, war had drawn her in, changing who she was and making her an entirely different yet very powerful person. With Mary Anne either dead or wandering the open fields of Vietnam the possibilities of her life remain endless. The only thing that the reader knows for sure is that although it may seem tragic, Mary Anne had found the woman that she wanted to be. She was unorthodoxly happy at the expense of breaking Mark Fossie heart and murdering several people in the name of war and personal addiction.
Rat Kiely continues to tell a story about how Mary Anne had an affect on everyone. One day as Mary Anne searches the unknown of Vietnam, she goes missing. Her boyfriend, Mark Fossie is desperate and stunned and decides to go look for her. Suddenly, Mary Anne would show up at base and go missing again. When Mark Fossie goes looking for his girlfriend once again, he sees her. Rat Kiley explains, “‘But the story did not end there. If you believes the greenies, Rat said, Mary Anne was still out there in the dark… Not quite, but almost. She had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill’” (page 110). Here, Rat Kiely tells the readers that everyone had to adapt to the environment to survive, and Mary Anne has done just that. In the beginning of the chapter, Kiely talks about how Mary Anne portrayed the perfect girlfriend, sweet and innocent. But the quote displays the change that occurred to Mary Anne. It is implied early on that Mary Anne represents a common soldier which would mean that every soldier had gone through a drastic change to make them who they are. Through the dynamic character of Mary Anne, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, demonstrated to
There are over thirty genres of books in the world. All of stories are told and written in many different forms from written to spoken, action to romance, or fiction to non-fiction. But, all stories have something in common--a theme that is intended to make a difference to the reader. No matter what the story is about, it is centered around a strong theme. The author of The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien., uses a separate theme in each of his vignettes. But, these themes aren't always depicted through truth. "I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now , and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented"(171). O'Brien uses story-truth and happening-truth in The Things They Carried to show a great theme. In certain cases in the book, story-truth shows theme better and happening-truth isn't used and vice versa. In the vignette "The
I got started on writing the song lyrics because I was listening to “Thinkin Bout You” by Frank Ocean. The song starts off the same way with the use of a tornado explaining to someone why they can’t go in his room because it’s messy. I used the same idea but to describe a relationship to start the poem off. I tried to rhyme the whole poem like AA,BB,CC except for the last stanza because it was showing the end or a problem in someone's relationship when it ends. I used barbados to rhyme with tornado but expanded on that the relationship was fragile. I think the two first lines are similes because I'm comparing them using “like” and “as.” I didn’t try to use to make the whole poem use like or as because I think it's good to have break. The third
In the short story, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” by Tim O’Brien, the author shows that no matter what the circumstances were, the people that were exposed to the Vietnam War were affected greatly. A very young girl named Mary Anne Bell was brought by a boyfriend to the war in Vietnam. When she arrived she was a bubbly young girl, and after a few weeks, she was transformed into a hard, mean killer.
“Why? Why? The girl gasped, as they lunged down the old deer trail. Behind them they could hear shots, and glass breaking as the men came to the bogged car” (Hood 414). It is at this precise moment Hood’s writing shows the granddaughter’s depletion of her naïve nature, becoming aware of the brutality of the world around her and that it will influence her future. Continuing, Hood doesn’t stop with the men destroying the car; Hood elucidated the plight of the two women; describing how the man shot a fish and continued shooting the fish until it sank, outlining the malicious nature of the pair and their disregard for life and how the granddaughter was the fish had it not been for the grandmother’s past influencing how she lived her life. In that moment, the granddaughter becomes aware of the burden she will bear and how it has influenced her life.
Exposing the Truth in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong "Dear Mom and Dad: The war that has taken my life, and many thousands of others before me, is immoral, unlawful, and an atrocity," (letter of anonymous soldier qtd. In Fussell (653). Tim O'Brien, a Vietnam War vet, had similar experiences as the soldier above. Even though O'Brien didn't die, the war still took away his life because a part of him will never be the same.
Last but not least, O’Connor confirms that even a short story is a multi-layer compound that on the surface may deter even the most enthusiastic reader, but when handled with more care, it conveys universal truths by means of straightforward or violent situations. She herself wished her message to appeal to the readers who, if careful enough, “(…)will come to see it as something more than an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida.”
Typically, a novel contains four basic parts: a beginning, middle, climax, and the end. The beginning sets the tone for the book and introduces the reader to the characters and the setting. The majority of the novel comes from middle where the plot takes place. The plot is what usually captures the reader’s attention and allows the reader to become mentally involved. Next, is the climax of the story. This is the point in the book where everything comes together and the reader’s attention is at the fullest. Finally, there is the end. In the end of a book, the reader is typically left asking no questions, and satisfied with the outcome of the previous events. However, in the novel The Things They Carried the setup of the book is quite different. This book is written in a genre of literature called “metafiction.” “Metafiction” is a term given to fictional story in which the author makes the reader question what is fiction and what is reality. This is very important in the setup of the Tim’s writing because it forces the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the story. However, this is not one story at all; instead, O’Brien writes the book as if each chapter were its own short story. Although all the chapters have relation to one another, when reading the book, the reader is compelled to keep reading. It is almost as if the reader is listening to a “soldier storyteller” over a long period of time.
Told by Rat Kiley, the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" can be seen as a touching love story; sweethearts united even during a war. However, the true focus of the story is not love but change and desertion. Kiley is telling the story to illustrate how all GI's changed in their Vietnam experience. The fact that the main character is a woman drives his point even farther home. She is the very portrait of mainstream, wholesome America; the only thing she lacks is an apple pie.
“And then one morning, all alone, Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not come back” (110). Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” presents an all-American girl who has been held back by social and behavioral norms – grasping for an identity she has been deprived the ability to develop. The water of the Song Tra Bong removes Mary Anne’s former notion of being as she, “stopped for a swim” (92). With her roles being erased Mary Anne becomes obsessed with the land and mystery of Vietnam and is allowed to discover herself. Through the lenses of Mark Fossie and the men in the Alpha Company, Mary Anne becomes an animal and is completely unrecognizable by the end of the story. Mary Anne, however, states she is happy and self-aware. The men of the Alpha Company argue for virtue in that Mary Anne was “gone” (107) and that what she was becoming “was dangerous… ready for the kill” (112). They did not want to accept a woman becoming something different from what women always were. In “How Tell to a True War Story” we are told that a true war story “does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior” (65). Mary Anne did not truly become ‘dark’, because to her this is not a story about war; this is a story about a woman attempting to overcome gender roles and the inability of men to accept it.
The song “Use Somebody” by King of Leon shows Holden’s perception of the world. For example, Holden walks around New York and criticizes all he see’s. He says, “ New York is terrible, when somebody laughs on the street very late at night. You can hear it for miles. It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed” (Salinger 81). Holden thinks of everyone and everything in a depressing manor. Everything that other people do, makes him depressed and which makes them a “phony”. In addition, the band King of Leon feel the same way when they say, “ I’ve been roaming around/Always looking down at all I see” (King of Leon). Holden always sees things in a negative way and is looking down on life. Holden does not have the happiness that other people have
The song I picked for this homework assignment is called Runaway Love by Ludacris and Mary J. Blige. The song is describing the hardships of three young girls and their struggle to survive. Finally, the girls are fed up with the lives they are forced to live and decide to pack up their things and run away. I think this song can relate to many aspects of sociology that we have learned in class. Some examples shown through the song are poverty, education, healthcare, marriage and family. All three girls’ different stories and struggles they face.
In the DJ Floppyfeet and MaxxJamez song “Firework”, the artists display a braggadocio attitude towards a luxurious life and relate the flashy lifestyle to the bright and captivating visuals of fireworks. The pair uses the juxtaposition of dazzling fireworks to the extravagant lifestyle they wish to lead to exemplify and paint a vivid picture of exactly what they want. DJ Floppyfeet and MaxxJamez detail what kind of life the common person wishes to lead in their excessive use of onomatopoeia, hyperboles, and imagery.
From brief melodies to some of my siblings’ favorite songs, I started taking interest in the genre of music around the time Wonder Girls released Nobody. I remember singing the song until my siblings would beg me to stop because they grew sick of the repetitive lyrics.
Subsequently, when completing my research on Grime, I learned that this music is a “hybrid of American rap and hip-hop and Jamaican dance hall, but with the aspects of punk, 1990 rave (Campion, 2004), drum and bass and garage (Mckinnum, 2005)” (Barron 536). It originated within the London area. However, it branches over into the different urban areas of Britain, and the music generates an awareness to the rest of society on what the youth of these inner-city boroughs is experiencing on a day to day basis, making this style of music “ethnographic in nature” (Barron 532). It allows us to hear and envision the social life of these individuals. Therefore, we are able to construe their lives through our own theorization and cognition. This British form of music allows individuals as myself the opportunity to understand that these artists are not as interested in the achievement of the “consumerist bling-bling” (Barron 536), but in fact, let the rest of the general public know what they are faced with daily through their musical