5. The concept of shame has had a profound impact in the lives of these soldiers in the Vietnam war, as shame is both what brought most of these soldiers to the Vietnam war and is what keeps them there. When O’Brien states, “I survived, but it 's not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war” it can be logically inferred that the concept of shame both drove him to the act of heroism as well as the act of stupidity (61). O’Brien going to war depicts the act of heroism because he decided to overcome his fears, and decided to fight for his country’s reputation and honor, by risking his own life – the most precarious gamble. On the contrary, the concept of shame also illustrates O’Brien’s stupidity in his decision of going to war because …show more content…
In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Maryanne is initially described as “A tall, big-boned blonde… seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High. She had long white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too.” which symbolized the stereotypically radical female (93). However, due to her extremely inquisitive and curious nature, she began exploring and wanting to learn more and more about the Vietnamese way of living. Eventually, after her extreme exploration she decided that the Vietnamese way of living was more suitable to her nature and decided to leave Mark Fossie, and become a predatory killer. Hence, her innate curious nature led to the demise of the radically feminine Maryanne, and led to the rise of the predatory killer Maryanne. Finally, Maryanne being a woman in this particular literary text does have a significance because it illustrates that war affects the women involved in the war in a similar manner as it affects the men involved in it. Additionally, the story of Maryanne’s transformation into something foreign - a killer - mirrors the transformation of all of the soldiers - they go to war as young innocent teenagers and return from war as vicious
In the story, “Sweetheart of the song Tra Bong”, the reader acknowledges the similarities between average soldier and Mary Anne. In the beginning of the chapter, Rat Kiely decides to tell a story to the team about how a soldier decided to bring his girlfriend to vietnam. When Mary Anne first arrives, Rat Kiely describes her with a bubbly personality and very outgoing. But soon Mary Anne knew the truth about the war and that she had to fight in order to keep her life. Rat Kiely mentions, “ ‘...I mean, when we first got here- all of us- we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne’” (page 93). This quote shows the atrocious reality of war. It can be assumed that Mary Anne symbolizes
Rat states "She'd hopped a C-130 up to Chu Lai and stayed overnight at the USO and the next morning hooked a ride west with the resupply chopper"(90). It is irrational for this to happen and in war, a high school girl cannot climb on to a plane without notice. Even though this event appears to be fake, Rat succeeds on what he is doing to readers--showing how desperate and lonely soldiers are in war. A Vietnam soldier will go to crazy lengths for a woman or something that allow them to get away from war and forget
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.
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.
Everyday individuals face decisions in which they must choose whether to do what is appealing to them or to choose a more suitable and compliable choice. In the fictional work of ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’ Brien, certain characters such as Tim O’ Brien himself must face decisions similar to these. The novel demonstrates that when an individual is faced with a decision in which there is a choice that he may have to conform, the individual tends to conform due to not wanting to embarrass themselves or to not be portrayed as a coward to others. However when the individual is challenged with these types of decisions, the choice does not matter since the outcome will be what the individual was trying to avoid. That is to say that in the excerpt “The Rainy River” Tim O’ Brien was going through a conflicting decision on whether or not he should go to the war. Yet, as we see it turns out that either choice will lead to either shame or cowardice. If he goes to the war he feels that he will be a coward and that he gave up his own morals and values and accepted something he does not believe in, but if he does not go to war he will be shunned by society and will be labelled as a coward because he will not fight for his country.
Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case of O’Brien in the story, “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried. As an author and character O’Brien describes his experiences about the Vietnam War. In the story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He could not imagine how tough fighting must be, without knowing how to fight, and the reason for such a war. In addition, O’Brien is terrified of the idea of leaving his family, friends and everything he loves behind. He decides to run away from his responsibility with the society. However, a feeling of shame and embarrassment makes him go to war. O’Brien considers himself a coward for doing something he does not agree with; on the other hand, thinking about the outcome of his decision makes him a brave man. Therefore, an individual that considers the consequences of his acts is nobler than a war hero.
The deceitful interpretation presented in "How to tell a true war story", is an example of Historicism. Today, people hear about the vietnam war through family members, friends and veterans. When people tell war stories they try to make themselves seem victorious. It makes the person listening feel as if it was all in the good of the people by killing people. O'Brian somehow justifies a point in his book by stating, "A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encouraged virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done." In actual reality more harm was done than good. People were forced off of their lands to hide in safety and the economic consequence is fatal. To derive to the point, O' Brian is saying there is no real war story if the audience feels that killing people had made a big and better consequence. To look back upon the Vietnam war it brought Vietnam to it's knees. The Americans assisted someone who asked them not to interfere and in the end there was no winner. The Americans had nothing to gain by fighting this war. The title was a contridictary of how to tell a true war story.
What is the role of shame in the lives of these soldiers? Does it drive them to acts of heroism or stupidity? Or both? What is the relationship between shame and courage, according to O’Brien?
Continuing on the novel, O’Brien continues on talking about his memories and revealing some of his war memories to the readers, such as, the “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” is a love story between an American girl and an American soldier in Vietnam. Because of the significance of the American girl whose name was Mary Anne, he travelled down to see his lover, who was described as, “clean and innocent”. It implies that they did not know anything about the war and did not see the terrifying parts of the war. Both the words “clean” and “innocent” denote free from the dirt of the society, connoting immature and blameless. The author uses Mary Anne as an example to delineate how the people at home saw the soldiers. Moreover, O’Brien says, “they’ll
Most of the soldiers did not know what the overall purpose was of fighting the Vietnamese (Tessein). The young men “carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place” (O’Brien 21). The soldiers did not go to war for glory or honor, but simply to avoid the “blush of dishonor” (21). In fact, O’Brien states “It was not courage, exactly; the object was not valor. Rather, they were to...
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
The story of the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is no typical Vietnam war story. It is a story that involves no bloods, guts or glory. This story isn't so much about the physical damage caused by war as much as this story is about the emotional changes that effect not only the males. This is a story that with it's elaboration and ornamentation shows the destruction of innocence. This story is about an impossible that came true.
Mark Fossie arranges a way to get his girlfriend down to Nam and a big change happens. Fossies girlfriend, Mary Anne Bell, was straight out of high school only seventeen years old. Once she gets there Fossie is the happiest man on earth. Just watching her dance and goof around making him get a grin on her face. She starts to hang around all the men and having a good time. Mary Anne begins to act a little more like the troops by not being afraid to get dirty and become a stronger fearless woman. She goes out with them into the woods, learns how to disassemble and shoot an M16, and to feed/hunt on her own. Then she starts acting less and less like the girl Fossie met on the first day Mary Anne came to visit. In the novel O’Brien says “her body seemed foreign somehow- too stiff in places, too firm where the softness used to be. The bubbliness was gone. The nervous giggling, too. When she laughed now, which was rare, it was only when something struck her as truly funny.” (O’Brien 94-95) which is showing how much the atmosphere there has changed her. War has changed her. The hot days, dirty jobs, and around all the dangerous forest area that could hold the enemies. She is becoming distant of Fossie and a whole new different person. O’Brien also says “In the evenings, while the men played cards, she would sometimes fall into long elastic silence, her eyes fixed on the dark, her arms folded, her foot tapping out a code message against the floor.” Which also shows she had changed. More distant and almost gives off a lost feeling in her eyes. She begins to come back really late at night and sometimes not coming back at all. In the end Mark Fossie approaches her after listening to her beautiful singing and tries to figure out why she has change or why she almost seems to have no interest in him anymore. She
“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.
In an article by Word Press they agree that, “The [Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong] challenges every idea of gender roles that have been cemented in these hyper-masculine soldiers, and in doing so challenges their idea that there is an essential different feminine identity” (Word Press, paragraph 9). In both stories the main female character is an innocent women who is almost desperately in love with their boyfriends. They are so in love that they allow their boyfriends to bring them into this new environment. In The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong story Mary Anne, the main character, is visiting her boyfriend, Mark Fossie during the middle of the Vietnam War. While in The Yellow Wallpaper the main character, who is never named, has been sent to what we assume is a plantation where she is told to stay in bed and rest to get better by her husband,