the US military since the Vietnam War. The culprits? All members of a separatist domestic terrorist group called Ejercito Popular Boricua (English: Boricua Popular Army or BPA, EPB) more commonly known as Los Macheteros (“The Machete Wielders”); a nickname that conjures images of the improvised group of Puerto Ricans that banded together to defend and fight the United States Army when they invaded during the Spanish-American War. BPA’s main ideology is a free Puerto Rico, free from the colonial status
War changes everyone involved in one way or another. For some it physical changes them because they get physical deformed, but for most people, war changes their mental state. War changes people’s mental state because of the duties that they have to perform and the experiences that they have to see. Tim O’Brien shows how the characters mental states changed throughout the book, because of the war. In the story “How to Tell a True War Story” Bob “Rat” Kiley loses his best friend, Curt Lemon, right
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. Mark Fossie decided he was going to sneak his girlfriend onto his base in Vietnam. When she arrived
In The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, a character named Mary Ann is introduced as the girlfriend of Vietnam soldier Mark Fossie. Even more so than the other American soldiers in Vietnam, Mary Ann is the embodiment of an outsider, in some sense, just like the soldiers. She is also the representation of American naivety in the Vietnam War. She does not belong there, and her story accentuates what happens when someone’s surroundings affect him or her. She arrives to Vietnam as Mark Fossie’s girlfriend
Tim O’Brien, in his novel The Things They Carried, retells the many stories he acquired from his time in military service in Vietnam. In one of his chapters, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” O’Brien has his character Rat Kiley tell the story of a soldier who managed to smuggle his girlfriend into Vietnam. This girl, Mary Anne, arrives in culottes and a pink sweater, giving a portrayal of a feminine character. Throughout the story, she involves herself in progressively gruesome activities, such
When many think of a great, memorable story, they will probably remember an inspirational or coming of age novel, or Bildungsroman. In many ways, The Things They Carried is an exemplary Bildungsroman as it carries the reader through the lives and problems of every soldier within its pages. Each man is witnessed as he goes through his own maturation and personal times of struggle and hardships. Some are focused on more than others, but each man has a story to tell, each a moral to teach. Throughout
Desertion in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong The "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is a story of many things when looked at from the right perspective. The validity of the story actually has nothing to do with its main purpose, which is to explain how Vietnam changed the American soldiers who were a part of the conflict. O'Brien's purpose is to inform his readers of the effect that Vietnam had on American GI's. Told by Rat Kiley, the "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" can be seen as a touching