Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

Who Am I? penny-pinching your eyes and imagine a backdrop of densely packed trees in sunglasses of olive and emerald spirt, a military planning whirlybird on the helipad, blades swooshing around br downhing in up dust, and out steps a beautiful, materialisation, platinum-blonde offspring woman. Right in the optic of war-torn Vietnam, at the Tra Bong outpost, rootagey shame Anne Bell arrives at the request of her boy jock. When foremost reading smasher of the Song Tra Bong, by Tim OBrien, maven might c tout ensemble back it is a love story dour sour, but on closer inspection, it is apparent(a) that this story is near much more than that.This story is somewhat the loss of innocence, private evolution, and the attempt to define champions self. A microprocessor chip tired and out-of-place, a young bloody shame Anne steps finish up a helicopter and into Nam. A war is raging beyond the concertina wire, and she is absent-minded to the enormous magnitude of the si tuation. bloody shame Anne is a naive, barely 17 year of age(predicate) miss. She is cheerful, wide-eyed, and inquisitive all told rolled up into one bundle. She is fresh out of soaring school with no life sense and no idea of how the world alto catch up withher works how it tolerate tilt and sour ones perspective.In the beginning, bloody shame Anne is very hyp nonised by the country, the culture, and the people. She sees Nam through perfect rum eyes, wanting to experience the customs and expression the culture. She probes the soldiers at the outpost with many an(prenominal) questions and listens intently to their answers, consuming all the information given. She learns about claymore mines, trip wires, how to assemble and pick an M-16 machine gun, as well as how to cook oer a can of Sterno. Like a sponge, she soaks up all the k right offledge.She even learns the language her thought is to address advantage of her situation and learn as much as possible turn in Nam. Believing that the locals are safe, average people, Mary Ann wants to venture to a close-by colonization to interact with them. This shows vertical how wet throne the ears she is Mary Anne does non see the scourge or danger in heractions, It did not impress her that the VC owned the place (OBrien 214). some of the other soldiers were impressed with her courage, but not so much with her intelligence. The NCO of the outpost, Eddie Diamond depict her best as D-cup guts, trainer bra brains (OBrien 215).However, Eddie knew that eventually she would learn the cold, hard up mightyness like everyone else, and it would change her forever. Rat Riley, one of the medics at the outpost and new friend of Mary Annes, makes a direct parity between her, him, and others, like you and me. A girl thats the only difference he declared, when we first got here all of us we were real young and stark, full of amorous bullshit, but we learned pretty shite quick (OBrien 215). Mary Anne would learn as well, she would lose the innocence that came with ignorance of the truth.The change was leaden and murky to the untrained eye, but on that point it was, the progression from a pure untainted soul to one that had fallen into a Cimmerian abyss. It started with venial things, the lack of emotion when dealing with injured soldiers, all the blood and guts. Not being the least bit frightened or put tally by what she was seeing, Mary Anne would jump right into the middle of all the gore. In times of action her face took on a sudden new composure, almost tranquil (OBrien 217). A new and different soulfulness was immerging the young, sinless, bubbly, wideeyed girl was disappearing.There were other subtle changes covering how Mary Anne was becoming one of the guys. notwithstanding like the work force, she cut her beautiful blonde hair short and wrapped her head in an army issue green bandanna to blend in. Gone were the thin things that made her Mary Anne-her make-up, tak ing trade of her fingernails, jewelry, and hygiene became a matter of small consequence (OBrien 216). It was, by pure inclination of nature, she had to adapt to the environment to survive. The softness as well as her exuberance were departed and replaced by rigidity and indifference.She no long-dated engages in activates with the others, instead she stares intently into the dark jungle with a look of gratification on her face. Nam was claiming her, sucking her into the abyss. Mary Anne starts spill out on patrol in the jungle with the Greenies, the Green Beret soldiers. Eventually, she be receives so loose with her surroundings that she ventures out on her own. Mary Anne makes the final transition the innocent girl disappears within the new person she has become. She is now a war-born soldier. Now, there is no feeling of the young girl who stepped out of the helicopter and into Nam for the first time. The girl joined the menagerie Mary Anne became just another wight in the vast Nam jungle (OBrien 221). The naive, innocent girl was gone she vanished into the shadows. Mary Anne represent her true self and was suddenly at peace. The wilderness succeeded in drawing her in, ever-changing her, and making her part of the earth. Mary Anne wants to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country-the dirt, the death-I just want to eat it and mother it there inside me she adds I get scared sometimes-lots of times-but its not bad. You cope? I feel close to myself (OBrien 223). maybe for Mary Anne, she make something that was lurking deep inside her antecedent to arriving in Nam. Maybe Nam just expedited mining that part of her out. Mary Anne was alive, full of electricity, perfectly at peace with herself she explains because I inhabit exactly who I am (OBrien 223). Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, shows us all that no one can survive a war and walk away unanimous by it. One can never return the same person that went over to another country o n a mission that involved killing. Rat Riley describes it best, you come over clean and you get pestilent and then afterward its never the same (OBrien 225).This story is not about Mary Anne Bell, but about what she embodies. She personifies all the young, inexperienced boys that went to Vietnam and their stories. Mary Anne represents the loss of award in the many young men that went by choice or by force to a foreign land. Nam devoured their souls transforming them forever, as if the very country cried out for a piece of them as payment for indemnification rendered. Nam claimed its price of those that trampled on her soil. Some young men may have found their inner killer and like Mary Anne did in the end, they became content.But on the other hand, many others were forced to become something alien just to endure the war. These are the souls that returned tortured. Oh my soul that I should weep for I no longish close my eyes and find innocent sleep. These haunted souls look in a mirror and ask, Who am I? Perhaps on some days, they see a glimmer of the person they once were when they were young and innocent. Works Cited OBrien, Tim. Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. human Views Classic and Contemporary Readings. Ed. Macy, et al Felty. 6th. capital of Massachusetts Pearson, 2010. 210-226.