Sweetheart of the Song of Tra Bong as Metaphor
The Vietnam War is a strange and unexplainable event in American history. The controversies surrounding the American involvement in Vietnam and the need for Vietnam veterans to tell their stories of the war are prevalent in the post-Vietnam culture of America. "The stories that will last forever are those that swirl back and forth across the border between trivia and bedlam, the mad and the mundane"(89). The story of the sweetheart of the Song of Tra Bong explains this quote of the veteran stories never make exact sense, but they are stories from a war that never quite made exact sense either. The story of "Sweetheart of the Song of Tra Bong," involving a young girl coming to Vietnam for her boyfriend, becomes a metaphor for the rite of passage that a young soldier would experience during his service in Vietnam.
The other soldiers in the medical detachment were shocked and amazed at the arrival of Mary Anne, Mark Fossie's girlfriend. She arrived in a typical Americana glory, with her "strawberry ice cream complexion," and in a somewhat lost and tired daze. Her journey was a myriad of plane connections and layovers. Even in her arrival a metaphor is seen as to how a soldier would arrive in Vietnam. The exact arrival of soldiers into the war is somewhat a confusing and shocking fact of debate. Mary Anne was only seventeen when she arrived in Vietnam, but the soldiers over fighting were not much older than her, many the exact same age. After the initial shock of landing in Vietnam wore off, Mary Anne became curious of her surroundings and what was going on in the war. This also is what a young soldier would experience during his first days of service, and he was trying to u...
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...ut the hidden thoughts and feelings of the narrator are the real things that need to be examined. The Vietnam War is so colluded with uncertainties that it's meaning and questions of why are still lingering in the minds of citizens of the United States.
Although this interpretation of the metaphor is not one that many adhere to when they first read the story, it is one that deserves some attention. The story can be seen as this transformation of the soldier while serving in Vietnam. This story explains some of the smaller battles that the soldiers went through. They fought for their own identity, killing, and survival. All these battles can be seen through Mary Anne and her trails while in Vietnam. The story of Mary Anne ends with her going to the jungles of Vietnam never to be seen again, and this happens to the soldiers, they will always have Vietnam in them.
Mary Anne was a bright girl and she wanted to learn all that she could about the war and the land. Her new found purpose becae to find as much as she could about the culture while she was in it. She often went for nature walks and began to learn the Vietnamese language/culture . Even her personality began to change. But eventually she began to learn about guns and war. She started to spend her free time cleaning and shooting. This began the downward trail to her becoming a camo wearing jungle woman.
Superficial passion revolves around outward beauty, but true love is always found in the heart. In Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond Rostand conveys this truth beautifully. This play follows Cyrano in his quest for love from Roxanne, believing she could not love him due to his oversized nose. Little do they know that she does not truly love the handsome Christian, but rather Cyrano, the master of words.
The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of
First and foremost is the appeal to emotions. All of the other facets of romanticism can be related to the emotional appeal in Cyrano de Bergerac. Because strong emotional appeal is perhaps the most important method used by the author to create identity with the reader, especially in romantic works, the actions which elicit the emotional responses must, then, show a great deal about the character. The character's motives and philosophies can be determined through his actions. Because Cyrano de Bergerac was written in the romantic style, certain intellectual and emotional principles exist throughout the play, which will now be observed in depth.
One of Cyrano’s most significant traits as a friend was his loyalty. He would always look out for friends in their time of need, which makes the audience feel sympathetic towards him. Because Cyrano is such a loyal friend, the audience feels angry with Roxane for manipulating him, and taking advantage of his loyalty. An example of Cyrano’s loyalty was when Ragueneau’s wife was having an affair with a musketeer, Cyrano confronted her, “Make sure you do./I like your husband, and I don’t intend/To see him made a fool of./Is that clear?”(II.iv.115-118). He stood up for his dear friend, and did not want him be made a joke of. I believe this is important because it shows that he is not only loyal to his friend, but also caring and has strong moral principles. What Lise was doing was wrong, and the author put this part in to emphasize the reader’s sympathy for Cyrano. Later when Ragueneau’s wife left him, Cyrano did not hesitate to support Ragueneau by talking him out of killing himself and providing him with a proper job. Furthermore, as everyone must be aware of, Cyrano was in love with Roxane. But because he was such a trustworthy friend, he agreed to protect Christian...
In the beginning of the play all aspects of society come together to the theater which involves the poor and the richest people. There’s were Roxane first saw Christian and she was immediately attracted to his looks, she’s just like society is quick to judge looks over personality, completely under minding Cyrano. Roxane tells Cyrano about Christian beauty in Act two Scene five Roxane said “His face shines with wit n intelligence, He’s proud, noble, young, fearless, and handsome.” This shows that she’s completely blinded by his looks! Society will describe Christian just like Roxane but will have different aspects of him. She’s saying that Christian is a bright person judging him by the way he looks. Roxane starts to look for Christian by letting Cyrano know that he is part of his regiment. In Act two Scene five Roxane said “ And it s happens, cousin, that he’s a member of your regiment.” Roxane had just seen Christian once and she already knew who he was and what he did....
Few words can be more humorous, or more upsetting, than a well thought out and witty phrase. The only skill that matches Cyrano’s skill with a sword, is his skill with his tongue. With a wit unmatched by any poet, Cyrano made enemies wherever he went, simply by out-smarting all who came against him. In the first act of the play, Cyrano crashes a performance of the well-known actor Montfluery. After many insults, Cyrano heaps upon them by saying, “I would never venture out in public with a soiled conscience, a tarnished honor, or scruples grimy and dull. I do not adorn myself with gems and ribbons, like you. Instead, I decorate myself with truth, independence, and a clean soul.”
The theme of this play is inner beauty and outer beauty. In the beginning of Cyrano de Bergerac, it seems like the theme focuses heavily on outer beauty. As you continue to read on, the play actually puts more emphasis in inner beauty. Symbolism is very important in this play. The letters written by Cyrano symbolizes Cyrano’s inner beauty because what you write comes from your soul which is shaped by your personality. Cyrano’s nose symbolizes his ugliness and his insecurity. Because Cyrano knows Roxane would never consider him because of his nose, he decides to help Christian since Cyrano believes he can help Christian win Roxane’s heart. “
After experiencing the war first-hand, Mary Anne finds her place in the world—in Vietnam with the Green Berets. When she first arrives at the camp, she is a young, innocent girl who does not know anything about the war; however, after staying at the camp for a few weeks and learning about the war, she loses her innocence. Mary Anne’s loss of innocence is reflected in the disturbing imagery used to describe the smell of the Special Forces hootch and her necklace of human tongues. Mary Anne’s true personality is shown when she is chanting along with tribal music in the Special Army hootch. She is no longer an innocent girl but is an experienced young woman with a burning passion for the war.
Love is something that is so beautiful it brings people together, but at the same time it can be the most destructive thing and it can tear people apart. Edmond Rostand's play, Cyrano de Bergerac, is a tale of a love triangle between Cyrano, Christian, and Roxane. In the play, Cyrano helps Christian make a false identity about himself for Roxane to fall in love for. Christian had the looks while Cyrano had the personality, together they could make the perfect man. Throughout the play, you see similarities and differences between Christian and Cyrano’s personality, looks, and who they love.
“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 impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
In conclusion the soldiers use dark humor, daydreaming, and violent actions which all allow an escape from the horrors they had to go through in Vietnam. These coping mechanisms allowed the men to continue to fight and survive the war. They wouldn’t have been able to carry on if it wasn’t for the outlets these methods provided. Without humor, daydreaming, and violent actions, the war would have been unbearable for the men, and detrimental to their lives going forward.
Some authors choose to write stories and novels specifically to evoke certain emotions from their readers as opposed to writing it for just a visual presentation. In order to do this, they occasionally stretch the truth and “distort” the event that actually occurred. The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a compilation of short stories about the Vietnam War with distortion being a key element in each of them.
Both Christian and Cyrano love Roxane but Roxane loves only the person that has been writing to her. It was actually Cyrano, who was writing to her but she thinks it was Christian. Cyrano had said, "..And we two make one hero of romance." (II,85) Since Cyrano was suffering with an inferiority complex, as he had a gigantic nose, he was shy to ask Roxane whether she wanted him or not. He had assumed that she would not like him because of his deformity. He one said , "..I adore Beatrice Have I / The look of Dante?" (I,42) What he had not considered was that Roxane loved him for what he was from the inside, not outside. Once she had told Christian that , "If you were less charming - ugly even - I should love you still.