“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” is my favorite story from The Things They Carried so far. Mary Anne herself was a fascinating character to me, from the moment she landed at the camp to her mysterious “disappearance” into the jungle by fourth-hand account. Her transformation from something recognizable, familiar enough that she could be someone I know, to a Green Beret wearing a string of tongues around her neck was equally fascinating to witness. During our class discussion we entertained the speculation of what actually happened to Mary Anne, what this transformation was and what she transformed into. We didn’t really pin it down, but I’d like to put forth my own theory; Mary Anne didn’t become part of the jungle or mountains, and she didn’t just go crazy--rather, I think she witnessed the true horrors of the war as a clean slate, and the war affected her so deeply that the war became part of her, and eventually took over. I saw Mary Anne’s story, from start to finish, as a metaphor for war and what it can do to people.
At the beginning of the story, Mary Anne arrived bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, so unprepared for what was to come, much like her fellow Vietnam soldiers. However soon she was put into situation after situation that pushed her to her limits. She showed that she wasn’t what the men expected, just like the war wasn’t what they originally expected. Eventually she got “out of control” and everything was done to rein her in before things got too bad. However, just when things calmed down she went completely off the deep end. I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this, but just like Mary Anne a war can be going so well before it turns at the last minute.
The final confrontation scene provides the most convincing evidence. Mary Anne was still beautiful from a distance, but up close proved horrible and grotesque (necklace of tongues = the victims a war takes, eh?), which reminded me of O’Brien’s description of how a war can be “almost nice,” especially when she says, “I know what you think, but it's not... it's not bad." Also, when she says, “Sometimes I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country—the dirt, the death—I just want to eat it and have it there inside me,” besides being extremely disturbing, it’s also a blatant metaphor for war--how it eats the land, leaving nothing in its wake. I think this seen shows that Mary Anne has not only been affected by the war, but in some sense is the war.
Finally, Mary Anne’s mystical disappearance at the end further proves my point. No one really knew what happened to her except through stories, just like in a war, and her disappearance was sudden but somewhat a relief. The fact that the soldiers still felt the need to be on the lookout for her, though, is exactly how many feel about war, and Mary Anne’s elevation to myth/legend status shares a likeness with how wars are spoken of after they happen.
I’ve rambled enough about this, but overall--Mary Anne drove men crazy (just like war), and I enjoy this story, whether it’s “true” or not.
I usually am not a fan of authors treating people like mediums for expressing some larger concept because that's not how any human being's life works, but Mary Ann has such a mythical trajectory to her brief arc in the story that it's a bit difficult to imagine her as a real person, either.
ReplyDeleteI was caught off guard by this story, though; I assumed Mary Ann would fulfill the role closer to what women in a military setting often fulfill in like, blockbuster American movies: just there to be desirable and emotional support, I guess. I was surprised such a "American as cherry pie" woman ended up with a necklace of tongues.
I think Mary Ann does fit with a metaphor for the war. Her transformation embodies a lot of the fears that are expressed by many of the men throughout the stories but especially by Tim in "On the Rainy River." The soldiers fear the transformations that take place in Vietnam and begin to fear the land itself. Tim O'Brien depicts the land as having a mystical power over the soldiers that is embodied in Mary Ann's transformation and the soldiers who later fear her and continue to watch for her in the jungle.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS DEEP AF. I didn't really think of it this way before, but now it makes total sense. Every connection you draw between Mary Anne and the war is blowing my mind right now and fits together perfectly.
ReplyDeleteAlso, this might be a stretch but going off of your post, the part when Mark Fossie confronts Mary Anne and makes her go back to the dainty girl that she was when she arrived is kind of like when countries try to negotiate a truce and it fails. It's quiet for awhile, just like when Mark and Mary Anne barely spoke, but everyone's tense and you know that it's not going to last and eventually, everything will blow up. And that's exactly what happens in the story: everyone at the base notices something is up and the air is tense around Mark and Mary Anne, and then finally Mary Anne switches into full freak mode and leaves Mark upset and in a world of hurt.
This is such a neat idea and I think it makes a lot of sense now that I'm going back and thinking about her character progression and how she is described. I think it's really interesting that this story about her was told as almost a myth or a legend, just like war is often fantasized by people in stories. O'Brien does a great job of creating this character of both beauty and horror in this story and I agree, it was definitely one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI'd never thought of Mary Ann as a metaphor for the war, but also a metaphor for the soldiers who have/are experiencing war. I also don't think she went crazy – the war fundamentally changed her and she could make her own decisions, just like the male soldiers. Interesting post!
ReplyDeleteYeah you are right! O'Brien talks about air strikes as if they have some sort of firework like beauty, but if you take a closer look, we will get a scene of death and total destruction. I was also deeply interested in this story. O'Brien does a great job of turning Mary Anne into a personification of Vietnam as a place of wild enchantment, but also as a place of a quasi beautiful death and destruction.
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