Read "Churches" and "Style"
Work on Short Stories
Over the Break Read "The Dentist" and "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong"--to pg. 116
When we return we will view A Soldier's Sweetheart
http://blip.tv/lostin24/a-soldier-s-sweetheart-part-1-of-3-2467255
https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVv7N8tBYtlIAI7APxQt.?p=a+soldiers+sweetheart&fr=yhs-pty-pty_extension&fr2=piv-web&hspart=pty&hsimp=yhs-pty_extension#id=1&vid=0f062ddcbb987838ff9f93ab90bd8759&action=view
Magic Realism and The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong
Magic Realism
A narrative technique that blurs the distinction between fantasy and reality. It is characterized by an equal acceptance of the ordinary and the extraordinary. Magic realism fuses (1) lyrical and, at times, fantastic writing with (2) an examination of the character of human existence and (3) an implicit criticism of society, particularly the elite."My most important problem was destroying
the lines of demarcation that separates what
seems real from what seems fantastic"
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Characteristics of Magical Realism
Hybridity—Magical realists incorporate many techniques that have been linked to post-colonialism, with hybridity being a primary feature. Specifically, magical realism is illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous. The plots of magical realist works involve issues of borders, mixing, and change. Authors establish these plots to reveal a crucial purpose of magical realism: a more deep and true reality than conventional realist techniques would illustrate.
Irony Regarding Author’s Perspective—The writer must have ironic distance from the magical world view for the realism not to be compromised. Simultaneously, the writer must strongly respect the magic, or else the magic dissolves into simple folk belief or complete fantasy, split from the real instead of synchronized with it. The term "magic" relates to the fact that the point of view that the text depicts explicitly is not adopted according to the implied world view of the author. As Gonzales Echevarria expresses, the act of distancing oneself from the beliefs held by a certain social group makes it impossible to be thought of as a representative of that society.
Authorial Reticence—Authorial reticence refers to the lack of clear opinions about the accuracy of events and the credibility of the world views expressed by the characters in the text. This technique promotes acceptance in magical realism. In magical realism, the simple act of explaining the supernatural would eradicate its position of equality regarding a person’s conventional view of reality. Because it would then be less valid, the supernatural world would be discarded as false testimony.
The Supernatural and Natural—In magical realism, the supernatural is not displayed as questionable. While the reader realizes that the rational and irrational are opposite and conflicting polarities, they are not disconcerted because the supernatural is integrated within the norms of perception of the narrator and characters in the fictional world.
english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html
DISCUSSION GROUPS:
HMWK: POST A COMMENT TO THE INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONS Level 2 and Allegorical/Symbolic Question Level 3
"The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong"
Level 2: Interpretive questions.
In "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," what transforms Mary Anne into a predatory killer? Does it matter that Mary Anne is a woman? How so? What does the story tell us about the nature of the Vietnam War?
2. The story Rat tells in "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is highly fantastical. Does its lack of believability make it any less compelling? Do you believe it? Does it fit O'Brien's criteria for a true war story?
3. Find three symbols in this chapter and explain them.
4. Find three specific quotes and scenes from the chapter that illustrate Mary Anne’s change. Also, explain Mary Anne’s transformation. Does she go crazy? Or does she simply change?
5. Explain the whole “cave scene”. What is going on? What has Mary Anne become? Make a list of all of graphic imagery from that scene.
6. Does it matter what happened, in the end, to Mary Anne? Would this be a better story if we knew, precisely, what happened to her after she left camp? Or does this vague ending add to the story? Either way, why?
Level 3 Allegorical/Symbolic Questions What does this short story tell the reader about the nature of humanity? About war?
Level 3 Allegorical/Symbolic Questions What does this short story tell the reader about the nature of humanity? About war?
Being around men in war and just experiencing the atmosphere of war changed Mary Anne from a innocent girl into a killer. If she was around other women, I don't believe she would've turned out the way she did. The story tells us that anyone can be influenced by the gore in war.
ReplyDeleteThe story seems unbelievable. I know the entire story is made up, but there are plenty of real war stories to tell. Even though the story is unbelievable, it doesn't take away from how compelling it is. Throughout the story it is filled with present day application. It does fit O'Brian's criteria for a war story because it tells the story of soldiers and what the war did to them.
1. After seeing what war in Vietnam was like, the once innocent and pure Mary Ann became corrupted and changed into a much more hardened and far less feminine person. Eventually she devolves into a pure hunter, almost akin to a savage. The fact that she is a woman is briefly touched on by Rat near the end of the story and I believe that her being a woman makes the story have a larger impact, since woman are more innocent than men...or something like that. The story tells us that the war changes people.
ReplyDelete2. I don't really think that believability matters in a story like this, it's more so what the story is actually about how war changes people. Obviously I don't believe it. It fits the criteria for a true war story in that the ending is ambiguous and not happy or romanticized.
3. The necklace of tongues symbolizes Mary Anne's devolution, the claymores and traps likely symbolize the start of her descent into madness seeing as how she's so fascinated with them, and the whole discussion of the wedding represents the eventual return to society that Mary Ann does not wish for.
4. "To tell the truth, I've never been happier in my whole life. Never" (O'Brien, 95). "I know what you think, but it's not...it's not bad" (O'Brien, 106). The entire scene in the cave shows that Mary Ann is no longer the same girl that stepped into Vietnam. I think she snaps just a little, but not full on crazy.
5. The stench, severed head, and sign in the cave show that Mary Ann has succumbed to the reality of war. She becomes someone that is no longer oblivious to what Vietnam is like and experiences a loss of innocence.
6. No, it doesn't matter. The fact of the matter is that she changed after being exposed to the war, which exemplifies the entire point of the story. The message doesn't change if we know that she died or something.
Level 3
It shows that the nature of humanity can be changed. Mary Ann initially represented purity and innocence and was corrupted by being exposed to the horrors and grim reality of war for too long.
Level 2
ReplyDelete1. Mary is changed when she falls in love with war and sees the beauty of it.
2. It is unbelievable because I would never think about a soldier bringing his girlfriend to war when it can be dangerous out there or his friends would even fall in love with his girl. Though, I can see the credibility of her falling in love with the only thing that she sees everyday because it's something that she had never experienced back home. I believed it as Rat told it. It does fit a true war story criteria because it has no moral. The story goes on and on, yet it doesn't seem to have a point like a true war story.
3. Pink sweater and culottes meaning her innocence.
Straight out of high school- young, gullible, bubbly, innocent.
glowed at night- finding herself and what truly makes her happy.
4. "Mary Anne Bell was an attractive girl. Too wide in the shoulders, maybe, but she had terrific legs, a bubbly personality, a happy smile" (O'Brien 95).
"Her body seemed foreign somehow--too stiff in places, too firm where the softness used to be" (99). '"To tell the truth, I've never been happier in my whole life. Never."'(99).
I think that Mary Anne just changes her point of view on things. She use to be innocent, not knowing what happened on this side of the planet or on her boyfriend's career, but now that she had been there she didn't see it as just a war. She began to look at things differently. She lost herself in the midst of the little beauty's of war.
5. It was filled with rotten animals and smoke. Mary had become wild and different since the place was tribal-like.
6. The reader doesn't really know what happened to her at the end. I think it would be better to know what happened, but since it is a true war story, it makes it have no point with it's mystery and thriller. The ending shows her character difference from beginning to end.
Level 3
1. This short story allows the reader to see the change from innocence to evil in humanity. It shows how the eyes are opened to new things and a different perspective. It shows how humanity falls in love growth he beauty of nature. It shows that war is different form what really happened and that there are many stories without point or moral, yet they fall in love with them.
1- Mary Anne became selfish, daring and a killer because she probably went from a constricted and controlled environment, to an environment where she was able to do as she pleased. War gave her the ability to do as she pleased without following anyones rules. She could help those who were injured and she also had the opportunity to help find herself and her true aspirations. Overall, she became a predator because she felt like there was really no one to control her. This tells us that war can take you to the worst places, and it can completely change who you are, no matter if you are a woman. The point of her arrival was to show that she wouldn’t be affected by vietnam, it’s obvious that she was.
ReplyDelete2- I don’t believe it because it is pretty obvious that he exaggerates to make it more interesting.
3- The pink sweater obviously shows her girliness and her fragileness. Pink is seen as weakness and gentleness. The necklace of tongues shows that she is no longer the same, she is a predator, she is no longer the sweet girl in the pink sweater. Mary Anne, herself is a symbol for change and evolution of a woman's position when she’s faced with for the terror or curiosity.
4- “She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it a dark green bandana.”
“Mark Fossie suggested that it might be time to think about heading home, but Mary Anne laughed and told him ‘Everything I want is right here’”
“She came in late at night. Very late. And then finally she did not come in at all.”
Mary Anne has just changed, she isn’t crazy. This just might be her way of adapting.
5- It was like a smokehouse, it had the stink of the kill. There were bones of all kinds.She has become a predator.
6- It doesn’t really matter because the point was reached, which was the only reason why she was brought along. And she left her mark and proved to be different. She proved to be fearless and let her curiosity guide her in Vietnam.
Level 3- This story really says that men and women are alike. We adapt to the area around us and Mary Anne just had a different, (very different) approach.
1.Mary Anne became the way she was because of her surroundings when she arrived. Putting a woman in that situation in that time wasn't the best idea and it showed in the complete change in Mary Anne from when she arrived to when she left. Her innocence was taken away by the war surrounding her.
ReplyDelete2.The story is highly unbelievable but it just stands behind O'Brien's statement that the stories weren't true but they were true war stories at the same time. Like all the other stories, it isn't true but that doesn't affect the ability for the story to compel the reader because the entire situation of bringing a girl into what is unknown to her interests the reader.
3. One important symbol is the way Mary Anne is dressed when she first arrives. The pink sweater and shorts she wears symbolizes her innocence as she naively ventures into the unknown. There's the necklace of tongues she wears when she's with the green berets and this symbolizes the drastic change in her. They symbolize that she's far gone and has been drawn into the war more than the guys could have imagined.
4. "To tell you the truth, I've never been happier in my whole life. Never." This is dangerous because she's getting comfortable in a place she isn't meant to be in the first place. This is one of the first tell-tale signs of Mary Anne's impending change.
5. "I know what you think but it's not...it's not bad." This is from the cave scene when Mark confronts Mary Anne on why she's doing what she's doing and she defends herself. The imagery of describing that she still dresses how she did when she first arrived but she was still unrecognizable because she wasn't herself. The war changed her in ways no one could have foresaw which is further explained by the necklace of tongues around her neck that symbolize her change.
6. I think the whole point of the story was to show how the war changes people whether they realize it or not. Finishing Mary Anne's story would have been pointless because we already got a glimpse of the huge change in her and the vague ending let's the audience wonder to themselves.
1. When Mary Anne first came to Tra Bong she was innocent and pure and wasn't really a war person. After she had to help with an injured guy she started to become less innocent. Being surrounded by war all the time will change a person like it did Mary Anne. She now liked war,the hunting, and the thrill of it. The fact that she's a girl doesn't have much to do it expect that it makes the story better.
ReplyDelete2. This chapter by O'Brien is fantasized and it isn't believable. It is unlike the other chapters, the others were believable even though they weren't true. You can't bring your girlfriend out to stay with you and others in the middle of a war as a vacation. It's unrealistic. It was still interesting though.
3. Symbols in this story is the necklace of tongue when she's out at night doing the ambushes. It shows her change. Another one is her clothes. At first she wears pink and white which symbolizes her innocence and purity, and later on her clothes become darker in color to show that she changed. The wedding also shows the true reality of Mary Anne's life and how things are actually suppose to be.
4. Mary Anne's transformation starts out as innocent then moves on not to be. She becomes a person who likes war and doesn't want to go back home "Everything I want is right here". She doesn't go crazy, she just changes. She's not naive to war anymore.
5. The cave scene shows what she has become. The bones, dead beady, smoke, smell, rotten flesh, dead animals, and all the other bad things that war brings shows who Mary Anne is now. She's not the same innocent girl anymore, she's a warrior, a hunter.
6. What happens to her at the end of the story doesn't really matter. When it's a war you won't know what happened to a lot of the people that come and go. All that matters is that she changed during her stay at Tra Bong.
LEVEL 3
This story tells us that the nature of humanity of a person isn't permanent. It changes with the circumstances that they are dealt with. It also shows that war can change anyone.
1. Portrayed her innocence of the appearance of her dress in full white that changes to a green beret a complete contrast to the pure white she once dawned. it does matter that she's a women because of the narrative and a perceived stereo type mainly because she is blond frail and somebody's girlfriend. The expectation is for her not to be involved so when she goes in head first to the point where everyone else is asking her for her experience with war it shows how war draws in everyone.
ReplyDelete2. while its no where believable I believe that it fits the truths that O'Brein speaks of as it speaks the truths of emotion.
3. the clay more shows her realization of war, the necklace shows her change, Her white cloth symbolizes purity.
4. "To tell the truth, I've never been happier in my whole life. Never" "Everything I want is right here" showing her becoming more connected to the war effort.
5.the cave scene is her final plunge into the war as she admires the beauty of death with a soldier who's eye had been blown out. she becomes numb to death and since before she struggled to get a butterfly out of a web she then leaves it to be eaten by a spider coming out and brings back a dead butterfly to present.
6.It doesn't really matter what happens but that we understand whats going to happen and why it's happening as Marry Anne is starting to becoming more numb to innocence.
level three.
it shows that innocence is easily falters and human nature while we like to believe is "good" and "moral" is just trivial and changes.
Marry Anne changes completely, because after arriving in Nam and experiencing these things an innocent person shouldn't have to experience, she's bothered and scarred. Seeing things she shouldn't see turned her into a killer. Mary Anne didn't have to deal with any of this before, or at least nothing like this because if she had she wouldn't be so innocent. This changed the way she saw everything. It doesn't matter that she's a woman, this just shows that this can happen to anyone, not just men.
ReplyDelete2. This chapter isn't believable here, but that doesn't seem to be the point. It's to show how war can change a person. It is obvious during a war a soldier can't just fly in their girlfriend in the middle of a war.
3. Her clothing when she first arrives is a symbol that shows she's innocent. As the story goes on her attire changes, her innocence being taken away bit by bit. Her going out doing ambushes with the greenies. The author portrayed them in a way in which where they seemed almost emotionless. They didn't say much, this would symbolize what she too would become. The war would change her. The claymore traps, how she starts to get so fascinated with them in the beginning. This is the first sign that she's going to change.
4.''...we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick, and so did Mary Anne.'' (p97) ''... but Mary Anne just stared out at the dark green mountains to the west. The wilderness seemed to draw her in- a haunted look.'' (p105) and ''Everything I want is right here'' She doesn't become crazy, the war changes her just like it changes the others who go to war. She got comfortable in this hostile environment.
5. The scene where she's in the cave, and the rotten animals and the smoke, etc surround her. It shows what she is now. She's become a predator.
6. It doesn't matter what happened to her, the point is understood. War changes people no matter what, what happened to this girl can happen to anyone. She got lost in the war, and she was to never be seen again. Completely different person.
1. Mary Anne is a symbol of ignorance and purity, she comes to Vietnam delighted despite the fact that she has entered a war zone. Slowly the reality of war begins to sink in. Soldiers were flown in bloody and barely alive and Mary Anne started to realize what war did to people physically and mentally. As she was exposed to this more and more she starts to adapt to survive. The fact that she's a girl doesn't matter too much besides the fact that it's saying that war does not discriminate it take the men, the women, the children it takes all.
ReplyDelete2. The fact that Rat's story isn't really believable doesn't take away from the fact it symbolizes a lot of truth. Mary Anne is supposed to represent innocence but also like I mentioned in the previous question, she shows that war doesn't discriminate. Though Mary Anne's story may not be true what she represents is very real.
3. There is the symbol of Mary Anne's clothes and how they start off as light colors and show purity and it get darker to show her corruption. Her clothes also show her adaption, the clothes she wore at first were not appropriate attire for battle they stuck out and provided no camouflage or protection. Another symbol is the necklace of tongues. It's something that Mary Anne would not be associated with at the beginning, dismembered tongues are graphic and honestly quite disturbing but Mary Anne has been changed so much and so drastically that this doesn't phase her. Of course Mary Anne herself is a symbol as I have stated she represents what war will do to you regardless of who you may begin as.
4. Mary Anne did go crazy per se rather she adapted to her situation, that being said to be comfortable in that level of discord does require some loss of sanity. When Mary Anne first is exposed to the wounded soldiers she is freaked out but by the second week she already has gotten used to it, "Mary Anne wasn't afraid to get her hands bloody. At times, in fact, she seemed fascinated by it" (O'Brien, 98).
5. Bones, rotten flesh, smoke, the smell of the dead the cave was all that war contained and Mary Anne entered it, she accepted it. She became one of the predators.
Delete6. The vague ending is okay because the point is what happened to Mary Anne for her to change, what happens to her in the end doesn't matter because she'll never be the same.
Level 3. Humans will adapt and if someone is exposed to the harsh conditions of war long enough than they will learn to adapt to survive even if that means losing some or in some cases all of their humanity.
1. I think the war like environment she is in plays a huge role in what makes her a predatory killer. Being around all that violence probably influenced her to act in such a way.
ReplyDelete2. I feel that the story that Rat tells is quite compelling. But when Mary was brought to the camp I was quite surprised at first because I couldn't believe she was there, surrounded by such a violent environment. I think it definitely fits O'Briens criteria for a true war story.
3. The clothes Mary Anne wears are soft like colors which contrast with what the guys are wearing. The clothes kind of represent her personality: kind, pure, free of all bad. The necklace of tongues shows how much she has changed and how the war has taken her purity. The biggest symbol of them all is Mary Anne herself, she represents change and adaptation.
4. All of page 99 practically tells you how much she has changed, especially through Marks perspective. I think Mary Anne slowly becomes infatuated with war and it seems as if she is under this spell she can't get out of.
5. As Mark walks into the cave, he sees that Marry Anne has in a way betrayed him. She has become "one of the greenies."
6. It would be a great story if we found out what happened to her at the end. I felt as though the ending wasn't an ending at all, it was a cliffhanger. We need an explanation.
1. Mary Anne was just an innocent and lovely woman. She wasn't aware of the things that were going on, but later was basically one of the guys. the environment affected her in a kind of negative way. She lost pretty much her emotions and didn't care about the ones she was with at first. She ignored the problems and saw the good.
ReplyDelete2. The story that Rat tells wasn't completely believable. Mary Anne is symbolizing innocence and beauty. Though the war environment is terrible, she saw good in the suppose enemies. She was broken after she saw a man brutally injured.
3. Mary Anne wears white for a while, which represents happiness. The audience can see that she is not used to the place. She was also new the place and you can tell her apart from everyone else.
4. Mary Anne ended up like the others; broken. The war has changed her just like everyone else. She has finally adapted to the place and has changed her appearance such as the clothes she is wearing. On page 98, it was saying how Mary Anne was comfortable with dealing with the men's injuries and doing other things.
5. The cave represents Mary Anne and how she has become so different now from when she was in the beginning of the movie.
6. The ending of the movie wasn't really good. It left everyone wondering what happened to Mary Anne.