TTTC Chapter 9 Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

Who tells the story of Mary Anne Bell?

Rat Kiley

Before arriving at the Alpha Company, where did Kiley work?

At an aid station where he didn’t have to go outside

Describe who the Greenies are

Six Green Berets

• Antisocial, secretive

• “Avoided contact with the medical detachment”

• “Sometimes vanish for days or even weeks”

• “Moving like shadows through moonlight”

Who brought their girlfriend to Vietnam? 

Medic Mark Fossie 

Describe Mary Anne when she was first introduced (p. 89)

• “tall, big-boned blonde”

• seventeen, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High

• “long white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream”

• very friendly

How did the soldiers react to Fossie bringing his girlfriend? 

Irritated, became envious as time passed

How long have Fossie and Mary Anne been in love? What are their dreams?

Since sixth grade; they want to live together in a gingerbread house near Lake Earie, have three healthy yellow-haired children, and die and be buried together in a walnut casket

What was Mary Anne’s reaction to her new environment?

Curious, intrigue, mesmerized, pulled by the allure of the land and mystery

When Rat accompanied Fossie and Mary Anne to the village, how did Rat think of Mary Anne?

He found her behavior strange, “like a cheerleader visiting the opposing team’s locker room,” and “her pretty blue eyes seemed to glow” (92)

What does Rat mean when he says Mary Anne will “learn?” 

She’ll learn that Vietnam is a dangerous place and that she should be more cautious of the land and its people

As time passed by, how did Mary Anne adapt?

• “She picked up on things fast”

• She felt adrenaline in doing things fast and right

• “She was quiet and steady. She didn’t back off from the ugly cases” (93)

As time passed by, did Mary Anne change?

Yes, because she didn’t want to leave Vietnam anymore. “There was a new confidence in her voice, a new authority in the way she carried herself” (94)

How did Fossie respond to Mary Anne’s changes?

He became uncomfortable as she started becoming more “foreign” to him

How did Fossie react when Mary Anne disappeared for the first time (95)? 

He became extremely nervous and thought that she could’ve been sleeping with one of the men, especially Eddie Diamond because “the guy’s always there, always hanging on her” (96)

Describe Mark Fossie (characterization-wise), pg. 95

• 18

• Tall and blond

• A gifted athlete

• Nice, polite, good-hearted

When Mary Anne was found in pg. 97, where was she all along?

“Sleeping with all the Greenies” because they were lying low on ambush 

What did Fossie do to Mary Anne after she came back from her ambush with the Greenies?

Fossie got angry and yelled at her to talk; he officially got engaged with her, a “compromise,” as crudely stated by Fossie

How were things between Fossie and Mary Anne after their “engagement,” or rather, “compromise?”

Full of tension. For instance, whenever Anne Bell momentarily left Fossie, “he’d tighten up and force himself not to watch her” (99)

Because Fossie was going to send her home, what did Mary Anne do?

Disappeared along w/ the Greenies and came back three weeks later. “But in a sense she never returned” (100)

In pg. 101, how did Rat describe the Greenies and Mary Anne when they came back? 

“Silhouettes” that “float like spirits, vaporous and unreal” (101)

Mary Anne’s eyes were “a bright glowing jungle green” (101)

How was Fossie when he heard that Mary Anne came back in pg. 103?

He “looked sick” and his skin was colorless bc he was afraid of what happened with Mary Anne

What is the shift in pg. 103, when Rat and Diamond check up on Fossie after midnight?

Chaotic, unmusical sound is heard, as well as a woman half singing, half chanting

Fossie “was swaying to the music, his face wet and shiny” (103)

Describe the place where Mary Anne stayed at, after Fossie accidentally went into this place

• dark

• there was a “small glowing window” that had “panes dancing in bright reds and yellows as though the glass were on fire”

• the place had candles, tribal music, the “scent of joss sticks and incense” and the scent of a kill (104)

• a head of a black leopard can be seen (105)

• there are figures in lounging in the hammocks in the back

Describe Anne Bell in pg. 105 as she is singing and dancing

• Barefoot

• Pink sweater, white blouse, simple cotton shirt

• Flat and indifferent eyes

• “At the girl’s throat was a necklace of human tongues”

In pg. 106, when Mary Anne saw Fossie, how did she react?

• “the girl looked at Fossie w/ something close to contempt”

• “You’re in a place where you don’t belong”

Why does Mary Anne want to stay in Vietnam, as outlined in pg. 106? 

She wants the whole country to herself, “to swallow it and have it there inside me.” She feels close to herself, she “can feel [her] blood, [her] skin and fingernails, everything, it’s like [she’s] full of electricity and [she’s] glowing in the dark” 

What line in pg. 107 summarizes Mary Anne’s transformation?

“She’s already gone”

Why did Kiley love Mary Anne?

Because of her purity and innocence, and how the girls at home would never understand any of the experiences the soldiers went through

According to Kiley in pg. 109, what was Vietnam like to Mary Anne?

A powerful drug that made her feel alive; “she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself”

What happened to Mary Anne at the end of the chapter?

She joined the missing, never came back. “She had crossed to the other side. She was part of the land” (110)

What happened to Fossie at the end of the chapter? 

He was sent back to the States and medically discharged