September Short Stories: Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

Analysis:

  • The story has themes of the identity/role of women, loss of innocence, and acceptance of ones fate + exploring identity

    • Throughout the short story, women are depicted as dainty, delicate figures, almost like showpieces

      • MAB completely shifts that rhetoric as she begins to assimilate with the culture of the Vietnamese as well as acclimate to the stressors of living in Vietnam vs America

      • MAB beginning to take up more and more masculine traits, i.e. dropping her makeup and jewelry and starting to go out on patrols, learning how to open rations and reload M-16s all serve to highlight how women are NOT to be confined to only traditional gender roles

    • The loss of innocence is also very prominent in the story as the changes in MAB’s physical appearance AND demeanor both suggest that she is discovering new parts of her psyche as well as drifting away from her old dainty persona as simply Fossie’s girlfriend

      • Tongue necklace shows that she is truly assimilatd

      • the look in her eyes and the way how she looks to initially smile before Rat realizes that she no longer loves Fossie are perfect examples

      • the eyes are an important motif throughout the story → highlights MAB’s development (as well as the pink sweater)

    • The fact that MAB is wearing the same outfit as when she initially arrived when she is in the tent with the GB’s highlights how she is still the same person on the OUTSIDE, but the difference in her eyes fundamentally suggests that she is no longer the same preson

Questions for Understanding

  • Transformation & Identity: How does Mary Anne’s transformation challenge traditional gender roles, and what does her trajectory suggest about the war’s effect on identity?

  • Symbolism: What is the symbolic meaning of Mary Anne’s necklace of tongues, and how does it tie into the novel’s broader exploration of violence and humanity?

  • Perspective & Storytelling: Rat Kiley is known for exaggeration—how does his role as narrator complicate our sense of truth in this story?

  • Theme of Innocence vs. Experience: What does Mary Anne’s fate suggest about the loss of innocence in war, both for her and the soldiers around her?

  • Big-Picture Connection: How could Mary Anne’s story connect to one of AP Lit’s big ideas (Power, Identity, Conflict, Nature, Truth)? Pick one and make the connection.