The Song Tra Bong Women

On the story, she commented, “Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I supposed that by setting a particular brutal ancient rite in the present and in my village the story’s readers with a dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.”

He portrays a clear difference between the native third world of Vietnam and the first world of the Americans. Mary Anne Bell fully embraces Vietnamese culture, while Mark Fossie completely ignores it. The difference between their involvement sets up a world in which the cultures are completely foreign to, and incompatible with, each other. O’Brien does not suggest that one character can absorb elements of each culture into a comfortable mix. Rather, the characters must choose a cultural to identity themselves with. “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” challenges the idea of women as one-dimensional beings who serve to comfort men. Fossie believes if he sends Mary Anne over to the comparatively comfortable quarters he and his men keep, he can gain her comfort and their relationship and she will remain neutral by her surroundings. This fantasy is immediately shattered as Mary Anne is instantly curious about several things surrounding her. From the language of the locals, to the ammunition and procedures within the camp, and finally the essence of war itself. The irony of this story is that Mary Anne’s new reality accepts her more than her conservative life. She is uplifted and empowered by war. It influences her her to make plans for future travel and to attempt to make her path away from the life she considered desirable. Ironically, Mark brings her over to be a comfort while he is in the midst of war, however, in the end, Mary Anne’s transformation makes her hungrier more for adventure than confort

At the end of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Mark Fossie gazes upon his previously demure and sweet girlfriend as a demon, surrounded by carnage, a necklace of shriveled human tongues around her neck as she stands barefoot in the hootch of the Green Berets. The male reader is meant to resonate with Mark’s horror and be terrified of Mary Anne’s feral transformation. The pure, sweet, socially conforming to-be wife has been corrupted by

Being a women during the 50’s Mary Ann was expected to be proper, innocent and unable to understand or handle the extreme emotions and pressures of war, however, she quickly adapted to the war and went against everything expected of her and joined the green berets. O'Brien pushed the irony of Mary Ann’s story even further than just defying gender norms as he juxtaposes innocence and the savagery of war together through Mary Ann's actions and appearance at the end of the chapter. The men all talk about how Mary Ann is still out in the woods fighting, they say; “she was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues” (110). Although it is extremely unlikely that this experience ever happened, O'Brien uses this story to show just how life changing war can be, he proves that even the most innocent person can walk into the war and come out a savage, hostile and war oriented person. Had he never juxtaposed the innocence of Mary Ann and her ‘girly’ clothing against the demented and horrifying necklace of severed tongues, his point may have never had the deep message he wanted to portray. There are many other examples of irony spread throughout the novel, however this example had one of the most powerful message and proof of how

The relationships among the women in the novel Hope Leslie reflect the middle-class concepts of female friendship, women’s sphere, and “True Womanhood” of this time. The women of the novel reveal both cultural norms and values through compliance as well as deviance of these customs. For instance, Sedgwick puts a much greater importance on the woman’s relationships with each other, than she does of the romantic relationships within the novel. In the closing paragraph Sedgwick writes, “marriage is not essential to the contentment, the dignity, or the happiness of a woman” (371). This reflects the concepts of the time because much of the romantic relationships or marriages were tied to convenience rather than fulfillment. Woman saw their husbands as incapable of understanding them or connecting with them on the same level of intimacy

In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” Mark Fossie’s suppression of Mary Anne Bell and her desire for survival transforms her into

One story from The Things They Carried that this quote is particularly evident in is, the “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” story. War is described by Tim O’Brien as “ mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love”, and most if not all of these emotions are evident in this story. The story of Mary Anne is full of mystery as see is transformed by the land and becomes less and less the girl she was when she arrived. Furthermore, terror is evident in her fiancé, the young medic, as she grows detached from him and becomes practically a savage who enjoys killing. This story also encapsulates despair as she disappears from the camp forever and lives with the land of Vietnam much

Some critics have argued that Richard Wright’s women are “flat, one dimensional stereotypes, portrayed primarily in terms of their relationship to the male character”. (Quote, p540) However, in Uncle Tom’s Children, Wright resents three very distinct types of female characters who did not fit this description. Wright portrays women as an Avenger, a Sufferer and a Mother figure whose actions propel the stories to their final conclusion. In the story “Bright and Morning Star” Wright places the protagonist, Aunt Sue, in a domestic environment. “Her hands followed a lifelong ritual of toil” (pg222) as she cleans and cooks. Interestingly, Aunt Sue is the only heroine in the stories, who shows a different type of bravery than perhaps shown by

Themes as self-reliant women as protagonists, post Civil War racism, male/female relationships and what would eventually become known as male chauvinism are common. These were difficult times for many women because of the domination of men over them. A woman was expected to act and behave in ways that were submissive to men in every aspect of their life. Indeed, a woman’s life revolved around her husband and his needs and desires. Women had very little say in their own ambitions or desires. Behaving in non-conventional ways would mean being shunned from society. However, one woman’s world revolves around and for her husband while another dreams of a life free of marital boundaries.

The juxtaposition between male and female characters in ‘The Sentimental Bloke’ highlights this. Notably, Longford employs Doreen as a foil to the Mick. Doreen’s firm social values clash with the overt criminality of the larrikins (Boyd 9). However, this serves to highlight the sentimental aspect of Bill’s character, rather than impose other values on it. Accordingly the same “comic tension” also exists between Bill’s “harsh street argot” in the inter-titles, and his “tender sentiment” to Doreen (Murray 8). Conversely, Prichard uses similarities between her characters, rather than differences, to allow her protagonist to form a positive relationship. While the relationship between Coonardoo and Hugh is unequal, they “take pride” in each other as workers (Ellis 70). Hugh maintains comparable, reciprocal relationships, with his “right-hand” daughter Phyllis, and his “workmate” mother (Corbould 419). This suggests that these relationships reinforce values of resilience and hard work, in contrast to male friendships. These friendships, such as those in ‘Wake in Fright’, force “drinking” to take “precedence” over “everything else”, as they encourage anti-social behaviour (Kent 38). Likewise, Sam Geary encourages similar behaviour, through his actions and recommendation that Hugh should get drunk in a moment of crisis (Johnson and Johnson 57). This emphasises the positive masculine

In addition, the novel switches around the scenes of male-dominated society where women are taken as a way of assistance and pleasure for men. Here, women do not participate in forming life, but they play a distinctive role in encouraging men and guiding them on the right path. In the text, the role of the women includes responsibility towards their family, a beauty that men praise and underprivileged of rights.

Morrison, through Sorrow’s experience, portrays how motherhood can be salvation for those trying to assimilate into the codified characteristics of the feminine gender. Morrison describes Sorrow with unfavorable imagery marked by a history of misery. Sorrow grew up on a ship, and was the only one that survived the shipwreck. She was later found by the Sawyer and his wife. The wife tried to make Sorrow “mind the geese” (Morrison 140), but this resulted in more trouble than assistance; therefore, the wife put her to “simple cleaning tasks” (Morrison 141), which was still was to no avail. Sorrow’s inability to complete these traditionally feminine tasks conveys that she grew up around very few, if any, women while on the ship and was not trained

This book displays its sexism quite openly. There is an ongoing battle of two exceedingly different sides of womanhood throughout the story. It encourages the engagement between a mother-like figure and a harlot. Throughout the novel, all the female characters must either be parental or crave the companionship of a male character, which often results in jealousy. Wendy and Tinker, being the two main female characters of the story, represent these two different types of women acceptable in the Victorian Era.

An exploration of Oscar Wilde's presentation of women in 'A Woman of No Importance' in comparison to John Fowles' views of women in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', in light of the view that Oscar Wilde has a more sympathetic view of woman in his time.

In another chapter from The Things They Carried titled “Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong”, Mark Fossie is inviting his girlfriend Mary Anne to visit him for some time in Vietnam during the war. At first, Mary Anne is embodying a feminine persona, wearing pink, jewelry, and makeup. As time passes on, Mary Anne expresses more and more interest in the war and even starts participating in war-like activities. A passage in “Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong” writes, “Once or twice, gently, Mark Fossie suggested that it might be time to think about heading home, but Mary Anne laughed and told him to