The Alchemy Of Vietnam

Literary Analysis Paper
The Alchemy of Vietnam

“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, is a story by Tim O’Brien. He has written many novels and stories depicting the war experiences of Vietnam. In this story he gives us an idea as to what extent can a war affect the psychological state of those who are young and posted on a totally strange land. Mary Anne was a teenager from ClevelandHeights in Central America. She was an innocent girl like any typical American girl of her age would be. She goes through an immense transformation throughout the story. O’Brien portrays this transformation in Marry Anne, physically, psychologically and her perspective towards life.
The men in the Alpha Company often talked about bringing in some prostitutes to have fun. As they weresecluded from the rest of the world, finding a woman around seemed totally impossible. The moment Mark Fossie brought his girl friend Marry Anne to the camp; everyone was pretty amused to see her. A young and attractive American teenager was the centre of amusement when she first landed at the camp in a helicopter carrying supplies for the soldiers. She would talk to other soldiers about the war andeven learn to shoot with the guns they had. She almost started practicing how to shoot. She was curious about the jungles that surrounded their camp. Villages and the native tribes were of a great interest to her. A part of the camp was shared by the Greenies, who were not social and would magically disappear into the woods on an ambush. Mary Anne visited their bunker. And this was the first stageof her transformation. Mark Fossie and Mary Anne were so much in love, that O’Brien mentions their plan as “someday they would be married, and live in a fine gingerbread house near Lake Erie, and have three healthy yellow-haired children, and grow old together, and no doubt die in each other’s arms and be buried in the same walnut casket.” This was a dream every normal American couple in lovewould have. Over the time of Mary Anne’s stay at the battlefield of Vietnam, she faced the horrors of war. She transformed from this innocent girl to the one who went out on ambush and killed people.
Throughout the story, O’Brien has described how Mary Anne’s outer appearance transforms. She landed in a helicopter wearing a white culottes and a sexy pink sweater. He mentions, “She hadlong white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream.” As the story proceeds, she starts wearing darker and gloomy colors like blue and black. Treating the injured patients her composure turned serene and eyes got fuzzy blue. She stopped wearing cosmetics, and doing fingernails. Fancy jewelery was replaced by the necklace of tongues. Her bubbliness and giggling was not seenanymore. She cooked what the natives would eat for the meals. Mary Anne felt herself at home in the wilderness of Vietnam. Jungles were not scary anymore to her. She accompanied the Greenies on their ambush and would stay in their bunker. Her eyes were not expressive anymore. There were no emotions at all. Looking at those eyes, one could hardly make out if it was the same Mary Anne. Mark Fossie wasstartled to see her, as O’Brien describes the horrifying scene as: “Thick and numbing, like an animal’s den, a mix of blood and scorched hair and excrement and the sweet-sour odor of moldering flesh-the stink of the kill.” She was trying to look for her inner self. She was fighting with herself. Vietnam brought in her so much change, that she almost forgot what she was in Cleveland Heights. This wasa sudden transformation in just a span of three weeks. This was a huge transformation from how she dreamt about a typical married life to a life where she would kill people on an ambush.
Towards the end of the story Mary Anne explains that she feels close to her body. She is far away from what she was earlier. The superficially happy life did not interest her anymore. She came to...