Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong

         This story is strong and mysterious in some way. Mary Anne goes to Vietnam as girl; innocent—the epitome of America—but as the story goes on she is shaped and molded in to something completely different. In my opinion what transforms her is the experience in general, she goes from being in the bubble of white picket fenced America to immersing herself in to the Vietnamese culture and the war. Being a woman matters at the beginning of the story but slowly becomes less important as she becomes a figure of madness any soldier could turn into. In the end the story shows how the war could affect both men and women the same way, soldiers go to war as boys but return changed after having close experiences with death.

                 I think O'Brien lets Rat Kiley narrate a part of the story because of the very way he tells it. O'Brien tells us Rat Kiley's narrations are exaggerated and often unbelievable, he adds a feeling of intrigue to his stories. Also, Rat Kiley is the one who was there, this gives the story authenticity. Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong fits O'Briens criteria for a true war story, it has obscenity and evil, it is unbelievable, and there are parts to it that are merely rumors but seem to form part of the real story.