Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong Analysis

She was a pretty blonde with a petite body and wore the most beautiful dresses until she came to war. When analyzing “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” from Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried using the gender lens, the author reinforces the female and male stereotypes and also challenges female and male stereotypes. The author reinforces female stereotypes throughout this chapter. One example, when Mary Anne arrives to Vietnam for the first time and the men see her for the first time, O’Brien states “She had long legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly too,” (89). This stereotype reinforced by this description is females should be valued by attractiveness. Another great example would be when Tim states “She was curious about things, she liked to roam around the compound asking questions,” (91). The author shows again the stereotype that females are ignorant towards things that do not necessarily pertain to them. O’Brien shows female stereotypes are reinforced throughout this chapter. The reinforcement of male stereotypes are portrayed through this chapter, …show more content…
An example of this is when Mary Anne starts to act like one of the guys. O’Brien states “The way she quickly fell into the habits of the bush. No cosmetics, no fingernail filing. She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a dark green bandana,” (94). The author depicts how Mary Anne challenges her female stereotypes, that all girls are valued by attractiveness. Another solid example of this is when O’Brien depicts a comment from Rat Kiley where he states “ Ambush, all night long, man, Mary Anne’s out on fuckin’ ambush,” (97). This really shows how Mary Anne wants to hang with the guys and be a part of the platoon. She wants to fight with them so she can fit in. This helps O’Brien portray how a female will overcome her stereotypes to fit in with a different society or group of