QUICKWRITE:
Introductory paragraphs can often be formulaic and boring. For example, the NYS exam asks you to:
A. Acknowledge the quote
B. Interpret the quote, making a philosophical statement relating to the human condition. Then agree or disagree with it (although that can be implied by your interpretation of the statement).
C. Provide two examples from your reading (authors and titles) and explain how they
relate to the quote.
(You can use literary terms subtly in the body of your essay. You do not necessarily need them in the intro.)
For a BASIC INTRO, you can do ABC. Yet, if you want to score higher and be more creative and interesting, try one of the other organizational structures.
BAC (highly recommended) or BCA (ending with the quote)
CBA or CAB (possibilities, too)
Try one of the other structures right now by rewriting your own intro.
How do these other structures work? Which ones will work well for you?
DISCUSSION GROUPS:
HMWK: POST A COMMENT TO THE INTERPRETIVE QUESTIONS
"The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong"
Interpretive questions:
In "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong," what transforms Mary Anne into a predatory killer? Does it matter that Mary Anne is a woman? How so? What does the story tell us about the nature of the Vietnam War?
The story Rat tells in "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" is highly fantastical. Does its lack of believability make it any less compelling? Do you believe it? Does it fit O'Brien's criteria for a true war story?
Basic Level I Reading Comprehension Questions
1. What was Rat’s reputation among the men of Alpha Company, when it came to telling stories?
2. What does Rat insist about his story in this chapter?
3. What was the military discipline like at the outpost?
4. Who were the Greenies and what were they like?
5. Who did Mark Fossie bring to the outpost?
6. What was their plan together, since elementary school?
7. What does Rat say are the similarities between Mary Ann and all of them?.
8. What did Mary Anne begin to do when casualties came in?
9. Where had Mary Anne been the first time she stayed out all night?
10. How did she change as a result of her conversation with Fossie the next morning?
11. How did she respond to Fossie’s arrangements to send her home?
12. When and under what circumstances did Rat see her next?
13. On pg. 106, what is Mitchell Sanders’ attitude about Rat’s way of telling a story?
14. What does Rat have to say about the soldiers attitude toward women?
15. What did the Rat, Fossie, and Eddie find when they entered the Greenies hootch?
16. What kind of jewelry was Mary Anne wearing?
17. What does Mary Anne tell Fossie about his presence in Vietnam?
18. What does Mary Anne say she wants to wants to do with Vietnam?
19. At the bottom of pg. 113, what does Rat say about "the girls back home"?
20. What is the metaphor that Rat uses to explain Mary Anne’s experience with Vietnam?
1. I think the real transformation of Mary Anne into a hardened killer isn't easily pinpointed to one particular incident, but the place itself. It infected her, and made her wild. I am sure that the mystery, fear, uncertainty, all the emotions she could have been feeling were a big part of her alteration also. The fact she was a woman was a bigger deal then than it is now, but the experience a woman would have had at this point made her rapid change (2 weeks) so much more strange. She became infatuated with war, with the country, and was absolutely fearless. These latter attributes have nothing to do with her femininity, but just her personality. I think her change became a form of insanity, and it, answering the first part of the question, probably also stemmed from her, upon arrival, feeling trapped. So she let go.
ReplyDelete2. The believability makes no difference. It is still a striking and haunting story, reminiscent, and perhaps representative of all the people that fought there and succumbed to the madness war fed them. I believe it because of the nature of it. The events themselves may not have happened, but the emotions and the change we see in her surely occurred, it would to any person under twenty who is still a boy or a girl, and is expected to fight and behave like an adult, under circumstances most adults couldn't handle. It does fit the nature of a true love story because it tells of something that is unreal, but makes you squirm at the reality of it. Mary Anne is so beleaguering and evocative of all these men, and all that they fear the most.
What transforms Mary Anne from a 17 year old girl into a killer is the land and the war. Being out there changes people, the land, the hostility, the constant fear, constant adrenaline, it changes someones psyche. The war does not discriminate against men or women, it just takes whoever sets foot on it and eats them up and spits them out an entirely different being. Overall the story tells us just how much the war transformed people, and by using a women as the lead character it highlighted the transformation. For the killing, the ambushes, the shadows, and the hunt changed what we saw as pure and innocent into something no different than the animals roaming the jungles of Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of believability almost makes the story that much more compelling, because even though it is so surreal and fantastical there is that inner doubt in the reader and listeners that it might be completely true. And that sliver of doubt is what makes this story so haunting and chilling. In my mind the story doesn't have to be true or false, because it doesn't have to be one or the other. To me it falls in this in between area where facts and lies blend together in this monotonous mass that becomes this story, much like what Obrien described war as. By almost every standard of Obrien, this is a true War story, for at its core it has no point, no moral, no fact or fiction, nothing beside the cold transformation of a innocent girl into something that these men fear more than the enemy.
1.) One's environment can drastically affect their behavior. In this case, being around the war and specifically the Greenies, has influenced Marry Anne's behavior. The involvement in war has caused Marry Anne to participate in cruel behavior (wearing tongues around her neck...) that inevitably transformed her into a "predator killer". It doesn't matter necessarily if she's a woman or man. Being classified as a killer does not discriminate against gender. This tells the readers that the Vietnam conflict engulfed innocent bystandards with its horrible behavior.
ReplyDelete2.) I think this chapter does make it more appealing. Because this story isn't true and makes the reader more inquisitive about the "truth". It is hard to differentiate truth and false war stories because they are told based on perception.
Posting for: Erin, Aireanna, Maggie, Shayla, Nadia, Emma, Whitney, Tatiana.
ReplyDelete1. Rat had a reputation of being a liar among the Alpha Company when it came to telling stories.
2. Rat insists that the story is actually true.
3. The military discipline at the outpost was very relaxed.
4. The Greenies were intense soldiers who were very secretive about their work.
5. Mark Fossie brought his girlfriend, Mary Anne to the outpost.
6. Their plan was to get married, have kids, and live in a gingerbread house.
7. Rat says that they were all in touch with nature.
8. Once the casualities came in Mary Anne became very involved and interested in everything that was being done.
9. Mary Anne was with the Greenies.
10. Mary Anne was trying to be with Fossie, while wanting to still be involved with the Greenies as well.
11. She did not want to go home once Fossie explained the arrangements to her.
12. Rat saw her when she came back from her second time away with combat.
13. Mitchell Sander's attitude towards Rat is that Rat constantly stopped while telling the story, which made it uninteresting for Sanders to listen to.
14. Rat seems to think that it is not their place in the war.
15. Rat, Fossie, and Eddie find different skins everywhere, and find Mary Anne dancing to an unusual type of music, which leaves them to be very surprised with her behavior.
16. Mary Anne was wearing a necklace made from tongues.
17. Mary Anne tells Fossie that he doesn't belong.
18. Mary Anne says that she wants to swallow Vietnam so it can become a part of her.
19. Rat says that the girls back home are very clean and innocent, and they don't know what is going on at war.
20. The metaphor that Rat uses to explain Mary Anne's experience with Vietnam is that she became part of the land.
Sarah W, Michael S, Thomas E, Kiera G, Emma M, Bolan M-H, Zach GM, Leah G, Rosie B, Zach R, and Khari J :
ReplyDelete1. Rat had a reputation for telling stories that weren't true.
2. Rat insists that the stories are true.
3. It is very laid back and relaxing at the military post.
4. Greenies are the Green Berets are strict and are loners who kept to themselves and performed the ambushes.
5. Mary Anne Bell is Fossie's girlfriend.
6. They planned on getting married, having three kids, and living on Lake Erie.
7. Mary Anne is just like the rest of them young, unexperienced, and innocent.
8. Mary Anne helped out while also becoming very interested in what was going on.
9.She had been with the Greenies.
10.She had lost her sense of individuality and seemed oppressed and demure.
11.She was not happy with the idea and ran off with the Greenies.
12.Rat saw her, with the Greenies in a hootch, after she returned from fighting.
13.Sanders accuses Kiley of pausing, as well as getting off track too often.
14.They have no businness being a part of the war.
15.When they entered the hootch they see a wall of skins and Mary Anne dancing to foreign music.
16.She was wearing a necklace made out of tongues.
17. Fossie is told that he doesn't belong there.
18. Mary Anne says that she wants to eat it. By swallowing it she wants the land to become a part of her.
20. Kiley compares Mary Anne with mist and oil. These metaphors indicate that she has tranformed into Vietnam.
Mary Anne fully embraces and is transformed by Vietnamese culture and war instead of merely submitting to serve the comfort of Fossie. To much of Fossie's disappointment, she was curious of her surroundings which lead to the growth of a fearless adventerous spirit doing daring night missions that the Greenies wouldn't do and risking personal safety to visit a nearby village. Mary Anne's visit to Vietnam proves that the war environment consumed and transformed everyone and war failed to discriminate gender. Possibly the tongues she wore around her neck represent 'consumption' and 'thirst' Vietnam consumed her youthful and civilan innocence but her curiousity was still thirsty to learn more about the war and culture in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteRat Kiley was notorious around the camp for telling false stories or for putting extravagant embellishments on stories. The lack of believability made the story more compelling and chilling to readers like a campfire story. O'Brien often posed questions to the reader for them to consider if it really happened. The questions also helped to intensify the chapter. Truth in the story would be hard to find because the diffrentiation of real and surreal became so obsolete in Vietnam that it distorted their sense of perception. However, according to O'Brien, truth in a true war story dosen't matter.
Many thanks to Sam, Gaelynn and Aubrey for bringing up such good ideas for me to expand and blog about!
Michelle, Alex, Valerie and Daniele
ReplyDeleteAKA The Heavily Female Group with only one boy!
Interpretations are often enjoyable:
1. We said that Mary Anne basically transformed from the soft cushion Fossie wanted to have to a crazed, super Black Ops predator due to the nature of the war: all around you, no matter where you go or what you do, you were constantly surrounded by killing. From living in a land riddled with the death of people, from comrades to innocent people not wanting to be involved in the war at all, it would be quite easy to be influenced by this and go, in the case of Mary Anne, criminally insane. We also believed that it does matter that she's a woman because her primary (and really only purpose) of being there was to be Fosssie's girlfriend, to serve as a comfort to him during the war reminder of what he has to look forward to afterwards.
2. The story did not seem less compelling to us (in fact it was probably the best story we've read out of the book so far.) We do believe that it fit O'Brien's criteria for a true war story because although it was not true (because bringing your girlfriend into a battlefield is totally realistic), it was still interesting to the audience.
My baby brother could probably answer these questions:
1. Rat's reputation was that his stories were basically a jumbled web of lies.
2. He insists it is true.
3. It was very loose.
4. They were the Black Ops.
5. He brought his girlfriend (which he only did for pretty obvious reasons.)
6. They were going to get married (and as Valerie said, and be very bland).
7. They were young and innocent.
8. After convincing Danielle that she did not kill the casualties, Mary Anne helped out with medical work.
9. She was with the Greenies.
10. She was sad, but was more feminine again.
11. Mary Anne refused to leave.
12. Rat spotted her at night with the Greenies.
13. Saunders said Rat didn't tell the story in the right tone and that he paused too often to give his opinion.
14. Rat was more open-minded towards women, while the others only saw women as cushions to help them get through the war.
15. Mary Anne and the Greenies...and the smell of death.
16. A necklace of shriveled tongues.
17. That Fossie and the other soldiers do not belong there.
18. Mary Anne says she wants to become one with Vietnam.
19. That they could never understand the soldiers as well as Mary Anne could.
20. That Mary Anne was the land itself.
Posting for: Zachariah Bellucci and Darnell Johnson
ReplyDelete1. His stories have been less than realistic in the past.
2. He insists that it was true.
3. Nonexistent
4. They kept to themselves, but you knew not to mess with them.
5. His girlfriend.
6. They wanted to get married.
7. They were all innocent.
8. She wasn't afraid to get her hands bloody and help with the wounded.
9. She went out on an ambush with the Green Berets.
10. Fossie locked her down, made her more "lady like".
11. She disappeared.
12. She was in the Green Berets' Place.
13. He paused to much and was making it hard to follow with his sidetracks.
14. Rat says that soldiers just use women to ease the stresses of war.
15. A panther's head on a stick, The Green Berets, Mary Anne, and a tongue necklace.
16. A beautifully hand picked tongue necklace.
17. They have no business being here.
18. She wants to fuse with it. It gets pretty intense.
19. They couldn't possibly understand what this war was like.
20. She had become NAM.
Interpretive Questions:
1. Mary Anne's transformation happens when she is introduced to the legendary Green Berets. They take her on a night ops ambush and its all downhill from there. It doesn't matter in the slightest that she was a woman. If anything, her aptitude for emotional adaptation made her a more formidable adversary on the field, something that none of the men in camp had. The Story elaborates on the corrupting nature that is war and more specifically, how extreme NAM was.
2. The fact that it is extremely fantastic makes it no less moving. It shows a scenario that is unlikely but not impossible and the fact that it could happen is what makes up for the fact that it most likely didn't happen. Whose to say any story has really happened? All stories are real in your mind's eye and thus all stories, if written correctly, have the ability to be compelling. However I do not believe this, and since the story has a moral, and a point (the point being that war can turn anyone into a killer) and that you almost pull out this "girl power" feel from some of the scenes, meaning it had some sort of redeeming attributes, means it does not fit Tim O'Brien's criteria for a true war story.
Rat Riley had a reputation for exaggerating within his stories, but he insisted that this one was true. For some reason the way that he told the story made it come alive, and made each word seem more definite than the last.
ReplyDelete