The Story Of Sweetheart Of The Song

Of Tra Bong: The Use Of Setting Essay, Research Paper

The Story of Sweetheart of the Song of Tra Bong: The Use of Setting

Where does the story of Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong take place.

Upon reading the story, one would first assume that it takes place in Vietnam.

Upon further examination, however, it becomes quite evident that it really takes

place inside Rat Kiley’s head. This isn’t to declare the story false; instead,

one should examine the influence and literary freedom that Rat flexes upon the

truth. “For Rat Kiley. facts were formed by sensation, not the other way

around.” (101) The story occurs in two separate but equally chaotic places:

Vietnam, and Rat’s head. The story intertwines between the two settings, and in

order to completely grasp the idea behind them, one must first recognize, then

separate and analyze the two settings.

Upon the first reading of this work, the reader finds himself dropping

into the story of a seemingly misplaced girl in Vietnam. The role of Rat Kiley

seems somewhat minor and irrelevant. Upon the second and third times through,

however, his role as the storyteller stands out. It becomes more evident that

he holds Mary Anne with the highest regard. He romanticizes her relationship

with the war. He is so amazed with the fact that a girl can be seduced by the

lure of the wilderness that he begins to talk about her with the listeners as if

she were the attractive girl from school that everyone knows but nobody dates.

” ‘You know.I loved her. Mary Anne made you think about those girls back home,

how clean and innocent they all are.’ ” (123) Rat is pushing his views upon

the listener. He is shaping how the story is seen. The reader sees “triple-

canopied jungle, mountains unfolding into higher mountains, ravines and gorges

and fast-moving rivers and waterfalls and exotic butterflies and steep cliffs

and smoky little hamlets and great valleys of bamboo and elephant grass.” (103)

The actual reality of the situation is added by the narrator, as extrapolated

from Rat: that they were in an almost completely indefensible situation. Had

somebody cared enough to take control of the little base, there would be no

resistance. Rat wanted to let the reader know his opinion on the citizens of

the Viet Cong, how he wants the listener to think of them. “Mary Anne asked,

‘They’re human beings, aren’t they. Like everybody else.’ Fossie nodded. He

loved her.” (107) Rat lets us know that he thinks the VC are less then human.

Why did Fossie nod, in Rat’s opinion. Not because he thought Fossie felt she was

right, but because he loved her. Because Rat feels that the VC are subhuman,

part of the jungle, he sees Fossie’s nod as a patronizing nod to an unknowing

inductee to the jungle. Rat, at every turn, tries to “make [the truth] burn so

hot that you would feel exactly what he felt.” (101) Rat makes the reader

constantly want to love Vietnam, to love the intricacies of the jungle, to love

the trill of danger and imminent threat of death. ” ‘It’s like trying to tell

somebody what chocolate tastes like.’ ” (123) The audience gets a somewhat

gentle reminder from Mitchell Sanders, as he declares ” ‘Or shit.’ ” (123) “But

Rat Kiley couldn’t help it. He wanted to bracket the full range of meaning.”

(116) Rat wants to inject within the reader a love similar to his toward Mary

Anne. He wants the reader to want to become one with the jungle. He wants the

reader to understand that there is a base human connection with nature, and that

one doesn’t have to be a man to feel it. It isn’t about man vs. woman, it’s

about humans vs. nature. Everybody comes in without a clue. They get their

view on the future and humanity raped away by the deflowering of reality in the

jungle. They begin to understand what matters and what doesn’t. On it’s

superficial level, Song Tra Bong is about a story. This story takes place

within a character. Rat “had a tendency to stop now and then, interrupting the

flow, inserting little clarifications or bits of analysis and personal opinion.”

(116) Rat molded the view of the story. He shows the reader what Rat deems

important, and he constantly adds his own twist to it all. As he said, he loved

her. He is going to put her on a pedestal for the world to view and appreciate.

On the top, the character (at this level, the only one that matters) is the

setting. Just as Vietnam had it’s oddities and tendencies, Rat’s mind had it’s

own pockmarked landscape with it’s own jungles and rain forests.

Now that one has identified the skew of the stained glass window the

story is viewed the through, one can begin to fully appreciate what happened to

Mary Anne, and the conflict she encounters. She finds herself torn between the

civilized world which has her long time love, and the uncivilized world, Vietnam

where she can exist in her purest form. There is a slow transition

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