The Things They Carried….pg 117
Not much has happened since the last reading. More of O’Brien’s stories and a little more drama about the war. In the two chapters that we were assigned to read, The Dentist and Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, not much changed about the authors perspective on the war itself. In the chapter titled ‘The Dentist” a man named Curt Lemon had his tooth removed for no reason but his own satisfaction. (Earlier, O’Brien described the death of Lemon which involved tossing a grenade and having it explode in his hands…) In this chapter, Lemon complained about dentists looking at his teeth and that he, under no circumstances, would let the dentist examine him. However, he ended up fainting and having the dentist pull a random tooth the next day claiming that it ‘hurt’ him, when in reality the dentist couldn’t see anything that was wrong with it. I’m not really to sure what this chapter means, or signifies about the war or Lemon himself. But it does show the irony of Lemon being afraid to see a dentist, but not afraid of playing with a grenade. He proved to himself that he can take the pain of pulling a tooth, symbolizing the pain of war. But ironically he also died shortly after for doing something stupid.
The next chapter, Sweetheart of the song Tra Bong, frankly freaked me out. Yet again, another story, this time about a man who brings in a girl into the camp with him. His name is Mark Fossie, and he is deeply in love with Mary Anne Bell, who he brings in with the next cargo shipment. From the time she arrived, she resists leaving and seems to be somehow attached to the land. Unlike Fossie, Mary Anne is compelled to learn more about the war and her surrounding area, weather it be the Vietnamese culture, or the land itself, she is attached. In the end, Mary Anne completely transforms within the culture of Vietnam, perhaps showing that this war is contagious, or maybe she just understood what the soldiers did not.
Nothing much more to say. Looking forward to see what else O’Brien tells us about his experiences.