Objectification In The Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong

Improved Essays
The dictionary definition of objectification is to refer to a person as an object, an appellation which usually pertains to the mistreatment of women. The objectification of women is usually most evident in all types of media, including short stories, for instance, Tim O’Brien’s The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. This short story, in particular, places some verification that men had seen women as toys for the men’s “entertainment and education” (68). As soon as Mary Anne Belle “came in by helicopter” (67) into the camp, there was a widespread of “some envy” (68) among the men who “genuinely liked her” (68). “The guys appreciated … the kind of come-get-me energy, coy and flirtatious” (68) ambience that Mary Anne Belle gave off. Through this …show more content…
From people like Marie Currie to Rosa Parks, women have shown more determination than men. This is specifically seen when Marie Ann is more willing to get blood on her hands than the men are. She voluntarily agrees to learn how to fight and how to handle a gun of all types, from short to long range, This not only shows that Mary Anne is eager to learn but she also displays her ability to look past judgements and rise above the occasion. Not only does she destroys society’s expectation of her, which according to the book is to be sweet, dumb and flirtatious, she also liberates the women and then gives forth a new high for the women population. The booke clearly demonstrates the women population. The book clearly demonstrates thewomen’s capapbilities to survive on their own with or without the men to look out and take care of then. In the book, Rat and his other teammates make it clear that adore Mary Anne for she brought with her a familiar sense of comfort and euphoria tp the men. She had given them an oppurtunity for peace and to relieve their innocence to a time before they dreaded the war. Therefore in this story women are put intp such high pedastals in a way which highlights their capabilities as an

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In “The Sweetheart Song of Tra Bong,” O’Brien creates a specific depiction of Vietnam as a world that affects the foreigners--such as Americans--who inhabit the land. O’Brien portrays a clear distinction between the environment of Vietnam and the society that Americans live in. Mary Anne Bell fully embraces Vietnamese culture which helps establish the main idea of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” Mary Anne’s transformation in the chapter “Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong” was to demonstrate the breaking of gender norms/stereotypes. This chapter disposes the stereotypes of women, especially the notion that they only serve as comfort and sexual satisfaction to men.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it’s only a question of degree,” W. C. Fields once said. Well what’s the highest degree? Are women really crazy, or do they just change? In the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” in the book The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien lets us answer these questions ourselves. The chapter is a sweet one, we think in the beginning.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A beautiful woman is the goal of almost every man on this planet. Without a beautiful woman, the man is seemed as “unimportant” to society. In order to validate themselves, they seek out for the young and beautiful girls without knowing that they are creating an environment for women that is a competition. Women are often pit against one another in finance, appearance, and success. A woman who has these qualities are seen as a rarity.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Prompt title: “Seeing Eye to Body: The Literal Objectification of Women” Prompt authors: Nathan A. Heflick and Jamie L. Goldenberg The main point of this article is that women are often objectified due to having their bodies sexualized. This objectification leads to women acting sort of like objects because they self-objectify themselves, meaning that they are focused on changing themselves, or how they look, instead of focusing on how they are mentally. These objectifications can be due to the way they appear physically. Due to this objectification, women are perceived as being less human, meaning that they do not have the same characteristics as people such as: warmth, capability and ethics.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Clara Barton Essay

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Clara Barton was a woman of incredible stamina and valor to whom America as a whole owes much. Her efforts in the Civil War are well remembered and well documented. Her bravery in helping wounded soldiers on the battlefield set her apart from other women of her time, initiating her social work for years to come. The skills she learned as a child she used for the good of humanity. The far reaching influence of Clara Barton’s tireless work helped to drastically improve the healthcare of the United States, and expand medical horizons.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I can say that opposed to other versions of “Little Red Riding Hood” I have come to enjoy your version of “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf most of all. However, I would like to know why did you decide to go straight to the part where the wolf eats the grandmother? I feel that we need to know more of about “LRRH” and how she becomes an epitome of Lara Croft. In the original version “LRRH” is perceived as a naïve young girl who takes baked goods to her sick grandmother and is eaten up by the wolf because she did not heed her mother’s advice. Yet, your version doesn’t mention the reason behind her drastic change, what prompted her transformation?…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feminism. We have all heard the word before but, how would you describe it? Perhaps something describing “women empowerment”. In Gilman's book, Herland, the meaning of the word “feminism” is embellished, explained, and most importantly, recognized. This powerful word allowed women’s liberation to permeate throughout a discombobulated duration of time.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Marxist theory also explains how gender plays a role is success. Throughout history females have been seen as a minority and it took a long time for females to get respect. But in the novel women are still seen as second to men. There is only one speaking female character and she is not even given a name. She is just referred to as Curley’s wife; this shows the oppression of women in this time period.…

    • 1544 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Instead of staying in her tent braiding her hair or being with her boyfriend, she went on ambushes with special forces and helped out in surgical procedures, gore and all. She, in short, became a soldier. Although this is good for feminism, showing a woman becoming empowered, the case is not good for Fossie. She shows that women were not in fact weak. However, this also shows that, although some men wanted their women to be there with them but Mary Ann’s transformation show that war is not good for anyone, even women.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Most feminist political thought scholar support the notion that western political thought has failed to include women in the category of “human” and its emancipatory promise is illusory or even dishonest. However, this paper focuses on the strong evidence from Carole Pateman, which she claims that the whole story is not revealed especially with social contract writers. Also, the civilized age with the help of technology, keeps on following the footsteps of the political thought writers to make sure the true story is not releveled to the public. Nevertheless, although most political thought scholars have failed to include women, there is one famous political philosopher that considered women in society. His name is Socrates, he claims that both…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Objectification is perceiving a person as an object, being less than human. This research focuses on the objectification theory which states that in western cultures, women's physical appearance is a primary basis of their worth, but this does not pertain to men. The researchers hypothesized that women should be perceived as less warm, moral, and competent when focus is on their appearance. Also, that focusing on a man's appearance should not similarly induce objectification. The researchers conducted three studies that included the same conditions and methods to replicate the study for better results.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The role of women in society has and will be forever questioned not because the world doesn’t understand her importance, but, because in a male driven world women just don’t stand a chance. This is seen to be true in almost anything, film, history, and most notably literature. Literature is the one medium that transcends time, race, and the ages. Literature also offers a small or a big view depending on the author into the lives, feelings and most importantly day to day roles of women. The role of women within literature has been discussed widely by various authors, their role has, furthermore, been spotlighted in several diverse ways to say the least.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Wahala By Ezinneka

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Wahala, a short story written by Chinelo Okpranta unfolds the life of Ezinne, a young barren married woman who visits the Debia (native doctor) to remove the “curse of the enchanted” with the intention to obtain society’s respect for her husband. Ezinne reluctantly gives in to sexual intercourse because of the pain she goes through during intimacy, but her husband’s demand for what he thought rightfully belonged to him leaves her with no alternative (Okpranta, 2013). This paper reveals how language, characterization, patriarchy and hegemony enforce the objectification of women in Wahala, using intrinsic and feminist literary lenses. The use of the intrinsic literary lens exposes language as a very effective tool used to objectify women.…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Beauty Myth Essay

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The beauty myth is an unreachable ideal of female beauty that suppresses women and, as Kimmel and Holler (2011) explain, “uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement” (324). It creates an “Iron Maiden” - a cage that forces females to focus on cosmetics, beauty aids, and exercise fanaticism to become ideal female (324). This beauty myth then portrays women as objects whose worth comes from the beholder: the male gaze. This was first used by Laura Mulvey in film studies, but is now used in sociology to explain how people (of all genders and sexual orientations) look at women in the way a desiring heterosexual male would look to assess women’s sexual desirability, and it portrays women as sexual objects. Even women see themselves in this way, becoming the best judges of the male gaze to master the scale on which they are…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Then and now, gender inequality has been a prominent societal issue. With the common belief that men are superior over women, many strive for the empowerment of women and their rights. In the third chapter of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, the predicament of the women of the 18th century was discussed through art. It was emphasized how women are seen as objects in nude paintings rather than actual persons for the pleasure of men. (Berger, 1972)…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays