Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong and Apocalypse Now (Blog 4)

                 Both the movie Apocalypse Now, and the short story Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, by Tim O'Brien, focus on the long lasting psychological effects that war poses on its soldiers and victims. In the short story, a young girl just out of high school visits her boyfriend, Mark Fossie in Vietnam. Upon arriving, she was very innocent and very bubbly. Further and further she was exposed to the harsh reality of the Vietnam war, the harder and more influenced she became. She had stopped dressing as she usually did, she learned to shoot a gun and even went off with the Green Berets to fight in combat. Toward the end of the story, Mary Anne had changed completely. Though not being physically harmed, she had become a victim to war. In the last scene, Mary Anne is found wearing a necklace made of human tongues, chanting in the Green Berets' tent, surrounded by what seemed to be human bones. She tells Fossie she likes this life instead and that he did not belong there. Later on we learn that Mary Anne disappears into the jungle, completely losing her mind, never to be seen again.From this we can tell the great deal that the reality of war had had on innocent little Mary Anne.
                 This can also be seen in the many different characters in Apocalypse Now. Many characters like Lance and "Clean". With Lance, it is more obvious than in the others. By the end of the movie, Lance is seen dressed as the tribal people of Vietnam, chanting, and petting the sacrificial cow, oblivious to what was going to happen to it. Its safe to say that we can assume that Lance, previously being a sane, well-known surfer in the US, has gone completely insane. With Clean, its not so clear, and doesn't become apparent until the scene where they are traveling along the river and come across a Vietnamese family. Clean, being in charge of the machine gun on the boat, opened fire on the entire family, killing them all, for no reason whatsoever. Afterwards, its as if he felt no remorse, but only shocked of how quickly it had happened.