The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is a short story taken out of the book, “The Things They Carried “, by Tim O’Brien. In this story, O’Brien utilized the literary technique of storytelling to give the theme of truth vs. belief through the debate of Rat Kiley and Mitchell Sanders. With the character of Mary Anne, the theme of loss of innocence is shown from her arriving as a just a curious American girl to a strong and wild woman in Vietnam. In the beginning, O’Brien writes that not all stories can be justified as completely true. Even if they aren’t true, the improbability of them “will last forever”. The story that lasted for him was the one of Rat Kiley. By having Rat be the narrator, it shows a debate between truth vs. belief. Rat has been known to exaggerate the truth. He…show more content… This made his story challenging to believe for his friend Mitchell Sanders. He, “challenged him on its basic premise” on the reality of what happened with the Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong. When Rat was questioned if the girlfriend actually came, he squeaked “Straight on. It’s a fact”. This makes the story dwindle on deceit or truth. Throughout the story, O’Brien stopped to explain that’s “The way Rat told it”. This shows that the authenticity is still not trusted. Sanders interrupts Rat’s story many times to question the truth. O’Brien wrote that “I remember Mitchell Sanders folding his arms. He looked over at me for a second, not quite grinning, not saying a word, but I could read the amusement in his eyes.” By using facial and body expressions, it shows Sanders denial that Rat is completely truthful. He also stopped to tell Rat how to tell a story better. Sanders opinion for Rat was, “...trust your own story. Get the hell out of the way and let it tell itself.” There is no end to
