Name:
Telling a True War Story: “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”
CONTEXT:
As you read Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story,” you kept track of the features, or
“ingredients,” of a true war story according to Tim O’Brien’s “recipe.”
TASK:
As you now read the vignette “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” your task is to examine O’Brien’s
craft as a writer while he tells this “true war story.” Look at your homework, and locate specific
moments from “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” which illustrate O’Brien’s following his own
guidelines for building a “true war story.” This is an example of a Formalist literary criticism
perspective, since we are examining the structure, form, and authorial choices made in the creation of
this text. This form is available as a Word document on the website if you’d prefer to type.
GRADING:
You are graded both on completion as well as the quality of the text evidence you choose to illustrate
aspects of O’Brien’s recipe. Each row of the chart below is worth up to 2 points, with a maximum of 20
points possible for the effective completion of all 10 rows.
O’Brien’s statement about a
“true war story”
Directly quoted text evidence of how this appears in the vignette
“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” OR
highly detailed paraphrase of a moment which illustrates the statement
CITE PAGE NUMBERS from your version of the book
O’Brien’s statement about a
“true war story”
Directly quoted text evidence of how this appears in the vignette
“Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” OR
highly detailed paraphrase of a moment which illustrates the statement
CITE PAGE NUMBERS from your version of the book