The central symbol in this vignette is the dance of the young girl. The characters understand dancing as deliberate, purposeful, graceful, and meaningful: everything that the war in Vietnam is not. The repeating theme is that the characters labor to understand why the girl is dancing and the meaning of her dance. All around lies destruction, decay, and death, and yet she dances. Perhaps she dances as an escape from her reality; perhaps she dances to deny her reality; or perhaps, as Azar says, she dances a ritual that gives meaning to what has happened. When she covers her ears with her hands, she may be either blocking out sound or acting out an ornate cultural ritual.
Regardless of the meaning of the dance, O'Brien makes it clear that the American soldiers do not understand either why she dances or what the dance means. To them, this scene is one of destruction and the dancing girl is an abomination. Everything else fits the schema of destruction and war, the dance alone stands out. And yet it is around her dance that the story revolves and the soldiers continually lead their discussion. To them, there must be meaning, and meaning is what they desperately lack.
In fact, the dancing girl is one of the most optimistic symbols O'Brien gives us in the novel, for clearly she symbolizes something, even if we cannot know it. The soldiers cannot ignore her because they are starving for meaning in their campaign; any meaning, even the meaning of a small girl dancing in the middle of dead bodies and ashes. She pays them and their doings no heed, and yet they constantly attend her dance, seeking its meaning.
