How Does Mary Anne Change

Mary Anne adjusted to the life in Vietnam, as did the soldiers that were there, and as time progressed she began to enjoy or get a thrill out of being in Vietnam. "I mean when we first got here-all of us- we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne,"(97). The learning curve in war is quickened by the fact that it is a matter of life or death when you are working in a war, and it did not matter who you were the you quickly learned how to operate in a battle field. Mary Anne did not fit in a first and did not know or understand her role in the war, and just like the fresh soldiers coming from America did know or understand their role in the war. As the soldiers, as well as Mary Anne, begin to realize the realities of the war they move their focus away from their homes in America and begin to focus on the work that needed to be accomplished in Vietnam. The physical changes that occur to Mary Anne as she begins to be assimilated into the Vietnam War are like night and day. She came as your typical American girl, but then becomes a fighting soldier looking and anticipating ugly war

In the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” Rat tells the story of a time when Mark Fossie, a soldier brought his girlfriend to Vietnam. She was a sweet gentle women who paid attention and learned fast. She gets along with everyone pretty well including the Green Berets. Mary Anne’s personality was changing, not just in front of the soldiers but also in front of Fossie,. According to the “Greenies” Mary was fearless, she would go and do stuff that even the greenies were afraid of. During ambushes, Mary would go off on her own and not come back for hours or days. One day she walked off by herself and never came back, from time to time the greenies would see her in the shadows, wearing her pink sweater and human tongue necklace.

In the short story, “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong,” by Tim O’Brien, the author shows that no matter what the circumstances were, the people that were exposed to the Vietnam War were affected greatly. A very young girl named Mary Anne Bell was brought by a boyfriend to the war in Vietnam. When she arrived she was a bubbly young girl, and after a few weeks, she was transformed into a hard, mean killer.

While the entire book is about how the war impacts various soldiers, using a female character

Change In The Things They Carried a war novel by Tim O'Brien, we are told many short stories compiled to make a whole. I want to emphasis on the importance of the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong". In this chapter we are introduced to the character Mary Anne. She shows the changing power of Vietnam, that a sweet innocent young girl can come into this land and be forever consumed by her surroundings. The speaker show us this through character action, character description, dialogue and metaphor; this enhances the literary work by showing us that the soldiers will always be a part of Vietnam no matter how hard they try to get away from it.

This description shows just how much she has changed. The way that she describes being alone in the mountains is like nothing she’s ever said before. And yet, she claims that the feeling is something that helps her to discover herself, she knows exactly who she is when she’s there. Mary Anne says that she feels close to her own body, she feels whole and complete in the wilds of Vietnam. She describes herself as “burning away into nothing” with this feeling. Brimming with electricity, even, she feels alive when she’s alone in the wilds. The way Mary Anne describes her feelings for herself after being in Vietnam for months represents her own previous insecurities and pressures being wiped away and replaced with freedom. Mary Anne is tetherless in Vietnam, free to do whatever she pleases, and she would not let Fossie stop her from that, no matter how he felt. After this confrontation, they

In this book there are three major women Linda, Martha, and Mary Anne. Linda's role is positive yet very saddening because she in a way has given Tim O'Brien the power to tell stories so in depth using memories. Mary Anne's role is encouraging because she comes to Vietnam and throughout the journey she discovers herself; she redefines the typical role of women. Martha's role in this book could be considered positive because she is keeping up Jimmy Cross's morale but, at the same time it could be negative because she leads him on. So the role of women in the book is very influential in a positive way.

Mary Anne’s sudden changes in demeanor, presence, and her rigor to learn about the war are highly characteristic of the effects of war. She manages to stay happy and curious about the world, but through her exposure to primal culture she’s become harder, more in tune with her primitive side. The last time Mary Anne is seen, she is found in a hootch surrounded by dead animals and villagers, wearing “a necklace of human tongues” (110). She goes on to explain her attachment to the war and its macabre attributes and explains that in Vietnam she knows “exactly who she is. You can’t feel like that anywhere else” (111). Throughout the chapter, we see the sweetheart of the medics become the sweetheart of the war itself. Vietnam changes her, only leaving behind the dedication of the high school girl Rat Kiley first spoke of.

After traveling over an ocean to be back with her high school sweetheart and Vietnam soldier, Mark Fossie, Mary Anne begins to change. Mary Anne’s metamorphosis represents the inner turmoil every Vietnam soldier experienced and relays the story in a way that is comprehensible to civilians and soldiers alike. Before Mary Anne even steps of the helicopter,

Everything from her schooling to her relationship with Fossie is what most people would kill for. Her longing is not for materialism or a dream wedding; It is for war, the adrenaline, the action, the life or death. Although many would consider her crazy or better yet psychopathic, but the real her belongs to this type of nature. Tim O’Brien did find the real “him” on his journey towards Canada. He viewed the war in Vietnam in a negative aspect rather than a war worth fighting for.

This chapter is from Tim O’Brien’s perspective. The protagonist is Mary Anne, and how living there changed her and how she acted before and after she got there.

The reader is first introduced to Mark Fossie’s girlfriend, Mary Anne Bell, when she comes to visit Mark in Vietnam. She is described as an energetic, flirtatious, coy, and beautiful girl. Shortly after we are introduced to Mary she cuts her hair, throws away her ambitions and has this almost haunting aura surrounding her. When Mark goes to ask her about it her response is, “It’s nothing, really nothing.

Think of our society today and the role that women play in it. Women impact people’s lives every single day. In The Things They Carried, there were a couple of women that were brought up in the book, and it showed the enormous effect that the women’s presence had on the men during the war. Mary Anne and Linda were two girls who played huge roles, yet were not even the main characters. Their roles consisted mainly of altering the soldier's personalities and perspectives life during this time. The women brought about the idea of love, humanity, and strength. All of these ideas were put into major effect in the book in many ways.

The Greenies report that "a couple of times they almost saw her sliding through the shadows," but she would never return from the jungle (O'Brien 125). "She was part of the land" (125). Like Kurtz, Mary Anne crosses the line by losing her self-control to a primordial madness because of the forces of the Vietnam environment.

As Mary Anne’s questions got answered her curiosity ran deeper. Her need for understanding Vietnam was high: “She wanted to get a feel for how people lived, what the smells and customs were” (O’Brien 91-92). She new it was dangerous but her inner personality was slowly showing. Not only are her views changing, but so are some of the other men’s. Eddie Diamond knows exactly what is going on “There’s the scary part. I promise you, this girl will most definitely learn” (O’Brien 92). Her transformation is really peaking at this point and she isn’t trying to hid it at all. Instead, in a way she is trying to show it off. She is learning new skills day by day that spark her wild side and she is not afraid of the ugly. Due to Mary Anne’s wild side