Vietnam War Mary Anne's Personality

As Ray Kiley describes it, “She was seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High. She had long white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too,” (89). Mary Anne is immature and naive, but also very curious. She is curious of Army machines and also of the Vietnamese culture. Like many other Americans, Mary Anne feels that the war is easily winnable and that she is untouchable, even in a foreign land. At one point she strips down to her underwear and swims in the Song Tra Bong, a Vietnamese river, even after Fossie explains that there are likely snipers

In the chapter, “The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, we meet an interesting character named Mary Anne. She was a seventeen year old lady who just got out of high school and went to visit her boyfriend Mark Fossie in Vietnam. It started out as just visiting a childhood sweetheart, except it all changed in a matter of weeks. Mary Anne began to take too much interest and she became engulfed in vietnam. She wasn’t all too careful, rather than her swallowing the land, she was swallowed whole by it. Vietnam changed Mary Anne into something she never thought that she would become, she changed into a lone soldier, physically, behaviorally and psychologically.

Mary Anne made her first appearance in the Vietnam War on a helicopter that would fly supplies in and out of the medical base in Chu Lai. She wore some “white culottes … and a pink sweater” when she first arrive because it was what she enjoyed to wear because she was still young( O’Brien 86) . She was described as having “ long white legs, blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream” this is what the men thought of her when they saw her walking around the base with Mark Frossie (O’Brien 89). Mary Anne was very “curious about things” always asking questions

Mary Anne was in Vietnam during the war which “had the effect of a powerful drug [..] she wanted more, she

Mary Anne's curiosity provoked her change. You see this from the way she is described. If it wasn't for her avid nature to learn more about her surroundings she may have stayed the same. She wanted to know everything about Vietnam, she didn't just want to sit back and watch. She wanted to be in the action. "Though she was young, Rat said Mary Anne Bell was no timid child. She was curious about things…asking questions…. listen quietly while someone would fill her in. She had a good quick mind."(95) She was enthralled by her surroundings she wanted to do and know everything, she was in a new place ready and willing to learn unlike the soldiers who were there only because they had too. The speaker shows us this in this quote. "They carried the soldiers greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing…it was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive…they kept humping. They did not submit to the obvious alternative to fall."(21) This quote is to inform the reader that the only reason a solider would go to war and to stay there is from the "fear of blushing" That they weren't there by choice. The term "humping" is used. It is there way of dealing with the war. They just have to keep on ‘humping" and everything would be all right. It was there way

As the days go by, Mary Anne is becoming more distant from Mark Fossie and more attached to the war. This is obvious when Mark Fossie asks her if she wants to leave Vietnam and she tells him that she does not want to leave, since everything she needs is in Vietnam. Later on, Mary Anne starts joining the Greenies, which is a group of elite army soldiers, who fight in the war. Mary Anne disappears and Mark Fossie ends up finding her with the Greenies, completely changed by the war and a different person. “Quietly then, she stepped out of the shadows… For a long while the girl gazed down at Fossie, almost blankley, and in the candlelight her face had the composure of someone perfectly at peace…’You 're in a place’, Mary Anne said softly, ‘where you don 't belong.’... Rat listened for a long time, then shook his head. ‘Man, you must be deaf. Shes already gone.’” (O’Brien, 105-107) As portrayed in the novel, Mary Anne is clearly too attached to the war and cannot leave Vietnam. She leaves Fossie for the war and joins the Greenies, since she cannot move on, for she is held back, due to the war. In a way, Mary Anne is a representation of war itself. She is an example of what war does to a soldier and how it can greatly impact their life, not letting them move on.

She thinks what she is doing is not bad because that’s how Vietnam is. Mary Anne embraces the Vietnam culture while Fossie doesn’t care and just ignores it. This story seems so surreal because who really carries a necklace made out of actual human tongues. She wasn’t even grown into this culture and yet she seems so normal about

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

Her whole story starts out in the chapter “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”. Rat Kiley, the storyteller of the platoon describes the story of a girl named Mary Anne Bell, who was a delightful and attractive young woman who just got out of high school. It was typical. “Out on the volleyball court she wore cut-off blue jeans and a black swimsuit top, which the guys appreciated, and in the evenings she liked to dance to music from Rat’s portable tape deck” (O’Brien, 91). She came to Vietnam to see her boyfriend and lover, Mark Fossie. She was just so innocent and kind. “Though she was young, Rat said, Mary Anne Bell was no tied child. She was curious about things” (O’Brien, 91). Since she was in Vietnam she might as well learn about the culture and what went down there. Mary learned all types of war techniques like how to assemble a gun and she also started to stop being so “girly”. “No cosmetics, no fingernail filing. She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a dark green bandana” (O’Brien, 94). She even helps out with the casualties that come from the battlefronts and gets her hands bloody. Feeling like the visit was sufficient enough, Fossie urged that Mary Anne to go back home, but instead, Mary stayed and ends up staying really late the next couple of nights. Then, one night she disappears in the jungle at night. Mark suspects that she was cheating on him with someone else, but Rat believed that she was with the “Greenies”, the Green Beret, for a nighttime ambush. When she returned, she indeed was with the Greenies and she was exhausted. Mark wanted to know what happened but she just shrugged him off. Mark made arrangements for Mary Anne’s departure the next day, but she disappeared again for three weeks this time. When she came back, Fossie decided to visit the Greenies’ boot

Many character’s develop throughout O’Brien’s novel, but there is a chapter dedicated to the entire development of Mary Anne Bell and the extreme effects the war had on her. Although Mary Anne is not involved in any other piece of the novel, she is a perfect example of the effects of war on individuals- which are an important aspect of The Things They Carried.

Mary Anne’s initial personality was one that most would say is that of a typical American teen. Her relationship with Mark Fossie is the reason why she came over to Vietnam. They were the best of friends, “It was almost disgusting, Rat said, the way they mooned over each

This is a tale of what impact being in Vietnam has on an outsider. Mary Anne, in many ways, is just like the other soldiers. She arrives in Vietnam as a young innocent girl in a place she doesn’t understand. Mary Anne embodies the sweet city girl who’s picture the soldiers carry around and dream about at night. Mary Anne is the all-American girl, as pure as can be. Her embodiment of innocence is so pure that the only other character she would compare to is Rat Kiley who brought M&M’s and comic books with him to the war (O’Brien 5). Mary Anne shows up in the middle of the jungle with “one of those plastic cosmetic bags” (O’Brien 86). The significance of the parallels between Rat and Mary Anne’s innocence stems from the fact this far fetched story comes from Rat Kiley. One key moment of symbolism in the end of the chapter is an interaction between Rat Kiley and Mark Fossie. Mark says “she can’t just let her go like that” (O’Brien 107). Rat then responds by saying “Man, you must be deaf. She’s already gone” (O’Brien 107). This interaction is integral to the overall theme regarding innocence. Mary Anne, who symbolizes innocence, has left without Mark being aware of her departure. This is symbolic for how when someone is self-aware of their loss of innocence, it is often too late and

Her clothing transitions from the typical American sweetheart to that similar of a man. Mary Anne, however, was far more than a man--“She was part of the land. She was wearing her culottes, her pink sweater, and a necklace of human tongues. She was dangerous. She was ready for the kill” (O’Brien 82).

When reading all of the feelings and events added together, two themes stuck out. One theme is that Anne was lonely. In the inside of her book she stated that “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support”. This shows that so far in her life she really did not find the right person to open up to and talk about her most personal thoughts. Another theme I found was being completely

In the play, Mary is a beautiful woman and lives the life like any other girls of her time; but she is emotionally attached to her sons and her family when she marries into the Tyrone family. She is also getting old, so she keeps going on her days worrying about her change of appearance. She suffers from a morphine addiction and she is psychologically wounded because of her past. She tries many times to break free but she could not stop as she spends time with her family. She has gone through many struggles but she cannot move on with her life. She keeps looking back into the past; and she regrets marrying into the family because of the dreams she had to sacrifice such as becoming a nun or a concert pianist.