War Changed Her

In response to the chapter Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Mary Anne Bell arrived to the Vietnam camp as “A tall, big-boned blonde...seventeen years old, fresh out of Cleveland Heights Senior High...bubbly personality, a happy smile” (O’Brien 93,95). The way that I saw Mary Anne was like an infant. She entered a place of death and war as pretty much a clean slate. Her pure soul stood out to the men in the camp, not just because the fact that she was a woman, but because she had life. Her body and mind were still alive and collected in a single entity, but after spending a while there she started to change. Her body, soul, and mind were separating and conforming to her surrounding. She ventured to places unknown and “It was nearly three weeks before she returned. But in a sense she never returned. Not entirely, not all of her” (O’Brien 105). That purity was now soiled. Her mind no longer the mind of a prissy high school girl, but now of a soldier who has experienced war. She arrived for love, but stayed for war. The relationships she had with the others changed as she started finding herself with the outsiders...the animals. She needed to be free and experience the other side; the wild side of war in Vietnam.

Her transition in becoming a whole new person could have several different meanings a reasons, but I believe it was because of needing to prove herself. The chapter Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong was solely based on a woman going to war. It wasn’t completely about the love relationship with her boyfriend, but what had become of her after her time with him in that setting. Several times while Rat Kiley was telling the story, he would make comments that, “‘She wasn’t dumb,’ he’d snap. ‘I never said that’” (O’Brien 97). His passion for Mary Anne’s strength when telling the story made it bluntly obvious that he was serious. Her transformation was not just a surprise to the soldiers but also a symbol; a symbol of humanity and innocence snapping during the war.

Soldiers head to war to defend their country and as they enter war as boy, they leave as not just a man, but a dead man. Mary Anne Bell, as explained earlier, arrived at the camp clean and pure but in the end she was gone mind, body, and all. Her character was the definition of a static character and because of her gender it presented an even greater message that even women can change. The author used Mary Anne to sort of exaggerate and physical show the change that happens to soldiers. The soldiers understood that message because “What happened to her, Rat said, was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same” (O’ Brien 114). She did get dirty and she wasn’t the same, but the difference is that she never left. The war had consumed her and her humanity, it took her body and transformed her into this amazonian-type of warrior. She was brutal, corrupt, and all together a soldier that has lost himself to war. Also, her sex broadened the idea of her being a symbol by also representing feminism. Her agreement to going to this scary place that many dread was so empowering to women. She did what the guys did, she participated in all of the activities and even more that some men not dare to do like going to “the Greenies” camp. While the men have been there for months, it only took her a couple weeks to adapt and learn the ways and master being a soldier. Tim O’Brien created the character Mary Anne and had her destroy any to all stereotypes about women.

Finally bringing in a tangible character that is a women was a very bold move by the author. The chapters prior to Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong explained the life of soldier and what they carried and really gave that sense of the men being strong and courageous. A woman named Martha was introduced in the beginning, however, she was not completely relevant or most likely real. Mary Anne Bell being a woman, I believe, doesn’t to the plot line or complete story, but it does matter as a message. For example, if Mary Anne were to be a man instead of a woman, the impact wouldn’t have been as strong. The fact that she is a female presented a message and especially during the times of the Vietnam War, women had just recently started joining war. Turns out that actually there were a good bunch of women that joined the army during those times, but mainly as nurses. Going out in the field and seeing the reality of war can be damaging to a person and Mary Anne had the urge to experience that lifestyle, to experience Vietnam.

Vietnam was a ground for war. Bombs, ammunition, and death covered the trails and there was no room for distractions. The war, in this chapter, was like a paranormal entity that will consume those that have entered. The smells, sights, and dangers that this war presented could have easily changed a person that has come straight from civilization. Based off of the changes that Mary Anne had went through, it proves that the war had power. The war had the capability to disintegrate any shred of humanity left in a person. It had the capability to destroy the love that the couple shared for such a long time. Within weeks, the war was able to change her.