The Things They Carried
The “sweetheart” in Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong is an American girl by the sweet name of Mary Ann Bell. Her description identifies her as the stereotypical girl of the late 60's early 70's. We are introduced to her as a “cute blonde” wearing “white culottes and this sexy pink sweater” (p.102). She is “a tall, big-boned blonde,/long legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly, too” (p.93). However, her attractive appearance and innocent attitude would change over the next few weeks. Mary Ann traveled to Vietnam to visit her boyfriend Mark Fossie on his wishes. Nothing seems unusual about her but the fact that she is visiting her boyfriend, at an aid station, during the war. Just as children tend to do she is very curious, “she liked to roam around the compound asking questions” (p.95). She learned many useful skills by “spending time with the ARVN's out along the perimeter, picking up little phrases of Vietnamese, learning how to cook rice over a can of Sterno, how to eat with her hands” (p.95), she had the mindset “I'm here, I might as well l
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Mary Anne, Mark Fossie, Ann Bell, Mark Vietnamese, Vietnam War, According Rat, mary anne, Mary Ann, Bong American, , pink sweater, p98 changes, mary ann, mark fossie,
Approximate Word count = 734
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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