The Things They Carried

A detailed Summary of 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

"At the end of the second week, when four casualties came in, Mary Anne wasn't afraid to get her hands bloody" (p.98). Then the changes became more apparent, "she quickly fell into the habits of the bush. No cosmetics, no fingernail filing. She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a dark green bandana. Hygiene was a matter of small consequence" (p.98). The bush had done to her what it had done to so many American soldiers. Yet she had no idea how to survive in the conditions that she had taken on, but she learned. She learned "how to disassemble an M-16, how the various parts worked, how to use the weapon... she had a real knack for it" (p.98). Then the changes were dramatic and were too much for Mark to handle. "Twice she came in late at night. Very late. And then finally she did not come in at all" (p.99).

Eventually, Mary Anne began to go to even further extremes with the "Greenies". According to Rat "she took crazy, death-wish chances- things that even the Greenies balked at" (p.115). Then finally "Mary Anne walked off into the mountains and did not com

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)

Category: Novels

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The Things They Carried

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