"...because she belonged to another world whiachwas not quite real..." (O'Brien, 17).
I read this line a couple of times and it got my mind racing on what defines a real world to O'Brien? It also made me question what would happen to a person stepped into that real world defined by O'Brien? Since, O'Brien is a writing about war stories one can predict that it's not a pretty one. War is usually envisioned
withthe elements of violence, cruelty, and disorder. A person would think, what would happen to ana innocent civilian from a world of tranquility if placed in a world of violence? O'Brien vividly portrays the transition of an innocent human being into a human who releases their inner demon of their soul released once placed into the bloody world of merceliessness.
The character innocence is Mary Anne Bell who come from the peaceful macrocosm of Cleveland Heights. Mary Anne comes to Chu Lai to visit her boyfriend, Mark Fossie, basically to keep the other soldiers company. Though, during the stay her animal-like persona begins to drip out of ehr humane soul. "During her first days in-country she liked to roam around the compound asking questions: What exactly was a tip flare? How did a Claymore work?" (O'Brien, 95). Her interest in the army starts off small which does not bother the soldiers much. As time passes by her desire to know more about the war, land, and solider life increased. In addition, as she went to go visit villages in Vietnam, "her pretty blue eyes seemed to glow" and "she could not seem to get enough of it". Moreover, by the second week of her stay, she started to change her physical apperance to that of a soldier, "No cosmetics, cut her hair short, stopped wearing jewelry..." (O'Brien, 98). Her own sane personality started to disappear as well. "The bubbliness was gone. The nervous giggling too..." (O'Brien 99). Though her final transition of releasing her savagery spirit of the soul, is when she joins the Greenies.
"Twice, though, she came in late at night. Very late. And then finally did not come in at all." (O'Brien, 99). After her first trip in an ambush mission the reader would expect that she would call quits on th army life out of fear. This is not so for Mary Anne, "...she came in trooping in through the wire, tired-looking but cheerful..." Though, it does not stop there she slowly cuts herself off from Rat Kiley's unit. She drowns herself into wilderness with haunted look pumping through her eyes. "Her eyes seemed to shine in the dark-not blue, though, but a bright glowing jungle green." At this point I infer that Mary Anne's transformation from the outside is complete. "In part it was her eyes: utterly flat and indifferent. There was no emotion in her stare, no sense of the person behind it. But the grotesque part was her jewelry...the tongues were threaded... of copper wire..." (O'Brien ,111). Yet there is still her demon-like personality to be revealed.
Mary Anne's own thoughts on her transformation from innocent to a savage are best expressed as her realization of her true self-identity. "Sometimes I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow this whole country-the dirt, the death- I just want to eat it and have it inside of me. That's how I feel. ...I feel close to myself...I feel close to my own body... I'm on fire almost - I'm burning away to nothing-but it does not matter because I know exactly who I am..." There it is. May Anne in her own words flat out says that this demon-like nature is her true personality, her true identity. By time reach this section of the book, The Things They Carried, I completely forget that there ever was peaceful, innocent, shy Mary Anne. To me only the wild Mary Anne existed. Now, I am thinking if this is Mary Anne's true personality in the real world of inhumanity, what would Martha's personality be? Forget that, what would be the true wild personality of all human beings that lived in a fantasy world of peace and protection(in this story)? Would all the human beings living in this utopia unleash their dangerous personality, if it exists just like Mary Anne did?
Here is a girl who is only 17 and was once a, "...tall, big boned blonde...She had long white legs and blue eyes and a complexion like strawberry ice cream. Very friendly too. (O'Brien, 93). Into a person who made the horrors of the Vietnam War their drive towards this exciting personality change. Furthermore, she became a person who "wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself, and after a time...wanting became needing... then craving." (O'Brien, 114)
O'Brien just puts it plain word for the reader that even the innocent can learn to be dangerous and learn to kill. Just like Riley says, " -we were real young and innocent, full of romantic bullshit, but we learned pretty damn quick. And so did Mary Anne." (O'Brien 97).
The focus on Mary Anne's transformation is certainly an interesting one, particularly given what you suggest might be her "modeling" of humanity's darker, perhaps intrinsic side. The post overall, however, suffers from too much plot summary and way too many typographical errors. The latter makes the post difficult to follow. And yet, your use of textual evidence demonstrates a keen grasp on the rhythm of transformation that O'Brien is attempting to perform with his text. Might not Mary Anne thus be read as a symbol of change, a symbol both recognizable and uncontrollable?
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