The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien: Analysis of Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong

In the chapter Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong in the fictional novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Mary Anne Bell is a prime example of a dynamic character. Mary Anne was an attractive girl, seventeen years old, from Cleveland Heights Senior High. She had a bubbly and girly personality. Her boyfriend, Mark Fossie, got the idea to fly his girlfriend out to his assigned medical outpost in Vietnam. The outpost was near the village of Tra Bong, up in the mountains west of Chu Lai. It was a fun place to be during the war because you only had to tend to the victims and after that you can do as you wish. The outpost has also a base of operations for a squad of six Green Berets aka Greenies. This would all seem like a safe place to protect an innocent girl from war but one way or another you get a taste of it just as Mary Anne did. War has a way of changing people.

Mary Anne underwent several drastic changes, one of which was her appearance. When Mary Anne first arrived at the outpost she was dressed in white culottes and a pink sweater, clothing that was very contrasting to her surroundings. She had long blonde hair, and kept herself well groomed and clean. The first few weeks after her arrival everything was good. Mary Anne enjoyed herself and her feminine presence was well appreciated by the others. Then the change began, Mary Anne began helping with the incoming injured soldiers and learning the way of life at the outpost. She began picking up 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 bandanna. Hygiene became a matter of small