Lowy 1

Allie Lowy
Ms. Melissa Kaplan
AP Language
24 November 2014
The Unveiling of Mary Annes True Self
In The Things They Carried, author Tim O'Brien chronicles the Vietnam War, reflecting on
his own experiences as well as the effects of the War on others. In the chapter The Sweetheart of
Song Tra Bong, O'Brien tells the tale of Mary Anne, the fiance of soldier Mark Fossie, who is
brought over to Vietnam for the purpose of pleasing Fossie. Much to Fossie's dismay, once
immersed in the Vietnam wilderness, the mysterious environment consumes Mary Anne. As
OBrien conveys the soldiers perception of Mary Annes transformation and the unveiling of her
inner savageness, he suggests that war has different effects on different individuals (regardless of
their gender) and that individuals can defy gender roles assigned to them by society.
In The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong, Mary Annes dramatic transformation underscores
the varying and oftentimes unexpected effects that war can have on different individuals. The
soldiers initially believe that, because of womens gentle and docile nature, war is not a
womans place, as Rat notes when he references the stereotypical notion that if a woman were
president, there would be no more wars. OBrien contrasts the expectation of a woman being
virtually unscathed by an environment in which she does not belong with the potent and
seductive effect that the war actually has on Mary Anne. OBrien observes that Vietnam had the
effect of a powerful drug on Mary Anne, connoting that Mary Anne becomes overtaken by the
addictive nature of the Vietnam atmosphere, as it draws her in and ultimately consumes her. In
addition, OBrien draws a contrast between the typical soldiers view of the Green Berets as

Lowy 2
isolated, bizarre loners by nature and Mary Annes fascination with them, a fascination that
eventually subsumes her as she joins the Greenies. OBrien uses the Green Berets to convey a
larger message about the soldiers and Mary Annes differing attitudes toward the war. While
other soldiers are frightened and repelled by the thick walls of wilderness and triple-canopied
jungle of Vietnam, Mary Anne -- like the Greenies -- is seduced by it, want[ing] to penetrate
deeper into the mystery of herself, which evinces her craving to become one with nature as she
defies expectations, becoming an atavistic part of the land rather than a removed foreigner
separated from the land. Further, Mary Anne embraces Vietnamese culture while other soldiers
reject it, as is evidenced when she begs Fossie to take her to a Viet Cong town, as she wishes to
get a feel for how people lived, what the smells and customs were, while others render this
strange and undesirable. While some ascribe Mary Annes dramatic transformation to the fact
that she is a woman, Rat notes that war has a long-lasting impact on everyone, regardless of their
sex, explaining that what happened to her was what happened to all of them (109). Ironically,
Mary Anne is influenced much more than the others soldiers, and, when Fossie asks her to go
home, she confronts him with the reality that he is in a place where [he doesnt] belong (106),
whereas she now embodies Vietnam and is a part of the land. In contrast to the male soldiers
complacency with the trappings of their home life in Vietnam, Mary Anne eschews their camp,
seduced by the mystery of the jungle and its terrors -- that eventually consumes her.
Mary Annes perceived transformation illustrates that individuals can dramatically defy
gender roles assigned to them by society. OBriens description of Mary Anne refutes the idea of
women as one-dimensional beings who exist to provide solace, amusement and pleasure to the
men in their lives through his portrayal of Mary Anne as she changes from a sexual object
existing to please others to an empowered individual who only truly experiences gratification

Lowy 3
when alone in the killing fields of Vietnam. When Mark Fossie brings Mary Anne over to join
him, he assumes that she will function as an instrument to provide comfort and remain relatively
unaffected by her surroundings. Similarly, other male soldiers originally share Fossies myopic
view of womens role at war. By likening Mary Annes complexion to strawberry ice cream
(89), the soldiers exhibit their view of her as a conventional source of indulgence to provide
them with satisfaction and security. Their depiction of Mary Anne by reference to an
unsophisticated simile -- comparing her to a homey dessert -- reduces her to merely an emblem
of purity and simplicity, instead of a complex individual with desires and plans of her own.
Likewise, Eddie Diamond originally describes her as having D-cup guts, trainer bra brains
(92). The inability of Eddie and other soldiers to quantify a womans bravery and intellect in
anything other than the scale used for measuring her breasts sheds light on the soldiers
overarching view of women through a sexual lens. OBrien contrasts the soldiers initial
simplistic descriptions of Mary Anne with their eventual struggle to find any language to convey
the toll the war has taken on her as Rat Kiley reckons that describing the transformation Mary
Anne underwent would be like trying to explain what chocolate tastes like (108). OBrien
juxtaposes these changing descriptions in order to elucidate how the mens perception of Mary
Anne changes from viewing her as an easily depicted and conventional object to a multifaceted,
overpowering being that they cannot find the words to describe. Not only does the soldiers
perception of Mary Anne change, but the way she sees herself changes, as she frees herself from
the gender confines to which women often feel bound. When she first arrives, Mary Anne totes a
cosmetic bag; however, she soon abandons her hope of sustaining her conventional femininity as
hygiene [becomes] a matter of small consequence (94) and she redirects the energy to
navigating the mysterious wilderness of Vietnam. As Mary Anne sheds her makeup, jewelry, and,

Lowy 4
with them, the burden of societal expectations, Vietnam awakens in her a savageness that was
hidden deep within her feminine, submissive Cleveland self. Ironically, although she was
brought to war as an object to fulfill others desires, the Vietnam wilderness provides Mary Anne
with a feeling of self-fulfillment that she had never previously experienced, as she becomes an
authentic subject, one who has never been happier in [her] own life (95) than how she feels at
war.
Through his depiction of Mary Anne's transformation, O'Brien suggests that war has
different effects on different individuals as individuals (not just as members of their gender) and
that people can and do challenge the societal expectations to which they are expected to conform.
The fact that everyone is impacted differently by war reinforces the reality that every individual
is unique and that confining people to gender roles is limiting. A quote from Antoine de SaintExuprys The Little Prince reads: you have great truths within you, if only anyone would
bother to look. When people break free from the mold of stereotypes and expectations that
inhibits them, the deeper truths within them surface and their authentic individuality is
awakened.