In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien the cultural, physical, and geographical surroundings shape the psychological and moral traits in a character. A character that is affected by their surroundings in this novel is Mary Anne Bell. These surroundings helped to create the person she became. Mary Anne Bell was brought to Vietnam by Mark Fossie because they were in love. When she first arrived all eyes were on her and nobody understood why Mark wanted her there.
Nusrat doesn’t know how much longer she can take the anxiety. But just when all hope is lost, Nusrat and Najmah together find their way home. One of the main conflicts in this book is Man vs. Society, which Staples does a good job of sampling. Near the very beginning of Under the Persimmon Tree, the author included an event that was heartbreaking to Najmah and her mother. Since it was almost time for the war, the Taliban came to Najmah’s household and took her father and brother for war.
Deborah Tannen’s “You’re Wearing That?” is an insightful, refreshing ways mothers and daughters speak the same language and yet misunderstand what they are really trying to say to each other. Mothers and daughters, most of the time, have a lot in common. The only problem is when one says something the other takes it as an offense or big misunderstanding and gets mad at the other. This book talks about many situations in which these conflicts arise in a mother and daughters life. For an example, on pp.
We find our protagonist distracted with an infatuation of Martha, a young university student with whom he shared an arguably one-sided relationship with before being deployed. This distraction and it’s subsequent neglect of the constant vigilance needed in the field in such a time of war ultimately leads to the death of Lavender, a member of his company. Shaken, Cross disavows the specter of Martha and takes up the mantle of duty with new conviction and the added weight of carrying the
The character i would like to talk about is the girl who comes in Vietnam during the war. She ( Mary Anne Bell, sweetheart of Mark Fossie ) is the main character of the chapter " Sweetheart of the Song tra Bong". Tim O'Brien by using this girl wanted to explain the atrocity of war and how it can change people. Infact he represents this by narrating the loss of innocence of the girl as the chapter goes on. She represents the opposite of the idea of the women who serves only to offer comfort to men .
She has a total uncertainty of war that is different from Fossie. Her feeling that she has nothing to lose saves further oppression back in Ohio and allows her to avoid a life that she thought was inevitable, and joins the Green Berets to break out of her gender norms. Embraced by the tongues and surrounded by other tribal symbols, Maryanne defends herself against Fossie’s horror. She make a distinction between Fossie and his fellow soldiers who are in Vietnam because they have to be and other like her have a greater respect for the land. She has grown fearless that Vietnam will consume her.
Harriet Jacobs for instance used the thought of someday freeing her children to drive her throughout the book and decide on what is best for them as a whole, maybe not immediately but eventually. She views slavery as worse than death, thus she feels disgusted that she brought her children into the world of slavery, “It seemed to me I would rather see them killed then have them given up to his power.” (Jacob’s 68) Frederick Douglass on the other spectrum of slavery was a man who had no children, and never had to suffer the physiological abuse of rape, and sexual harassment, but this did not make his slavery or his journey to freedom any easier. But it seems as though the small tastes of freedom he had experienced in Baltimore were the driving motives for Frederick Douglass. He always had a desire for more, “The fact that he gave me any part of my wages was proof, to my mind, that he believed me be entitled to the whole of them. I always felt worse for having received anything; for I feared that the giving me a few cents would ease his conscience, and make him feel himself to be a pretty honorable sort of robber” (Douglass 108) It is this ongoing understanding by both characters that they are unique and deserve much more, as in Frederick Douglass’ case these samples of freedom he was given were not taken as a sign of improvement but instead a reminder that he was a man and deserved
ABIGAIL: But what about the – JOHN: (angry) there is not going to be one, she was lying and now she is going to hang. (Long pause, calmer)
When she meets up with Adam near the beginning, you'd never even begin to predict what would happen throughout the entire book. What makes it sad though, is toward the end it seems like she can't find anyone to rely on because she's disconnected herself from her family and friends, and instead takes refuge beneath the wings of 'the monster', letting it guide her through, knowing she's strongly addicted. Ellen leaves you with the knowledge that she may never get off her addiction, and partially with the moral of the story: drugs are addictive and harmful. They can really mess you up. The book actually makes you learn a lesson, without knowing anything at all.
When Mary Anne arrives in Vietnam, she is unprepared and unwilling to take part in any of the soldiers’ activities. She wears “pink culottes” and preoccupies her time dreaming of her future in marriage with Mark Fossie, typical values of women as seen by society. However, she soon immerses herself in the war, as well as the Vietnamese culture. She grows apart from Fossie and finds herself on missions with “the Greenies” and Special Forces squads before finally disappearing with the tribes of Vietnam wearing a “necklace of human tongues”. Mary Anne exemplifies the extremities of change that faced all soldiers in their time on the battlefront, which disconnected them from their original place in