Describe the changes in Mary Anne Bell from the time she arrived in vietnam to be with her boyfriend until the end of the chapter.
Mary Ann Bell was able to stay at the platoon her boyfriend, Mark Fossie was based at. When she first arrived she was very lady like and proper. The soldiers saw women as someone to comfort men and make their lives easier. Then she quickly changed in Vietnam, she became almost fearless and wanted to help in the war but unlike the soldiers she embraced the vietnamese culture. She learns some vietnamese and learns to cook. Some of the soldiers were hurt and she jumped at the chance to help them. When Mary Anne disappears for the night Fossie finds her with a necklace made of tongues.
Why do you think she changed? What did the change symbolize? How long did the metamorphosis take?
Mary Anna Changed because she embraced the culture she was surrounded by. The soldiers in her boyfriend's platoon ignored the vietnamese culture, they did this so that they could be less passionate about the people and it would be easier to fight them. Her change did not take long it only took a few weeks.
Does it matter that Mary Anna is a women ? How so? What does the story tell us about
the nature of the vietnam war?
Yes it does matter that Mary Anna is a women. There were no women that served in the vietnam war so she was surrounded by men and obviously treated differently than the men. The men saw her as a caregiver more than a normal person and just wanted her to comfort them. This shows that soldiers in the vietnam war was ignorant to the culture around them.
I don't think it was only getting enthralled in the vietnamese culture, but the loss of her innocence seeing small bits of war. Once she had been involved in the war and became curious about the war she couldn't go back. After innocence is lost, it can't be regiained.
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