When Mary Anne first came to Vietnam, she was a dainty and fragile 17 year old girl. She had just graduated from High School and come to join her High School “sweetheart” - Fossie. She was the classic embodiment of femininity at the time, “Mary Anne Bell was an attractive girl. Too wide in the shoulders, maybe, but she had terrific legs, a bubbly personality, a happy smile… at times she gave off a kind of come-get-me energy, coy and flirtatious (O’Brien pg 95). The longer she was there the more hardcore she became. She lost her femininity, she cut her hair, she stopped caring about hygiene, she lost her bubbly personality. She was so overwhelmed by the idea that she could be something more than just a girl. She was in a new environment where all the old social norms that she had been boxed into where now gone and nonexistent. This completely shifted her super ego's perspective of life and what she needed to do so she snapped. Instead of her ego balancing out her ID and superego she now completely gave over to her primal self. We see her beginning to admire this lifestyle once Fossie takes her around the villages and she refers to the life they are living as simple, and she can’t stop talking about how much she admires it and wants to become it. Her major shift of characterization brings importance to the fact that she is a female. It was a way for O’Brien to express the fact that everyone became an animal from this war. This mentality that took everyone over had no preference, it would envelop anyone whole who would let it. Being around such savagery and being ripped away from everything you know to be true and right can have a monumental effect on everyone. There’s a part in the section where Dobbins is interrupted while telling the story, because the way he says it doesn’t flow and some of his comments ruin the story and he responds by questioning him why the flow matters. The only important part of this story is that she became an animal, just like everyone else.
I think that this post did a really good job of analysing the psychological effects of war. You really bring in the change that these people had to go through, especially the change of societal norms. It's really interesting because seeing the change in people, even though we can't understand as we will never be in a situation like that. I also think it is important that you bring in the last line,"The only important part of this story is that she became an animal, just like everyone else." I think its a good way to end it and tie it all together.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a great job of analyzing this chapter, but you also had an interesting approach. You have an interesting idea that she 'chose' to become this primal warrior instead of her being just so emotionally unprepared that she was 'consumed' by the war that she jumped into. It totally contrasts the original interpretation I had and really opens minds. I think your idea is a completely original and adds interesting perspective.
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