Character Analysis: Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong

However, different people adapt differently to the war, while Tim reacted in much slower fashion in his adaption while keeping himself in check, the change happened much faster and much stronger to others; as a result, some went over the edge and were lost in a different way. In the story “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” we are introduced to Mary Ann, a young women that was smuggled in by her boyfriend Mark Fossie. She, much like Tim starts of a bit innocent, but unlike Tim she takes an active interest in what the soldiers are doing out of curiosity. She overtime begins learning the ins and outs of the life of a soldier and eventually begins helping out. She helps clean weapons and care for the injured while caring while becoming less like the young women she was before, signified by her change in clothing, going from a pink sweater, Culottes and soft long hair to no cosmetics, no jewelry and cutting her hair short and tying it back with a bandana. …show more content…
This change made Fossie uncomfortable as he was starting to not recognize her as the young women she was. Mary Ann much to Fossie’s concern and suspicion began to go out at night and not return for an extended period of time. When she returned it was revealed that she was out on ambush with the Green Barrettes, a group that had been in Vietnam far longer than the other soldiers and often referred to as a bit crazy. From that moment onward the change in her character started to rapidly increase. Marry Ann returned tired but happy to have been able to have been up all night on ambush; She was no longer the naïve lass that she came as, she was a soldier ready for combat. Fossie seeing the change, decided that this was too radical; so in response, he put some rules up and forced her to be a bit more like her old