The story of Curt Lemon's death meant the most to me so far. Tim O'Brien explains his death as being beautiful despite its horrific scene. During war, it becomes difficult to separate what seemed to happen with what actually happened. It almost makes war stories seem fake and disingenuous. As Tim describes it, "the pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot" (pg. 67) This story further emphasizes that a real war story is not the normal stuff, it's the crazy stuff.
The character that stood out to me was Marry Anne. It was amazing to see how quick she turned from the sweet innocent high school girl from Cleveland, into a soldier and hunter. It didn't take long for her to become intrigued with the Vietnam war. She quickly changed her demeanor and went out on long trips ambushing with the Green Berets. Marry even began to wear a necklace with human tongues strung around it. Vietnam was the turning point for Marry Anne where she discovered her true self and her purpose which was devoted to the war.
I think it could be hard to distinguish a real war story from a made up story because of the details too. Mary Anne was also a very compelling character to me as well.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I believe a lot of people found Mary Anne Bell's transformation to be very interesting. The fact that Tim O'Brien spent so much time developing her character, shows tremendous depth on her as a character. Mary Anne Bell was only the focal person of a single chapter, but we could describe everything there is to know about her as a person.
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