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Female Characters In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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Throughout the entire two hundred thirty three page, predominately male book, The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, there are three main female characters, Martha, Mary Anne Bell, and Linda. The author, Tim O’Brien, incorporated the three main female characters into the story for specific reasons. Martha, the girl Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was in love with, portrayed how women and girls were distractions at time of war, whereas Mary Anne, Mark Fossie’s girlfriend, served the purpose of showing how war can change a person, and Linda, Tim O’Brien’s first love, represents how a war can be fought internally right at home. Martha wrote the most beautiful letters to Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. He loved her, however she was not as willing to return the …show more content…

When Mark Fossie flew her over, she got off the plane as a feminine, young girl, as said in the book, “This cute blonde --just a kid, just barely out of high school-- she shows up with a suitcase and one of those plastic cosmetic bags… she’s got on culottes. White culottes and this sexy pink sweater.” (O’Brien. 86.). She wore makeup, dressed well, and was a social butterfly. The young girl and her boyfriend were unquestionably in love and had dreams for the future. All stereotypes aside, Mary Anne was interested in Vietnam, and “At the end of the second week, when four casualties came in, Mary Anne wasn't afraid to get her hands bloody… she seemed fascinated by it. Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job, … In times of action her face took on a sudden new composure, almost serene… A different person, it seemed” (O’Brien. 93-94.) Mary Anne discovers her love for an adrenaline rush, but she does not stop there. She begins to go out on ambushes with the Greenies, and Mark Fossie could barely recognize her with her new look and necklace of human tongues. Mary Anne enjoyed her duty in Vietnam, as said, “‘Got hooked, I guess,’ … You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same. For Mary Anne Bell, it seemed, Vietnam had the effect of a powerful drug” (O’Brien. 109.). She disappeared and it was speculated that she was living

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