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Mary Anne Symbolism

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In chapter nine of Tim O 'Brien 's The Things They Carried, O’Brien tells a second-hand story of a girl, Mary Anne, who is called over to Vietnam by her boyfriend. She transitions from an effervescent, little girl into a confident, passionate-for-war woman who does things her former-self could not even fathom, like going out on ambushes and clipping arteries. Although Mary Anne only appears in one chapter, she proves to be a crucial character in the novel. She symbolizes how war changes people. Every soldier is innocent at first, then changes into someone who is unrecognizable, someone who is desensitized to bloodshed, gore, and murder. This chapter also touches on the combined themes of truth and storytelling. With the story being so

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