So here's what I've been thinking...I'd like you to think about the writing, the figurative language, and the way the TO creates the experience of Marie Anne's transformation for us.
How does TO bring our senses into play in this piece?
Select something from the text, share it with us, and speak to the author's craft (don't focus as much on the story, but consider the writing).
You may respond to others, but you should have your own reply to the question crafted. No duplication, so the early bird gets the worm.
"Though she was young, Rat said, Mary Anne Bell was no timid child. She was curious about things. During her first days in-country she liked to roam around the compound asking questions: What exactly was a trip flare? How did a Claymore work? What was behind those scary green mountains to the west? Then she'd squint and listen carefully while somebody filled her in. She had a good quick mind. She paid attention."
ReplyDeleteFor me, this was a great foreshadowing technique that TO used. The way she inquires about everything is peculiar. She appeared to me to be like a brand new soldier out in the field for the first time. He subtly has her ask about the ominous mountains, which were a recurring object in this chapter. As soon as I saw that, I knew that something involving those gnarly mountains and Mary Anne was going to take place. I liked this description because it gave us a deeper insight into her character and personality; creating that mysterious foreshadowing that makes us pause and predict what is going to happen next.
"Thick and numbing, like an animal's den, a mix of blood and scorched hair and excrement and the sweet-sour odor of moldering flesh-the stink of the kill. But that wasn't all. On a post at the rear of the hootch was the decayed head of a large black leopard; strips of yellow-brown skin dangled from the overhead rafters. And bones. Stacks of bones-all kinds."
ReplyDeleteAs I read this, I got an awful taste in my mouth and I could visualize this as if I was there. I think TO's description of this scene was told well. I cannot say that I am glad I was taken to this place in my mind, but visually I was there and I could almost smell it.
I'm shocked to see Marie Anne transform the way that she has. In the beginning when she first arrived, I saw a little of myself and how I would probably behave if I was there. I would be extremely curious, have a thirst to know all about the land and the people, and just hanging out with the guys. She turned in a direction, I did not see coming. I am disappointed to not know what happened to her. I really want to know. Did this really happen? Was this something that was created for entertainment as a tall tale during the war? Or, did TO just want to spice this book up a bit and add a female to the story?
“What happened to her, Rat said, was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it’s never the same…Vietnam had the effect of a powerful drug: that mix of unnamed terror and unnamed pleasure that comes as the needle slips in and you know you’re risking something…after a time the wanting became needing, which turned then to craving.”
ReplyDeleteI highlighted this the first time I read through it because it weighed on me, heavily. Especially as I go back to reread, for TO paints a very raw picture of what war becomes- the type of need that a person would do anything to satisfy. One you go, you never come back, completely. TO’s choice of words creates such a strong metaphor in describing the affects of war on a person physically and mentally. It makes me question how anyone could ever come down from the affects of a “drug” like this.
Wow! Scott & Kari, these are wonderful posts. I love that you caught this as foreshadowing, Scott. And the metaphor of drug, Kari... well, I know this is something that my husband might relate to.
ReplyDelete“….He lay there with his eyes closed. The music—the noise, whatever it was—came from the hootch beyond the fence. The place was dark expect for small glowing window, which stood partly open, the panes dancing in bright reds and yellows as though the glass were on fire. The chanting seemed louder now. Fiercer, too, and higher pitched.” Pg 109
ReplyDeleteI mostly recognize personification and simile in the section of writing. He paints a great picture. Through his writing, he does a great job of not just telling you what he saw, heard, tasted, felt, but showing you instead. This section really got my heart pumping, I felt like I was looking through Fossie’s eyes as he desperately looks for Mary Anne.
"But the story did not end there. If you believed the Greenies, Rat said, Mary Anne was still somewhere out there in the dark. Odd movements, odd shapes. Late at night, when the Greenies were out on ambush, the whole rain forest seemed to stare in at them - a watched feeling - and a couple of times they almost saw her sliding through the shadows....She was ready for the kill.
ReplyDeleteTO writes this in such a way that it really gets my skin crawling. The phrases, "Odd movements, odd shapes, and a watched feeling" help the reader to feel the creepiness of the jungle at night. The reader can now relate to how the soldier's mind would start to see and hear things.
Although, I haven't experienced war, his descriptive choice of words almost makes me afraid. That watched feeling!...A very powerful phrase! I think everyone has felt it! a heightened sense of awareness, our ears and eyes strain, we try to quiet our hearts from beating and our lungs from breathing, all to make sure...no one is out there watching...
“The wilderness seemed to draw her in. A haunted look, Rat said—partly terror, partly rapture. It was as if she had come up on the edge of something, as if she were caught in that no-man’s-land between Cleveland Heights and deep jungle. Seventeen years old. Just a child, blond and innocent, but then weren’t they all?”
ReplyDeleteTO’s writing makes it hard not to almost take all of his stories literally. I even spoke with my husband after reading the passage to the possibilities, and after what he has seen in Iraq with troops; he feels that it is possible but not probable.
When I read this part, I could see the lost, lonely and haunted look of a child, looking to find their path and understand their life’s mission. As we grow, we change, not just physically but emotionally and psychologically as well. Some changes come faster than others depending on the person and the events which shape their lives. I could see the soldiers being seduced and drawn to the wilderness, where the rules were different and instinct driven; where they would find themselves. To me this passage reminds me of when you reach a new part of yourself; you are all of a sudden capable of doing something you never thought possible before. The power, the ability takes over and instinct runs its course. I also love the last line “Just a child….but then weren’t they all?” I can see the young faces ready to defend freedom and fight for their lives; it just reminds me of how powerful we are as humans to be able to turn from who we were taught to be in order to survive. His writing is crafted to paint the picture of terror, rapture and wilderness. The choice of words draws such a clear description that it is hard not to fall into the story and not find your way out.
“He couldn’t pin it down. Her body seemed foreign somehow—to stiff in places, too firm where the softness used to be. The bubbliness was gone. The nervous giggling, too…she would sometimes fall into long elastic silence, her eyes fixed on the dark, her arms folded, her foot tapping out a coded message against the floor.”
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this part, it made me think TO was describing the hardening of a soldier. It’s almost like you could see her heart turning to stone. She was “learning” and in the process it was changing her from the inside out. She was still Mary Anne on the outside, but for how much longer?
" Sometimes I just want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow this whole country-the dirt, the death-I just want to eat it and have it there inside me. Thats how I feel. It's like this appetite" ~Mary Anne.
ReplyDeleteI compared this with two things, both very different in hopes to get my thoughts through. First, the way I felt when my children were born, it was all consuming and my love and life transformation was forever altered. I was reminded every second and almost couldn't wrap my brain around it. It was deep and I knew I had not really lived at all before. Strange analogy, but I think Mary Anne's life has been so incredibly altered here too.
My second comparison to this way of feeling would be the self mutilation of "cutting". This form of people needing to rely needing to trigger a deeper feeling, or any at all. They have reached a point in their life where they need to alter how they are feeling, or trigger feelings they are not feeling. Mary Anne is young, this may be her way of making sense of her environment- embracing it and letting it feed her.
Either way, it is what we all need to do with our situations, good or bad. We find ways of processing them and owning them.
When Mary Anne first arrives to Vietnam he describes her as having a 'strawberry ice cream' reflection. He goes on to say that her and her boyfriend, Mark were childhood sweethearts and that they just knew that someday they would live in a 'gingerbread' house. This describes the typical American childhood; sweet and innocent and full of dreams.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning of the story, Mary Anne is very childlike, she sticks out her tongue when she is teased, she holds her boyfriends hand. She is naturally curious about the natives and her naivety does not allow her to register the danger.
Then things slowly start to change and her love affair with the evils of war begins as does her transformation. At first its what we would expect of a young woman in this situation; she helps out with the wounded. We see her bravery and her curiosity grow. As TO says she 'didn't back away from the ugly cases'.
Brandi mentions the paragraph when the transformation really begins 'the bubbliness was gone'. In a way, Mary Anne was being raised by Vietnam and maturing into a product of it and yes, being consumed by it. The wilderness was calling her in...
Then we see the final transformation in the tent when Mark finds her. TO describes the tent using sounds and smells, "The place seemed to echo with a deep-wilderness-sound-tribal music-bamboo flutes and drums and chimes." and he describes the smell as being a 'powerful stench...that paralyzes your lungs' "...a mix of blood and scorched hair and excrement...". Mary Anne comes through the darkness now just a shadow of who she used to be. She is still wearing the uniform of innocence, barefoot, and in her pink sweater yet the necklace of human tongues around her neck reveals what she has become.
"At first he didn't recognize her-a small, soft shadow among six other shadows. There was no sound. No real substance either. The seven silhouettes seemed to float across the surface of the earth, like spirits, vaprous and unreal...The silhouettes moved without moving...Her eyes seemed to shine in the dark-not blue, though, but a bright glowing jungle green." You ask how TO plays into our senses into this story. Well personally I think that TO gives us the excellent use of description and he compares situations to something that would be familiar to us. For instance in this passage when they are coming across the base at him-"seemed to float across the surface of the earth, like spirits..." Spirits is something that most people are familiar with-when one thinks of a ghost-you get an eary feeling and I think that is what TOs plan was. He makes it easy to imagine, even if it is far fetched. My favorite part is where he talks about Mary Anne's eyes. I read that and thought of a monster, she turned into some type of monster. It has great imagery. So I guess you could say that it has a little bit of foreshadowing because in the end of the story you could say that she is a type of monster. Then further down it says "she cradled her weapon", I thought evil. She was not becoming a very good person. It's neat that writing can give one a sense of what happened-gives you empathy for the characters-gives you entertainment.
ReplyDelete"If Rat told you, for example,that he'd slept with four girls one night, you could figure it was about a girl and a half. It wasn't a question of deceit. Just the opposite: he wanted to heat up the truth, to make it burn so hot that you would feel exactly what he felt".(pg.85)
ReplyDeleteThis is how the section on Mary Anne started out. I found it iteresting that TO would start it this way. I wonder if this was a sign within the text saying, "This is not entirely true, but an exageration so that you can feel as if you are there when the story happens". As I read the rest of this part of the story, I found myself asking questions like, "Which parts of this story could happen?" and "What could these descriptions stand for if they didn't happen?"
Putting this in as the story of Mary Anne began, was an effective way for TO to tell us not to take stories too literally.
Jennifer…very interesting post! After reading this post and reflecting our other post about the truth of the text, your selection from the text really pops out at me now. It makes me wonder how many other “clues” to the truth TO left behind. I have seen others, but they were not as subtle as this one, that you pulled out. I have finished the book and your post now makes me want to reread the entire book and underline all the statements that may or may not allude to the whole “truth” issue.
ReplyDelete"Her body seemed foreign somehow-- too stiff in places, twoo firm where the softness used to be. The bubbliness was gone." I think that war can have this effect on many people. They go there nervous but bubbly and excited. Then they see things happen to others. War isn't some far off place anymore it is reality. In this situation an innocent young girl with a future came and experienced a different life. She then felt as if all she had thought never mattered and there was way more needed from her. To me it shows me that war is tough! I may think I understand what is going on but I can't really understand it unless I experience it.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you all have been choosing such interesting pieces of the text. The foreshadowing is interesting... Brandi, I think you're right about the piece that Jennifer brings out... is it really a hint?
ReplyDeleteI took it as humor and actually very male/ macho humor - thought I know women do it too - about the size of a fish caught, for example.
Mary Ann seems to me to be the tall tale of the book, but I'm not always sure what parts are the exaggeration...
“Whenever he told the story, Rat had a tendency to stop now and then, interrupting the flow, inserting little clarifications or bits of analysis and personal opinion. It was a bad habit, Mitchell Sanders said, because all that matters is the raw material, the stuff itself, and you can’t clutter it up with your own half-baked commentary. That just breaks the spell. It destroys the magic. What you have to do, Sanders said, is trust your own story. Get the hell out of the way and let it tell itself.”
ReplyDeleteI thought this piece put not only Rat’s story about the return of the Mary Anne Bell as a silhouette, but several other stories told by these soldiers, in great perspective. When I read the soldiers’ stories of their horrific experiences during the war, I don’t know whether to believe it as TO’s exaggeration to get the point across to us as naïve, innocent, readers or if it is really what these soldiers experienced. The stories become like “magic”, a “spell”. The soldiers experiences are so life-changing and they are going through such traumatic experiences that they alter their stories to fit how they “felt” at the time. For example in Rat’s story about the unknown Mary Anne Bell, he doesn’t know what the hell he was seeing when he thought he saw the shadow, but he envisioned it as Mary Anne. This experience was so unbelievable and hard to tell to the other soldiers that he kept adding in his own excerpts. TO use of words in this piece really helped me to realize this. Sometimes I wish the soldiers would just “get the hell out of the way and let (the story) tell itself”! I have a hard time determining what is real and what is not, such as Mary Anne herself!
Part of story telling seems to be the watching the speaking. Most stories touch the emotions of the listener, this is experienced either through the emotions in the story being told, or through the emotions being physically expressed through orator. “He never smiled. Not even at the crazy stuff. There was always a dark, far-off look in his eyes, a kind of sadness, as if he were troubled by something sliding beneath the story's surface.”(pg97) There seems to be something missing in most books, the visual expression of the orators face. However, here TO allows us the opportunity of seeing the face of Rat Kiley while he is telling the story. As the reader we allowed access to determine if this is something he, himself, believes. If the story teller believes his own story then it is easier for the listener to believe his story. Similarly to the saying, the truth is in the eyes, Rat Kiley's eyes, told a truth, that something bothered him, maybe it was the gravity of the story, or empathy he felt for the Mary Ann. Either way, his “dark, far-off look” seems to portray the emotion that Rat Kiley is experiencing during is telling of the story, which causes us and the other soldiers to believe.
ReplyDeleteI found the whole story of Mary Anne and interesting turn in the story. I found myself saying that can't possibly happen, to well maybe that could happen. I think TO continued to use great language to describe the transition in Mary Anne. From extremly curious and bubbly to "she cradled her weapon..." This makes me envision a seasoned warrior ready to do battle. TO uses visual vocabulary throught the entire book and I feel that it makes the story easier to "see."
ReplyDeleteI feel Amanda makes a solid point that we really don’t know what is really going on with the stories, are they real? Half truths? Or all true? When it comes to explaining an experience such as war, I would imagine that it is something we will never be able to experience unless we are a part of that war. I think TO really gets that and wants to make sure that the read is in tune with his story to comprehend all of the traumatic and life altering experiences the soldiers had undergone.
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