Conflicting Desires In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In “The Things They Carried”, by Tim O’Brien, There are many ideas and desires running through the head of every soldier in Vietnam. It is a challenging war to fight, and also a very hard one to come home from as it was an incredibly unpopular war. Many soldiers faced conflicting desires on the battlefield, but the most interesting example of conflicting desires was Mary Anne Bell. She was the elementary school girlfriend of the young medic Mark Fossie, who was staying at a base in the mountains of Chu Lai. Many soldiers at the base always joked about it being so safe, and with so few officials, that someone could actually fly their girlfriend in and they would both be fine. It was all fun and games untill Mark actually did it. When she arrived,

They were always kissing, so much so that it bothered the other soldiers a bit. But, she was so smart and curious about pretty much everything the soldiers did that they didn’t mind, and actually enjoyed teaching her about the various things a soldier needs to know. Soon, she began changing. She stopped wearing her girly clothes she came over with, and soon began dressing like the soldiers, started smelling like them, and soon started going on missions with them. They all liked the idea of having her around and taught her all they knew. Eventually, she came back late at night, and then, soon, not at all. Mark Fossie, and the other soldiers are one of the compelling forces. Mary Anne wanted to stay with them because she seemed to love Mark and liked learning all she could while she was there for him. They had been sweethearts since grade school and had their life entirely planned out, all the way to dying in the same walnut

She had been out on ambush, said the other soldiers. Mark waited outside the hut for hours, eventually forcing his way in and seeing her inside with a necklace of human tongues around her neck. She insists that Fossie doesn’t really understand Vietnam in his sheltered camp and that she isn’t doing anything wrong. Soon, she disappears all together and nobody ever sees her again. The second force was Vietnam itself. All of the culture, the people, and the mystery. She said that the soldiers didn’t get it, that there was so much more to Vietnam than sitting inside a compound and waiting for injured soldiers to get flown in. As she learned from the soldiers, she picked up the Vietnamese culture, something Mark completely ignored. Soon, she chose Vietnam over Mark and the other soldiers, even the greenies, and