The THings they Carry
...yhose for a similar reason: to remind him of home and to distract him from the harsh realities of the war and they giving him a feeling and a state of mind that he is invincible because of those pantyhose. Even though she dumps Henry, the fact that Henry still thinks that she is not connected with the war and she couldn’t be involved with something this horrible. He still sees her as something pure, untouched, and chaste still gives him that feeling of invincibility, so he still wears the stockings. “No sweat. The magic doesn't go away” (118). These men think of the women because they believe their presence might save them from the horrors before them and to have something from home with them. Home is where there is peace, where you don’t have to watch for booby traps or for snipers. You are free to think about the future without a care in the world, you do not have to worry that your life could be over before the next sunset. These men do not think of these women as beings with thoughts, fears, and needs. They instead see them as things that aren’t involved in the war or their lives at this particular moment. The soldiers look at them as outsiders, like the soldiers do in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” towards the Greenies. People that come and go without a trace, stay when they want, or write when they want. They have no real responsibilities, only to that of each other. Women in the Vietnam War had numerous roles they had to fulfill both physically and mentally. For example in the story “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” the character Mary Anne is flown down by her boyfriend to Vietnam. She is dressed in “White culottes and a sexy pink sweater” (90) which are very traditional for a woman. “Right off the bat the men were attracted to her and was especially liked when she wore her cut-off blue jeans and a swimsuit top that was black” (95). In this instance she was representing a traditional feminine role in her dress and her actions. Traditionally women in the war were nurses; women worked for the Red Cross or worked in other types of medical facility, never in combat. Also you found women who were on the Clerical staff and who were Support Personnel. Only on a few occasions did you find a woman who actually fought in the war. Some roles women had were non-traditional. In the same story that was represented in the preceding paragraph Mary Anne shows some of her own non-traditional roles. “She becomes very fond of military paraphernalia and even blackens her face with charcoal and carries around an M-16” (102). Her hygiene also becomes second hand. “No cosmetics, no fingernail filling. She stopped wearing jewelry, cut her hair short and wrapped it in a green bandana” (98). For the men to see a woman showing male characteristics is absurd. Then when Mary Anne goes off with the greenies and comes back she is shunned upon by Mark Fossie. Here she is taking on masculine features and her feminine ways are forgotten and the men don’t know how to take this new information in so Mark punishes her. When Mary Anne starts staying out late with the greenies and she does not come in until the next day. Some nights the men would go out and look for her, and her boyfriend even accuses her of sleeping with other men, because of her awkward ways. To Mark, she is portraying herself as a flirtatious woman and that is something that women should do in ‘normal’ society, who else would sneak off with men during that type of circumstance, no matter what they were doing, women are supposed to scared in that situation. The men start to see how Mary Anne is changing and even begin to change their perspective...