Anecdote

In the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" which begins on page 89, O' Brien tells an anecdote. He tells the brief story of Mary Anne Bell to show the effect war can have on someone. War changes people. Even someone as young and innocent as Mary Anne Bell was able to be transformed by the war. She changed to the point where no one even recognized her - not even Mark Fossie who "had been sweethearts since grammar school" (page 94). She had become involved in the war to the point where she craved more because "she wanted to penetrate deeper into the mystery of herself" (page 114). O' Brien tells this anecdote to prove that war has varying effects on people. "What happened to her was what happened to all of them. You come over clean and you get dirty and then afterward it's never the same. A question of degree. Some make it intact, some don't make it at all" (page 114).