Addictive War

One theme that O’Brien writes about is how war can just consume man or woman. There are a couple examples of this one being in the story Spin about the guy who went AWOL and started hooking up with one of the Red Cross nurses. He has everything a guy could ask for a woman who was in love with him get him anything he needs or wants, but it is not enough for the soldier. So he hops on a bird and is with the boys in the bush. It just goes to show you how addictive war really is. He was an addict just needing to get his fix. Another example this time a woman named Mary Anne Bell in the story Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong. She was an overly exaggerated girly girl, in pink sweater and bubbly personality. But she soon transforms into the war and jungle itself. It starts off with her just being curious and helping out in the aid station getting her hands bloody. It soon escalates to wanting to get off the COP and go into the villages to see how the natives live. Then she moves on to going on patrol with the Special Forces guys and becoming a ghost among the war, the war completely takes her over. She even leaves her fiancé and denies his request for her to leave Vietnam. She becomes war wearing a tongue necklace and even goes as far as telling Mark Fossie that he did not belong there. These two stories show how some people who go to war and up needing it. They can not live a normal life without it, the constant being on guard and always having a mission to complete and the adrenaline rush of combat is addictive as any drug and O’Brien portrays it in these stories