Explain how Mary Anne Bell is the symbolic figure of America in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.”

In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” Tim O’Brien shows us how seventeen-year-old Mary Anne Bell from Cleveland arrives in Vietnam as a curious teenager, then transforms into a cold-blooded Green Beret who disappears into the Vietnamese jungle “ready for the kill.”

Explain how Mary Anne Bell is the symbolic figure of America in “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.” How is her bizarre transformation symbolic to America’s own transformation from the beginning of the war to the end. List and explain (3) examples from the text as part of your explanation.

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