“At times, in fact, she seemed fascinated by it. Not the gore so much, but the adrenaline buzz that went with the job…In times of action her face took on a sudden new composure, almost serene…A different person, it seemed, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it.”
-The Things They Carried, p 93-94
Isn’t it nice to know that war traumatizes and alters women, too? This passage accurately reflects the societal views which still hindered women in the sixties and seventies. Yet it points out that war does not discriminate. It does not lessen the brutality which women experience. Nor do women respond to war differently than men do. The true difference is the expected reaction to war. Mary Anne, however, is proof that this expectation is grossly inaccurate. Women are brutalized and transformed by war in the same way as men. If countries want to protect women from the savagery of war, they should not discriminate and bar women from fighting in the front lines. They should simply cease war altogether.
Ha! I had to laugh at the first line of your analysis here.
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