Guaman Poma translation

Arrival of the Spanish in Tumbez (page 46)

   This story, repeated on page 375 is allegorical. The discoverers Columbus, Vasco Nunez de Balboa and Juan Diaz de Solis, explorer of the Yucatan and Brazilian coasts, are along side the explorers of Peru. Despite being mistaken by the exact dates, Guaman Poma has not mistaken the chronology of these events; finds the discovery of the New World by Columbus in the year 1493, in the Pacific by Balboa in 1512 and the River of Silver by Diaz de Solis in 1513 (p 370, 374). That is why we interpret this drawing as an allegory: All of the expectations formed a single phenomenon; the voyage of Columbus was the navigation that brought Europe to America.

The Things They Carried-Final Essay

Mary Anne Bell is an innocent and sweet girl, more commonly known as Mark Fossie's girlfriend. She is introduced in "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" and flies in from Ohio as part of Fossie's wish. Everyone loved her, Fossie, Rat and the other servicemen. Rat described her as "...a very attractive girl. Too wide in the shoulders, maybe, but she had terrific legs, a bubbly personality, a happy smile...she gave off a kind of come-get-me energy, coy and flirtatious" (95). Mary Anne had been a curious child, but as she began to experience the real-life scenario of being a soldier, she was curious about things such as the Vietnamese. Lieutenant Cross’s “fictional girlfriend” Martha, appears in a few chapters but has more of an effect on Cross during the short story “The Things They Carried”. She is his fantasy and has nothing to do with the war; in fact she makes him “leave” the war so to speak while he daydreams about her. She represents escapism. Although he resides in Vietnam, for the time being, Cross fantasizes how she can be. “Her legs, he thought, were almost certainly the legs of a virgin, dry and without hair, the left knee cocked and carrying her entire weight, which was just over one hundred pounds” (4).

In “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong”, Mary Anne is still the innocent sweet girl servicemen thought her to be. She had the same characteristics as Martha. Everyone loved her. She became comfortable being around incoming casualties and aided as they came in. This womanly presence by Mary Anne is said to be comforting to the servicemen. As the third week rolled along, Mary Anne had a change of character. She became overpowered by the nature of Vietnam; the culture, the war, the land. She is consumed by Vietnam. After Fossie “compromises” with Mary Anne, he tells the servicemen there would no longer be ambushes or late nights from her. “The next morning she was gone. The six Greenies were gone, too” (105). Mary Anne went on her own adventure exploring with the Vietnamese. Little did any of the servicemen know she wouldn’t be the innocent sweet girl any longer. “Rat listened for a time, then shook his head. ‘Man, you must be deaf. She’s already gone’ “(112). To the servicemen Mary Anne represented the ideal woman, such as Martha to Lieutenant Cross.

Both women presented in The Things They Carried were a form of distraction from the Vietnam War; Martha to Cross and Mary Anne to Fossie and the servicemen. Martha is the ultimate form of escapism for Cross. She’s the ideal person for Cross but is unaware of how the situation with her really is and how she can be different. She provided him strength all throughout the war. The contrast between Martha and Mary Anne was very much similar but diminished when Mary Anne’s lack of care and fearless behavior came into play. Fossie longed for the ‘old’ Mary Anne as she changed and began to take part in the late-night ambushes. The image of his innocent girlfriend from Ohio became abated. Mary Anne showed many of Martha’s characteristics to the men before she herself began to show those of the men. Mary Anne is the incarnation of American arrogance. She was consumed by the Vietnamese culture. The behavior of the servicemen altered much to their first impression of her as the innocent seventeen year old girl.