Exercise 7: Tia Lyons

     Looking back on The Things They Carried I think what I will carry with my from reading this book is how life changing and emotionally scaring being involved in a war can be. Some people can handle the stresses of war better than others and I believe that is being recognized more so these days than it was during the Vietnam war. A character that means the most to me from this novel is Mary Anne Bell. In the chapter "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" we got to witness Mary Anne transform into another person. Her story was a more dramatic way of showing how wars change people.

     The fictional character in literature that means the most to me is Billy Jo Kelby from the historical fiction novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. Billy Jo and her family of farmers live in Oklahoma and they deal with many life changing challenges including suffering through the Dust Bowl. Billy Jo endures a lot of tragedies and ends up trying to rum from them. She eventually comes to realize that suffering through the Dust Bowl with her family is where she belongs and that she can overcome anything life throws at her as long as she has the support of her family, where she belongs.