Change and Emotions in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien and “Cathedral, by Raymond Carver

In the novel The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien often brings up Jimmy cross’s love for Martha and how he struggles expressing they way feel feels about her. “Right then he thought he should’ve done something brave”(O’Brian 5) Cross felt much regret because he did not act on his feelings. He did not have the courage to express his love they way he wanted to towards Martha. Jimmy Cross, who had been in love with Martha for quite sometime even though she didn't feel the same way tried to play it off as if he had gotten over her.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a character with many layers that he never actually showed. He had emotions that he kept inside him, and he was never truly focused on the war. He rarely talked to the other soldiers about how he felt about the war. Cross was burdened with responsibility and guilt. He blamed himself for the death of his soldiers, and he blamed himself for Martha not loving him the way he loved her. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a important character that is seriously affected by the war, and has conflicted

Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” and Tess Gallagher’s “Rain Flooding your Campfire” are good examples of intertextual dialogue between two writers. These two stories show us how two writers can grow and develop short stories differently from the same experience. There are similarities between the stories, such as the use of a first person narrator, the plot, setting, and also there is an interchange between the narrator and the blind man in both stories. But within these similarities there are also differences; the narrators are two different people with two very different views on the situation, and although there is an interchange between the characters they are two different types with two different messages. Gallagher’s story is a

This statement suggests that he wants to taste her, yet they have not (or will not) kiss each other. Furthermore, this provides evidence that his insatiable love for her is a weighty test for Lt. Cross -- and this burdensome weight drives Lt. Cross to become detached from important situations. Psychologically, Martha's letters make Lt. Cross fixated on his love, which the reader supposes is unreciprocated by Martha. Clearly, Lt. Cross wants a mutually loving relationship with Martha, evidenced when the narrator states, "More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her" (434). Twice in the first two pages, Lt. Cross notes, "They were not love letters" (434). Furthermore, when Martha's salutation, ?Love, Martha,' is mentioned, Lt. Cross sadly resigns and "understood that ?Love' was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant" (435). These thoughts are not obsessive in and of themselves, but the fact that Lt. Cross mulls over these overwhelming feelings while leading a group of soldiers suggests that Martha is an inordinate weight on Lt Cross' shoulders.

O’Brien starts off the chapter by sharing the story of Lieutenant Cross and Martha. Lieutenant Cross carried the letters he received from Martha because he was in love with her. O’Brien states “they were signed Love, Martha

In the short story, Cathedral, by Raymond Carver, the author uses imagery, symbolism and narrates the story in first person point of view. The Cathedral’s main theme is being able to identify the difference between being able to look and/or see and it is portrayed through the main characters role in the story. Carver uses a unique style of writing which gives the short story a simple way for the reader to understand the story’s theme.

Lieutenant James Cross was just twenty years old when he was drafted into the Vietnam War. He had to leave behind his schoolboy crush, Martha, and all dreams of going through college. As time goes on during his war journey, he starts to realize his men he is leading, are not as important to him. O’Brien writes, “He loved Martha

It wouldn't help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer.” Then, when Cross realized that does not matter how often he thinks of his beloved Martha, his love is not reciprocated. Martha will never be interested in his love because she just considers him as a friend. Therefore, he decided to forget his unrequited love and start worrying about the war and his

"Lieutenant Cross kept to himself. He pictured Martha's smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her" (O'Brien 6).

In the story Lieutenant Cross makes both of the changes after the death of Lavender. He changes his values by acknowledging that Martha was not in love with him and now he would not be in love with her and he also burnt the pictures and letters so he was not looking at them anymore. The guilt that they all felt altered how they acted. Some of the men made jokes about tense situations that were not funny because joking made them feel better. The situation grew lighter by laughter, even though the men knew nothing was funny about their situation, and this knowledge made them feel guilty about their insensitive acts because it violated their values. The way the men dealt with their guilt was by passing the blame or trying not to think about how wrong it was, even though they knew. These kinds of strange reactions to normally tense or tragic situations are a way to ease the fear of death.

In Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator is seen to show ignorance and bias towards blindness throughout the story, however towards the end he realizes his flaws and the difference between looking and seeing. From the beginning of the story to the end you can see a change within the narrator after his encounter with the blind man. At the end of Raymond Carver’s “Cathedral” the narrator hopes to accomplish a change in his understanding of himself, and his experience with Robert flickers this change towards the end of the story.

One of his biggest fantasies about Martha was her being a virgin. In his mind, it was as if Martha belonged to him already from the way he fantasized about her. The way he fantasized about Martha can be described as “over the limit”. He often wondered who was taking pictures that Martha sent him because he could see the shadow of another person. All Lieutenant Cross wanted was to be with Martha on the shoreline of Jersey walking barefooted and caring about nothing but Martha.

Love is a powerful force, and Lieutenant Cross sometimes gets lost in his musings while thinking of Martha. O’Brien writes: “His mind wandered. He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war. On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing.” Like any sane person in his situation, Lieutenant Cross wants to escape – to anywhere else but the war. The war brings terrible experiences – fear, death, hunger, and pain beyond imagination. The only way that Lieutenant Cross can endure these things is by escaping to an imaginary life with Martha. Although to her, he is little more than a friend, to Lieutenant Cross, Martha represents innocence, perfection, and a world free from war.

"... but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing. He would feel himself rising. Sun and waves and gentle winds, all love and lightness." This quote from page 9 from the chapter The Things They Carried shows us that his mind is always distracted and on Martha, even when he is supposed to be watching over the land and fighting. He keeps his letters from her on all times, always hoping that the 'Love, Martha' she signs at the end of them means something more than it actually does, reading them so much to the point that he can remember what they say without looking at them. "First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastion College in New Jersey. In the late afternoon, after a long day's march, he would dig his foxhole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last hour of light pretending. He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire. He would sometimes taste the envelope flaps, knowing her

In the short story “Cathedral”, written by Raymond Carver, the story is told through the narrator’s eyes as the audience gains insight on his perspective of his life and, more specifically, his views on his wife and her blind friend. The narrator’s name is never mentioned throughout the story, but his personality and initial narrow-minded bias towards his wife’s friend Robert depicts his character traits. Throughout the story he does not seem to change his views, but once he experiences Robert’s point of view in his life, the narrator changes his perspective. This suggests the narrator is a dynamic character in the story due to his change after getting to know Robert.