Comparison of the Vietnam War and in The Things They Carried Essay

For example, Jimmy Cross utilizes Martha as a distraction to escape his responsibilities of leading the troop through the war. “And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (11). By slipping into frequent daydreams, readers realize how his desire for Martha prevents him from acting like a true war sergeant. For instance, when given orders to destroy the tunnels in Than Khe, Cross was thinking about Martha’s virginity. Furthermore it is implied, that Jimmy Cross feelings for Martha is unrequited love. As a result, he fantasizes of there being a relationship more than one-sided love. “...a poet and a virgin and uninvolved, and because she did not love him and never would” (16). His fantasies about her not only served as a diversion from the war, but it also prevented him from developing his leadership skills. While Martha’s primary role in Cross’s mind was to act as a diversion from the traumatic experiences of war, she is also characterized as a type of emotional baggage that caused the death of others. “ He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (16) The thoughts of Martha, was specifical the metaphysical item Cross carried heavily to war to serve as a diversion; however her role hindered him with his duties as a Lieutenant to keep his troop safe and

He has so much responsibility that he blames himself for the death of two of his soldiers: Ted Lavender and Kiowa. There are two deaths that Cross blames himself for: Ted Lavender and Kiowa. He feels guilty because he thinks that if he had been watching his soldiers carefully than it would not have happened. “When a man died, there had to be blame. Jimmy Cross understood this. You could blame the war… A moment of carelessness or bad judgment or plain stupidity carried consequences that lasted forever.” (O’Brien 169) Someone or something must be blamed when a man died. Jimmy Cross always blamed himself because he was the leader. He carried a lot of guilt throughout the war. He blames himself for thinking of Martha instead of focusing on the war.

The Narrator then goes back to listing more light hearted things, as if the narrator regrets even mentioning Lavender in the story. The reader is then re-introduced to Lt. Cross’s obsession with Martha. Lt. Cross has a few fantasies about his and Martha’s life together or what could have been.

In the first chapter in the book, titled The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is one of the many examples throughout the novel in where a soldier has a way to escape from the realities of war. Cross, who is a lieutenant in his company, carries two photographs of a girl named Martha whom he truly loves and wishes nothing else but to be with her in the end. Along with the photographs, he carries letters from Martha herself as well as her good-luck pebble in his mouth. Martha’s letters has a huge impact on Cross’s escape on reality because those letters do not mention war at all but for him to stay safe. All of these items comforts Cross and eventually reminisce about the times when he was back home with Martha away from any war. He relives a moment when he was with Martha at the movies, and then remembers that he touched her knee but Martha did not approve and pushed his hands away. Now while he’s in Vietnam, he does nothing but fantasizes taking her to her bed, tying her up, and touching that one knee knee all night long.

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.

Though Cross dwells in idealism and hope for a time, Cross transitions into a realistic mindset after the shocking death of Ted Lavender. O’Brien illustrates the cruel reality of life and its fragility, ending quickly like “boom-down.” With the Lavender’s death, Cross realizes that his responsibilities as a soldier, a leader, and a man are far more important than his futile grasps on romanticism. He recognizes the need for “a new hardness in his stomach” and decides to be “realistic.” He burns Martha’s photographs and, in effect, his hope, feelings of love and emotion, and his childhood. O’Brien reveals Cross’s despondent thoughts about the things men “felt they had to do,” but also his acceptance of society’s expectations. Cross’s resolve to “distance himself” shows his

Jimmy Cross knows Martha does not love him that not a bomb cell of his life. However he still clinging, and hoping and fantasizing on the idea of Martha is in love him. Martha is connected to life back home that is wonderful and beautiful. O’Brien writes “He would image romantic camping trips into the mountains in New Hampshire.” (O’Brien). She represents everything soft, tender like poetry. “About her respect for Chaucer and her great affection for Virginia Woolf. She often quoted lines of poetry,” (O’Brien’s). That is, unlike than the super masculine world of war that he is facing now. He is now living hard, harsh and difficult world of war all the time. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross needs obsession with Martha because that is his brain’s survival mechanism. Martha writes Jimmy Cross about the world she belongs at, gives him fantasies of the world back home to help him survive The Vietnam

"... 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

These two characters share many similarities throughout the short stories. They both go through an event that makes them see things differently. Lieutenant Cross is in love with Martha even though he knows that she is probably not in love with him. He gets too distracted with Martha and does not really focus at his job as a lieutenant. One event that changed him was when Ted Lavender, one of his men, died. This made him realize that he was too distracted by Martha and did not cared enough for his men. He felt guilty and had to change his attitude towards his job. O’Brien states: “He would accept the blame for what had happened to Ted Lavender. He would be a man about it. He would look them

It was something that symbolized hope for Jimmy during war. Even though going through the reality of war, he chose to keep the love for Martha to most likely get his mind off the terror. Other things he carried were grief and terror of the men who died and might die. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is responsible for him men, probably making him the most effected when something happens to his soldiers. The reality of war is that people die, people are scarred with the experience, and people just give up. Jimmy Cross carries the emotional baggage of grief when his men start to die. He also carries the terror of being there because he is also a soldier in war, fighting and trying to stay alive while trying to keep his men alive as well. These are the intangible things Cross carries but it has tangible weight, effecting

This is the crucial turning point for Lt. Cross. He reaches the crossroad where he must choose between his men or continue the drug us of Martha and be transported to fantasy land. “But didn’t” (358) tells us exactly which path he chose. He burns the letters and photos of Martha, symbolizing his desire to forget about that life, and moves forward with contemplating how to dispose of the pebble. “Everything seemed part of everything else, the fog and Martha” (357) comparing Martha to the fog. Fog is gray, dense and prevents one to see clearly, and that was Martha. When he was high on Martha, he couldn’t see clearly and he couldn’t think clearly. “…deepening rain. It was a war, after all… Lt. Jimmy Cross took out his maps… shook his head hard, as if to clear it…” (357), it is the symbolism of the rain that clears out his thinking, and washing away the distraction. This is the first time we see the leader in Lt. Cross emerge. He takes out his “map to plan the day’s march… and they would head west… country green and inviting” (358). This passage allows us to get a glimpse of the new Lt. Cross who is putting his men first, planning out the day’s travel, with plans to leave the darkness behind and head towards life and

Jimmy Cross was ashamed of himself for thinking about a girl that did not love him over thinking of his brothers that he was fighting with. He felt so much shame that he ended up burning the pictures and letters that Martha had sent him. The difference with Cross is that he got over it. In the book it says, “It wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comfort himself as an officer. He would dispose of his good-luck pebble. Swallow it, maybe, or use Lee Strunk’s slingshot, or just drop it along the trail. On the march he would impose strict field discipline” (24). This is the only case that someone gets over how they are feeling; he uses it to better himself.

He is so convinced that performing his duties is the only way to make reparations for the death of Lavender that he denies himself one of the basic human emotions, love. He vows to forget about Martha, clean up his brigade, confiscate Lavender's dope, enforce better security measures, and keep the soldiers focused on the war. Cross pulls a 360 from the beginning of the story, and it is certainly not normal. The overcompensation from lax to strict is a warped idea Cross believes will prevent future deaths from occurring. He has convinced himself that love and duty cannot coexist in

Cross loved Martha more than his men, and had to face the infuriating memory of Lavender’s death being on his hands. He would now carry this memory of Lavender’s death like a knife piercing in his heart for the rest of the war. This incident became an eye-opener to Cross. Cross realized during the war he did not love his soldiers, but he realized Martha did not love him the way he loved her and she never would. Cross wanted no more fantasy love, he wanted reality love; it was now time for real love. Cross meant it was time to carry his soldiers into war wholeheartedly and distraction free. It was now his time to be a true lieutenant

But the moment she escapes and is driving across the arroyo, she knows her life will be better remaining loyal to her children. On the other hand, Jimmy Cross wasn’t indecisive about letting Martha go. The moment Ted Lavender was killed, he knew he had to do something about it. Jimmy burned the letters he admired so much, and turned to despise Martha, "He hated her. Yes, he did.