Lt. Cross In The Things They Carried

He had touched these items day by day, wondering who had been beside her while she had retrieved the pebble from the beach, or who placed the shadow in the photo of her. His mind would race day and night, making it difficult for him to provide adequate attention on the war. Cross “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” (396). Cross would hope for nothing more than to be carrying nothing. These physical objects weighed him down terribly after the death of Ted Lavender. He had loved Martha much more than his men, and due to his overpowering love he had lost one of them. The pebble was not only a symbol of importance to Cross as he dealt with the trauma of war, but as the physical weight he carried due to the death of his man. These physical symbols helped to identify a shift in the story when Cross decides to open up and make a change to the way he is coping with the war after Lavender’s death. This “wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer” (403).

Jimmy Cross being the immature lieutenant is affected being responsible of his men, and carries much of the war’s burden. Every time one of Cross’s men dies, he experiences deep regrettable feelings that he should have been a better

Lieutenant Cross was in love with a girl back home named Martha. He carried around letters that she wrote to him and pictures that she gave him. His obsession of Martha took his focus away from the war. “He had loved Martha more than his

In Tim O’Brien’s story called “The Things They Carried” he writes about how a group of soldiers, who are in Vietnamese, are caring items that are important to them. Lieutenant Cross carries letters from Martha because he loves her. While he is day dreaming of Martha instead of watching out for his team, Lavender gets shots and dies. Cross feels guilty about Lavenders death because he was thinking about Martha; so he burns everything she gave him and he keeps himself and the rest of the soldiers on point.

When the author is talking about “Lavender”, he is referring to a soldier that had passed away in battle with Lt. Cross. As the writer is stating that Cross cares more about Martha, he is showing how Cross let his thoughts get in his way of protecting his men. Cross will have to live with the account of Lavender dying, but soon will have to move on. As the war goes on, the true meaning of war has no moral, so they are concluding that they are fighting for no reason. The author writes, “A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, not suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done” (O’Brien 65). During the war, men are forced to shoot enemies, but some are not ready for that emotionally. Cross is faced with killing an enemy each day due to his position. This is an adversity because he is killing someone and removing them from the earth and also committing a crime, but for one’s country. Bravery plays a role when it comes to fighting and having to risk your life in certain conditions. O’Brien writes, “He wished he could have explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought

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.

In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien there is a tragic event that leads a character looking for change that can bring them a greater good from the situation. The protagonist Lt. Cross is in the Vietnam War and right before one of his men Ted Lavender is killed, Cross allows himself to be distracted by the thoughts of his love Martha, who sends him photographs and writes letters that never mention the war. The tragic death of Ted Lavender brings Cross to realize Martha is not the priority, his men are. He knows he has to forget about Martha and so he does this by, “Burning Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs.” (O’Brien 349). By burning the letters and the two photographs, he is breaking the emotional attachment and cycle to Martha so that he can better himself and his men. Lt. Cross has been experiencing the pain internally and now taking responsibility for the death of one of his men he has finally realizing what he is doing and uses this pain to grow.

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.

Through the exchange of letters between Lt. Jimmy Cross and the center of his infatuation Martha in “The Things They Carried”, he allowed himself to become more obsessed with the thought of her. The letters simply state the events Martha encounter in her daily life, lines

One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way

Tim O'Brien's “The Things They carried” is a story which is about the physical and emotional weight that a soldier carries during a war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the main character of the story who is a weak soldier who does not want to be in the war, however, he could not withdraw because soldiers were needed to fight the war. Throughout the whole story, Jimmy remembered a girl named Martha, whom he desired to be his girlfriend. In the other hand, because of the remembering Martha, some good and many bad things happened during the war. While Jimmy Cross's love for Martha brought his respite for the war and ultimately proved to be harmful to him, his men and his ability to be an effective leader.

Lieutenant Cross has numerous weights, however his psychological weight is the most squeezing. Of the considerable number of weights troubled upon Lieutenant Cross, the heaviest things is situated in his own brain. In particular, the heaviest things Lieutenant Cross conveys are an enthusiastic fixation on Martha's adoration, the physical results brought on by his wandering off in fantasy land of Martha, and an unwavering blame about Ted Lavender's passing. Lieutenant Cross is engrossed by contemplations of Martha, a young lady whom he was enamored with. While he was wandering off in fantasy land about Martha, Ted Lavender was shot and slaughtered. Cross censured himself in light of the fact that he was so wrapped up in the contemplations of Martha, and might not have taken the best possible safeguards to forestall losing one of his men. The following morning, he smoldered the letters and pictures he got from Martha. Despite everything he felt regretful. He attempted to persuade himself that he no more adored

Tim O’Brien begins the book with a short story called “The Things They Carried.” This story contains the details of what the soldiers carried for a multitude of reasons but mainly to demonstrate that everyone that goes to war has a specific role and certain duties that they have to fill, to show that each person has a background story as to why they have what they do and what they do what they do, and to show the physical and mental strength of each individual soldier. O’Brien begins the story with details of what Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried that was related to Martha. “...Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha... They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping…” (O’Brien 1). He was madly in love with this girl and the

“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 couldn’t stop thinking about her”(6-7). Cross then starts to blame himself for the death that has occurred. Joanna McCarthy says “He suffers with guilt because he was thinking of Martha at the moment that Lavender was killed—he has loved her more than his men”. If he had been focused on what he was in Vietnam for, and not daydreaming about spending time with Martha, he could have been a better lookout and noticed that Lavender had left from their

During the war, women are used to reflect society’s abandonment of the soldiers through their insensitivity that ultimately leaves the soldiers to fight alone. For Lieutenant Cross, Martha writes long letters back and forth with him, but rarely do they ever speak of Cross’s life in battle. Merely, the only time war is mentioned is to say, “Jimmy, take care of yourself” (2). Considering the pages and pages of writing that Martha writes regarding her life, she does not put in the effort to ask about Cross, who risks his life every day. Simply, she tells Cross to