Orapronobis Film Analysis

Jimmy is in a constant flashback to before the war. This flashback was about his friend Martha to whom he loved, and wished he could be with but Jimmy was allowing this weakness to affect his leadership and his better judgment. For instance later after the war he asked Tim O’Brien to make him seem like a great platoon leader, strong, brave, and just the all around leader, but anyone who is a great leader does not have to be painted as one or have to ask to be made to look like an upstanding officer. If Tim truly believed Jimmy was a good leader it would not have to be stated by Jimmy to get Tim to write it in the book Tim would just write it.

When he was just a sophomore in college, Cross signed up to join the Reserve Officers Training Corps. At the time he did not fully understand the effects that this decision would have on him and only registered to gain some credits. His friends signing up for the course also greatly influenced his decision to become an officer. Once on the battlefield in Vietnam however, his inexperience is obvious and Jimmy Cross second-guesses almost everything he does. In the early stages of the war, Cross is very distracted by his daydreams and fantasies about a girl back home, Martha. They were dating, and Jimmy Cross imagines talking to her and staring at her pictures more than he actually focuses on the war. His distracted nature and lack of focus leads to platoon members being killed. After the death of Ted Lavender, Jimmy Cross realizes that he has been selfish and must help his men to survive the war. He shows a lot of maturity by destroying the photos and letters that he received from Martha and also throwing the good-luck pebble she gave him away. After he does this, Jimmy Cross becomes stricter on the men, but also a better leader. His failure to protect Ted Lavender causes Jimmy Cross to feel more determined to excel as a leader and protector to his troops. In The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross represents all of

The lieutenant Jimmy Cross is in love with a girl named Martha. He keeps letters from her always hoping for love letters. Every night he reads those letters and pretends those are love letters while imagining what she does. When the group checks out a tunnel, lieutenant cross is distracted, daydreaming about Martha. Soon, one of the men gets shot and later on lieutenant Jimmy burns all of the letters and pictures of Martha blaming himself for the death of the soldier.

The thief lives morally. Jimmy Valentine was sent to jail for committing robbery, but was released early because he had friends on the outside. He then robbed some more banks and went into hiding in a small town named Elmore where he met Miss Annabel Adams and became Ralph D. Spencer. In one year Ralph had created a shoe store and gotten engaged to Miss Annabel. Jimmy was dedicated to living a moral life for the following reasons, he showed compassion, he was honest, and he was selfless.

Jimmy was the platoon leader, which meant he was responsible for his men. Often Jimmy was distracted by his fantasy love life, this resulted in sloppy behavior – they didn’t check for mines, enemy traps, etc. While Jimmy was busy thinking about his fantasies Ted went out of their “camp” to use the restroom. As he was walking back he was shot in the back of the head causing an instant death. Although this was not directly Jimmy’s fault, he blames himself for it and will forever carry an emotional burden.

Jimmy Cross’ recurring thoughts about Ted Lavender throughout the story, created a picture of death and how that mentally effected Jimmy to support the idea of how emotional burdens far outweigh the physical ones. In the story, “the Things They Carried” it list many things that soldiers had to bare in war, a lot of what they had to bare was physical, but more importantly they carried emotions like terror, longing, and guilt. These intangible things made there journey much more difficult then you would ever imagine.

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

Although there are many things that are unknown about Lieutenant Jimmy cross. Readers do know that Lieutenant cross is a complexed man with complicated feeling about love and war. For an example, Lieutenant Jimmy cross uses the love that he has for Martha as an escape from the war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross sacrifices Lavender's life due to the fact that he was madly in love with Martha and was blinded. Lieutenant Jimmy cross came to reality about his actions after he lost his friend during the war because of his negligence. The actions of Lieutenant Jimmy cross show that he has lost reality because of love and war these became the burdens that he carried.

Jimmy Cross was trying to become romantically involved with a college girl, Martha, that he loved so well. Unfortunately, she gave no indication of the same feelings towards him. His experiences at war were affected by this distraction. The primary items that Jimmy carried, in addition to letters from Martha, were objects that a platoon leader would need such as: maps, compass, and binoculars (Clugston, 2014, Ch. 5 p. 15). However, he valued a pebble that Martha had given him much more. He even blamed the death of Ted Lavender on himself as he should have been more focused on doing his job. The setting and point of view contributed to understanding Jimmy’s situation as he had ample amount of time to reflect while resting from the battles of war, and even indicating what his mind focused on while on the battlefield. Although this short story was not presented in the first person of Jimmy, the writer offered his thought process

Original he was in love with this woman, Martha the virgin, and spend most if not all his time thinking about her. He would fantasize about being with her in body and soul. During each of his mission, he would have a keepsake of her: the pebble, her photo, and/or her letters. As his mind fantasies about her, he would question and burden himself with the worry of if it was unrequired love. Jimmy would stir is jealous about a phantom lover she held and treasure more than he. During one of his daydream, while he escapes from the physical weight he carried and the psychological weight of the lives entrusted to him. Jimmy lost focus and lost one of his attendant under him. Adding the weight of dead, bore too much and he had to make a choose: his love or his life. With new conviction and resolve he planted himself in the present and cast aside his past love,

Because he so desperately wanted something to hold onto from his life in the past, he allowed it to take over his life in the present. His addiction to Martha controlled him so thoroughly that he consistently detached himself from the circumstances that laid in front of him. “Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey shore.” (pg 11). This detachment existed not without consequences. A man lost his life due to Jimmy Cross’ failure to overcome his delusion of mutual love. “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.” (pg.

Tim O'Brien is notorious for responding to questions about his novel, "The Things They Carried", with very vague statements. After reading the end where Tim admits that most of this story is- in fact- fiction, an intrigued reader is dying to figure out whether or not any part of the book is true. Personally, I believe that the emotional torture Jimmy Cross goes through that stems from Martha, his love from home, is a story that can not be imagined- this just has to be true.

His mother and his relationship was complicated, His mother Sharon was emotionally detached. Jimmy tried to please her but nothing seemed to work, He wanted “more than anything ..to make her laugh -to make her happy.” Jimmy did not like seeing his mother like that, he didn't like to see her with no reactions, and no emotions. It pained him to see her act the way she did. She rarely ever showed him love, sometimes when she did “she was like a real mother”

After receiving the news about the murder, Jimmy explodes with emotions. “I remember, I was more afraid of my little daughter than I ever was of being in prison” (Dennis 34). This quote shows the fatherly love Jimmy had for Katie. It compared the strength Jimmy had through the rough times in jail and how afraid he was of losing Katie. Ultimately, Jimmy follows the wrong path. Jimmy not only fails to find his daughter’s murderer, but he also kills Dave along too. By looking though a psychoanalytic lens, one can interpret Jimmy’s fatherly instincts which are to try to unearth his daughter’s murderer no matter the cost.

Jimmy Valentine was trying to live a moral life because he showed honesty. On page 5, paragraph 14 it says, “Get away from the door… He set his suitcase on the table.” This shows that Jimmy was just trying to help Agatha get out of the safe and he wasn’t trying to steal any money like he used to do. Secondly, when Jimmy was writing a letter to his friend, he mentioned that Annabel, his fiance, believed in him. This shows that Jimmy was honest about wanting to marry Annabel because he truly loved her, not just because her father owned the local bank. Lastly, after Jimmy moved, he promised to himself that he’d give away his tools to a friend, showing that he no longer wanted to be