The Things They Carried Jimmy Cross Symbolism

Tim O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried based on some of his own experiences in the Vietnam War. The characters he created are similar to the men he knew in the war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was a character that O’Brien’s character knew very well. Lieutenant He is not focused and does not seem to know his purpose in the war or in his life. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a character that experiences overwhelming emotions but he does not show them. He seems to feel lost in the war and burdened with responsibility.

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

The horrific war of Vietnam consisted of many different people that were able to bring with them pieces and items that helped them survive throughout the battle. In the novel, The Things They Carried, by Tim O' Brien, symbolic items that were both physical and literal were carried and shown throughout the story from the characters of Jimmy Cross, Notman Baker, and Kiowa. Items specifically consisted of things like letters and photos of a woman named Martha that were given to Cross, a hatchet, and a diary which was carried by Bowker. The items that they kept close to them represented their true colors, as the book reveals to the reader how significant these objects were to these characters. Soldiers were allowed to carry such items to the battle,

One of the most overlooked aspects in the life of a soldier is the weight of the things they carry. In Tim O'Brien's story, "The Things They Carried," O'Brien details the plight of Vietnam soldiers along with how they shoulder the numerous burdens placed upon them. Literally, the heavy supplies weigh down each soldier -- but the physical load imposed on each soldier symbolizes the psychological baggage a soldier carries during war. Though O'Brien lists the things each soldier carries, the focal point centers around the leader, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and his roles in the war. Lt. Cross has multiple burdens, but his emotional baggage is

He feels that it's his fault that Lavender died; he should've have been thinking about his soldiers instead of thinking about Martha. This is very unlike the speaker in the poem, as he is glad to be carrying the heart of the one he loves. He says, "i fear no fate" and "i want no world" because he has their heart with him. Cross no longer wants to carry Martha's heart. This is why he burns her letters and the pictures he has of her; he wants to forget her so that he can become more focused on the war. This isn't possible, however, because he's already carrying her in his mind, not just physically. Where the speaker of the poem rejoices in carrying his love's heart, saying that it is "the wonder that's keeping the stars apart", Jimmy Cross isn't happy to not be able to forget Martha. He still sees her in the rain looking at him, understanding that he won't stop loving her, no matter how much he wants to. He still decides to let go everything he has of her, planning to swallow the pebble, or drop it on the trail, or use it with Lee Strunk's slingshot. He promises to himself that he will no longer be distracted, that he will be stricter and distance himself. Even if he no longer carries her physically or in his thoughts, he still carries her in his own heart. No matter how hard he might try not to, he will always carry Martha’s heart with him;

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

Author Tim O'Brien in his novel "The Things They Carried" tells short stories about the things solders of Vietnam and things they carry. The things they carry during the war are important to the novels stories to show how each character goes through war. Both symbolic or abstract and physical things have meaning to their story. Jimmy Cross carried many things both physical and abstract that define him as an average human being and as a leader.

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is a book solely about surviving war, and the stories that come along with going to a war. There are many different kinds of stories that Tim told about his experience at war. Some were sad, many were adventurous, and others made you wonder if they were even real. But with every story, there is something a certain soldier has that meant everything to them. They show a sense of comfort within every single person in this story. No matter if it is a physical object, or a spiritual value they carry with themselves at all times. They symbolize who the person is, what their life was like pre-war, and what they thrive to live for.

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.

Cross, like many that go to war, is in love with a girl named Martha from home and carries photos of her in order to make wartimes more bearable. As we follow the story, it becomes clear that the items these men carry represent who these men are, that they are still human, and the conflict that is held between love and war.

As a team leader Jimmy Cross should protect his team and perform his duties without negligence. However, as O’Brien points out, “he was just a kid at war” at twenty-two years of age. At the begging of the story he represented a weak and immature person, who obsessed with fantasies of Martha. Mentally, he was not ready to be in the war and in his mind he constantly recalled sweet moments of his previous peaceful life. Jimmy Cross, as the rest of the soldiers, carried emotional and material things to escape the thoughts of the war. The emotional thing he carried was Martha, an English major at Mount Sebastian. The material things he carried were her photos, her good-luck pebble and letters she sent him. He could not think of anything else. He did not realize the responsibilities he carried for the lives of his men. He pictured himself somewhere far from the war, “walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (O’Brien, 488). It could be explained by his young age and by lack of life experience. It seems that Martha represented the brightest memory he could recall from his earlier life. According to Smith, “Martha was a psychological escape from the war, field discipline and military duty” (Smith, 25). On the other hand, Martha belongs to the past memories which not related to the war, therefore, she never mentions the war in her

First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries with him a pebble given to him by Martha, a girl with whom he is in love and wishes to be back home with, along with letters and

The symbols in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are essential to understanding the soldiers and their lives during the Vietnam War. At the opening of the story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross would dig into his foxhole and read the letters while imagining romance with Martha; however, at the end of the story after the death of Ted Lavender, he “crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters” (402). The inner feelings of Cross would be mistakenly ignored without the help of symbols throughout his travel through Vietnam. O’Brien uses the emotional and physical weight carried by the soldiers as a representation of their personalities and how they prefer to cope with the war. The

Jimmy's transformation begins when he decides to burn the pictures and letters of his girlfriend, Martha. To be a leader in war was meaningless to Jimmy Cross compared to the love he had for Martha. Cross' subsequent burning of Martha's letters suggests that he's determined to put such romantic ideas behind him. He repeatedly convinces himself that there will be no more fantasies about Martha. The burning of Martha’s things is symbolically used by O’Brien to signify a turning point in Cross’ development. Cross realizes that Martha's feelings for him were not those of love, for she is an English major, a girl who lives in the world of words. Cross was rationalizing his un-requiting love for Martha to create a “home world” inside his mind so that he could mentally escape from the war when he needed to.

Throughout the short story, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s actions change from being a lenient officer overlooking drug usage and waste of ammunition, to an officer with high expectations and strict demands from his soldiers. This is done when he puts his attention towards a woman at home by the name of Martha. For example, Lieutenant Cross was in a dream like state, when it came to Martha and he hoped to do all these things with her. He had hoped to kiss her, caress her body, and make love to her. At that point a soldier named Ted Lavender returned from the bathroom and was shot in the head by a Vietnamese sniper killing him. Jimmy Cross blames himself for the death of