Anna Nichols The Things They Carried The men carried letters from Martha, P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C rations, canteens of water, canned peaches, pound cake, toothbrush, dental floss, hotel sized bars of soap, tranquilizers, steel helmets, few carried underwear, standard fatigue jackets and trousers, jungle boots, socks, Dr. Scholl’s foot powder, premium dope, condoms, a diary, comic books, an illustrated New Testament, distrust of the white man, a hunting hatchet, a steel-centered, nylon-covered flak jacket, a large compress bandage, a green plastic poncho, …show more content…
After witnessing so much violence and suffering as a medic and soldier, he has become indifferent to violence. When he repeatedly shoots an innocent animal it provides emotional relief for him after he has just watched his friend die in front of him. Page 120-121 “...the young man would not have wanted to be a soldier...try not to grow up too fast.” In this passage O’brien demonstrates his own character traits. As a writer, he has a strong ability to understand what others are feeling and sympathize. When he kills the young soldier, he creates a story around him, imaging the soldier as having similar struggles to his own. He deeply regrets the soldier's death because he feels that neither of them really wanted to be fighting in this war and relates his own life story to the fictional one he creates for the soldier. Page 160 “Jimmy Cross did not want the responsibility… to keep his men out of a shit field.” This passage shows that Jimmy is not a leader. He is very passive toward his men. He says he want to keep them safe but he does not really do anything to stop them from getting killed. He feels guilty when one of his men dies and wishes he was not in charge so he would not be responsible for their safety. This shows that he is a good person but is not willing to take
In Tim O'brien's, The Things They Carried, it describes the violent and emotional journey a group of men had to endure as they were trying to survive the Vietnam War. This was no easy task as war has some very rough conditions for people to live with. The group of men, led by First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, face some challenging situations but in every situation Lieutenant Cross finds himself involved in some way. The things Lieutenant Cross endured would have been hard for any man.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross kept close to him several letters and photos that were given to him by another character outside of the war named Martha. Though his love and unconditional affection that he had for her was significant for him to survive the war, his belongings were the same reasons why he began to ignore the responsibilities that he had toward his soldiers. It completely blinded him from what was actually happening right in front of him which was why he neglected his task and team that he needed to take care of during the time. Although he did carry items that were related to the character Martha, he also brought along with him things that were necessary for him and his soldiers to survive the war. Things included compasses, code books, and maps, etc. "He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men" (O' Brien 5). This quote is significant in showing
Jimmy cross physically carried the basic needs of survival, like his compass, maps, gun, and extra ammo. He also carried personal and emotionally items such as his unrequited love, Martha, pictures and her letters; emotionally he carried the responsibility for the lives of his men. This shows how jimmy cared about his love and the weight he has to carry for his men. This also shows us his personal life and feelings, Martha’s innocent letter and pictures gave Jimmy a sense of fantasy in his all too real reality.
O’Brien’s tale harps upon the physical weight of the items the soldiers carry. The gear required to protect the soldiers from basic physical harm weighed nearly ten pounds. Rations, water, and survival tools were carried in a twenty-pound pack, strapped to their backs to be carried during every march (O’Brien 1). Soldiers carried objects because of rank
The first layer was the necessities, such as food, lighters, canteens full of water, and clean clothes. Necessities are very important when thinking about how the soldiers kept up with their physiological needs. The next layer of the types of objects they carried, would be their weapons and safety equipment. These are significant because it not only kept them safe but, helped them feel safety and security emotionally. The next layer consists of objects that are best described as personal. These items are, but not limited to photos, good luck charms, and other items that have an emotional toll on the person who the item belongs to. These items are significant because it shows their humanity toward others and to themselves. The last layer and by far the heaviest burden the men carried, were their emotional baggage. “They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror,love, longing –these were intangibles”.(O’brien,pg.9) Jimmy Cross, held and his men carried the doubts, fear, and cowardice of their combat unit. Crosses men were doing there jobs for pride, and dignity, and because they were too afraid not to. To die of cowardice, would be unheroic and their deaths would be in
Jimmy Cross was not one that wanted to go to war, he actually believed that war was for the people who supported the war and that you should be sent with your family instead of sending others off to die. Through description, O’Brien shows the insight of the war and what it truly does to a person. O’Brien also provides description to show how the war can change a person in many different ways, emotionally and physically. An example from the novel on how O’Brien uses description is, The soldiers “carried the land itself-Vietnam, the place, the soil-a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They carried the sky.
Each soldier carried with them items, some tangible others intangible, which helped them to adapt their minds and escape from the setting so that they could survive the traumatic events taking place. “Ted Lavender carried six or seven ounces of premium dope.” “Rat Kiley carried comic books.” The soldiers in the story do not only have a physical battle to deal with but also a mental one. Most of these items were a necessity in order to bear the war. However, there were a few items that the soldiers carried not because they had to or because they needed it to survive physically but because they needed it in order to survive emotionally. One soldier carried his wife’s pantyhose; another carried a new testament. One soldier permitted his items to take control of him and become an obsession, a trauma that took his focus away from his priorities, the war, and his men.
Ted Lavender, which was one of the men in Jimmy’s platoon was shot in the head on his way back from using the restroom. This incident leads jimmy to have numerous feelings of regret and remorse. He thought about what happened time and time again, thinking about what he could’ve done that day Ted Lavender was killed. His mind wandered (O’Brein, “Carried” 275). Jimmy often had trouble keeping his attention on the war (O’Brein, “Carried” 275). Martha, was on his mind constantly day in a day out. He sometimes thought of 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, “Carried” 274). Shame is what Jimmy had started to take upon himself. Loving Martha more than his men was the main reason his acceptance of the blame because he believed it was initially his own mistake. Consequently, when a man dies there is usually blame on some part whether it be nature or some other factor in life. Jimmy cross understood this notion. He could blame the war. He could blame Kiowa for going to it. He could blame the enemy. He could blame god. He could blame an old women in Omaha who forgot to vote. Jimmy Cross could’ve put the blame on any one of those factors; instead he put the blame on himself because he began to realize he needed to go forward in life, and change how he lead his
The passage from the story of The Lives Of The Dead, gives O'Brien's views on storytelling and how he pushes fiction within his short novel. Furthermore, this passage starting from the bottom of page 230 going to 231, allows the reader to not only get a general feel as to what O’Brien means when he refers to storytelling, but also how he feels when he recalls his memories and how he writes them on paper. To start off, the passage begins with O’Brien’s views on storytelling stating that “you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you” (O’Brien pg 230). This statement very much shows how O’Brien pushes fiction, even though he does not formally state it. He mentions dreaming and how your story is based on your
In the list of all the things the soldiers carried, what item was most surprising? Which item did you find most evocative of the war? Foot powder was most surprising to me. This also shows us how much these soldiers had to travel in the war.
He wanted someone to blame for his hardships and the easiest target was the medic that was too nervous to properly treat him when he was shot. In his need for revenge, the reader can see that O’Brien has become taken his skill of storytelling to bring bring people back from the dead has gone from being good to immoral as he reanimates these soldiers to frighten someone else for a prank rather than in respect. This passage implies to the reader that the protagonist of this story can morph into the role of the antagonist when his main desire is revenge. Comparing O’Brien’s character at this point in the novel to the earlier stories one can realize that he went from believe he was too good for war to becoming a person that emcompasses all aspects of the
The specific quote that I analyzed was "slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Mark that was a virgin" because not only is that such a minute factor in who a person is, but also because he was completely distracted from his job which in that moment was checking on everyone's safety. The realness of how dangerous being distracted is in this type of situation is applicable to many scenarios which is why I am lead to believe that this is real. Although some may not believe that Jimmy held so tightly onto his dreams of Martha that he failed at keeping Ted Lavender safe, almost everyone can imagine an instance when distraction can kill. On an interview Tim O'Brien did with bigthink.com, he is referring to little Timmy as a character but accidentally says "hard moral choices that had never occurred to me I'd face in my life". This supports my belief in Jimmy's horrendous Martha addiction because it shows that some of his stories aren't stories,
How maybe he was a scholar and maybe his parents were farmers. Then O'Brien goes on to talk of maybe why this young man was in the army, and maybe why he was fighting; these are something’s that are taught in the schools. O'Brien states that the man may have joined because he was struggling for independence, juts like all the people that were fighting with him. Maybe this man had been taught from the beginning that to defend the land was a mans highest duty and privilege. Then on the other hand maybe he was not a good fighter, and maybe in poor health but had been told to fight and could not ask any questions. These reasons are all reasons that are taught in textbooks; they go along with the idea of the draft. Some people go fight because they want to and others go because they are told they have to. How do you tell these people apart in the heat of battle or when they are dead? The way that O'Brien starts to describe the young man as someone who was small and frail, and maybe had plans for a bright future puts sorrow in the readers heart, in that all his plans can not happen for him or maybe the family that is longing for his return. It also shows the regret that maybe going on in the killers’ mind. For O'Brien to be writing on how this young mans life has come to a sudden end and his plans for the future is over is intriguing. Then to add to that he had the story written through the eyes of the soldier that ended this young mans life. The
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
Jimmy Cross is the First Lieutenant who carries “the responsibility for the lives of his men” (O’Brien 429). Cross let his imagined love get in the way of his responsibilities and one of his men was killed. Cross carries the weight of Lavender’s death and adds that to the weight of his renewed responsibility to his men (427-437).