Theme Of Leadership In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

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

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.

It wouldn't help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer.” Then, when Cross realized that does not matter how often he thinks of his beloved Martha, his love is not reciprocated. Martha will never be interested in his love because she just considers him as a friend. Therefore, he decided to forget his unrequited love and start worrying about the war and his

In the story Lieutenant Cross makes both of the changes after the death of Lavender. He changes his values by acknowledging that Martha was not in love with him and now he would not be in love with her and he also burnt the pictures and letters so he was not looking at them anymore. The guilt that they all felt altered how they acted. Some of the men made jokes about tense situations that were not funny because joking made them feel better. The situation grew lighter by laughter, even though the men knew nothing was funny about their situation, and this knowledge made them feel guilty about their insensitive acts because it violated their values. The way the men dealt with their guilt was by passing the blame or trying not to think about how wrong it was, even though they knew. These kinds of strange reactions to normally tense or tragic situations are a way to ease the fear of death.

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.

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.

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).

He couldn't help it" (O'Brien 630). Surrounded by a world a war and violence, these daydreams are the only escape Lieutenant Cross has and he embraces them fully.

O’Brien describes within great detail all of the military and personal items that they must carry, as well as “ghosts [which are memories]…, the sky…the whole atmosphere…gravity… their own lives…soldier’s greatest fear” (O’Brien 437-443), which shows what soldiers endure and deal with mentally. However, these are carried individually by each soldier, and what is not mentioned in the text, but is hinted at by Cross being their leader, is that Lieutenant Cross carries all of those previously mentioned things for himself, but also carries all of his men’s. By being in charge of them and being responsible for their actions, he carries their lives in his hands and carries everything that relates to them, making it especially difficult to stay indifferent in situations. This allows the reader to get a better understanding at how hard it is to be a leader because of what one must carry and

pictures of her. He would read the letters at the end of a long day in a foxhole he dug. He would sometimes lick the seal of the envelope because he knew that Martha’s tongue had been there. This obsession distracts Cross from the war and from his platoon.

Lieutenant Cross is a weak leader because the average training, he had is at odds with what he encounters. The training he received was focused on marching in line, keeping guns clean, following preset maps, and on following pre-decided standard operating procedures, so instead of adapting to the environment he found himself in and considering the attitude of his men, he was too weak of a

Character growth is also essential to the story. In the beginning Cross fantasized about a girl named Martha. He fantasizes weather or not she is a virgin and subsequently, fantasizes about different ways to take her virginity. This fantasy consumes him until the day his best friend and army compatriot, Lavender, dies. Cross believes Lavenders death to be his fault and decides to put his fantasies to rest and assume, fully, a position of true leadership. This change in character is also marked by Cross’ destruction of the picture.

Within the short story, the audience learns that Jimmy Cross carries letters and pictures from his crush from back home, Martha. Multiple times within the story Jimmy Cross consults these pictures and letters to distract himself from the war providing a bit of comfort in his harsh environment. With progression through the story, readers find Jimmy Cross continuously reviewing the pictures and letters from his dear Martha, letting his mind drift off thinking about her, distracting him from his duties at hand. These distractions happen more and more often, eventually leading to the most harrowing consequence. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s divergence from his important tasks at hand, result in Ted Lavender being killed while under the supervision of Cross himself. This being the key turning point for Cross, as he starts to realize his lapse in judgment and focus, had directly cost the life of one of his soldiers. This resulting in him discovering that the pictures and letters from Martha, he was using as hope for his future back home, and comfort from the issues at hand, were the stemming source of all his problems and distractions, which ultimately cost the life of his soldier. Because of this realization, Cross burns the pictures and letters from Martha, which he was holding onto in hopes that she

Cross was overwhelmed with guilt and depression, wasn’t able to be a good soldier. At the beginning Cross was happy and towards the end of the short story his meaning of home was burnt and turned into ashes which could have never expected that something like this would ever

This is revealed most lucidly when these defenses are brought crumbling down. First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross berates himself for daydreaming about enjoying a happier, more peaceful existence with his imagined love Martha after the death of Ted Lavender. Cross burns every picture he has of Martha in order to prevent himself from daydreaming about her any more, believing that by wiping her from his mind he will be able to better protect his men. Numerous vows to follow protocol more strictly, as well as to be on constant alert against danger, are made. At first these seem like valiant efforts on the part of the lieutenant, but further consideration reveals that his efforts to become a perfect leader are in vain. No amount of care or discipline will allow him to guarantee that his men survive the war. Mistaking his sentimentality as a sign of his weakness rather than of his humanity, he tries to hide his weakness in order to become a “good” soldier: emotionless, stoic, focused, and strong. He cannot escape his humanity, however, as the images and dreams of a better life persist even without tangible reminders that such a world exists beyond the confines of Vietnam.