A war that still comes to mind and appears in people’s conversation today is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War started November 1, 1955 and ended April 1, 1975. This war involved the United States, South Korea, Australia, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Thailand. The people who didn’t experience the war might wonder what it was like, what were the soldiers duties, how did the soldiers act, or even how did the soldiers survive the war. Tim O’Brien who wrote a short story that is called “The Things They Carried”, is a story that involves soldiers who are in Vietnam. In his story he writes about a Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross and his passion about a woman named Martha and how he becomes a better lieutenant for his men during the war.
One way the reader can look at Lieutenant Cross, is a leader who gets distracted by his love for Martha. Martha is a woman who Lieutenant Cross is in love with while he is serving at war. He is a
Lieutenant Cross showed true passion for Martha while he was serving at Vietnam. He showed his passion in many different ways in the story, which made him seem obsessed with Martha. Ways that he showed his love for Martha is by day dreaming about her instead of focusing on the war, he imagines objects as her body parts and other kind of unusual ways. In the story he would day dream about a time when they went on a date to the movies and how he remembered touching her left knee (102-103). He would day dream about this specific memory because he regrets on how the date ended. The way he wanted it was “should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” meaning he wanted to do sexual things with Martha (103). Although Lieutenant Cross would day dream about his memory with Martha during the war, he also had objects from Martha that make him seem obsessed with
One of the first women introduced to the reader is Martha. Martha is Lt. Jimmy Cross's love interest, even though she has only ever considered him as a friend and nothing more. O'Brien's uses the story of him and his misguidedness to show how the soldiers were completely separated from the war. After the war is over, the soldiers returned home attempting to get back to their normal lives. But as was shown with Cross and Martha, it didn’t turn out that way. Trying to cope with all the death that he found in Vietnam, Cross does not believe that Martha isn't a virgin and believes that they still could have a life together. This was meant to be a comfort and safety mechanism when he was possibly faced with rejection and death all around him. It got to the point that it was all he thought about up to Ted lavenders death. Trying to rid himself of the guilt he “burned Martha’s letters. The he burned the two photographs… He realized it was only a gesture… you couldn’t burn away the blame” (O’Brien 23) This shows that he knew that his obsessions with Martha is what lead to the death of ted Lavender, and even when he reali...
Tim O’Brien is a very gifted author, but he is also a veteran of the Vietnam War and fought with the United States in that controversial war. Tim O’Brien was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1968. He served as an infantryman, and obtained the rank of sergeant and won a Purple Heart after being wounded by shrapnel. He was discharged from the Vietnam War in 1970. I believe that O’Brien’s own images and past experiences he encountered in the Vietnam War gave him inspiration to write the story “The Things They Carried.” O’Brien tells the story in third person narrative form about Lt. Jimmy Cross and his platoon of young American men in the Vietnam War. In “The Things They Carried” we can see differences and similarities between the characters by the things they hold close to them.
‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien provides a insider’s view of war and its distractions, both externally in dealing with combat and internally dealing with the reality of war and its effect on each solder. The story, while set in Vietnam, is as relevant today with the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Southeast Asia. With over one million soldiers having completed anywhere from one to three tours in combat in the last 10 years, the real conflict might just be inside the soldier. O’Brien reflects this in his writing technique, using a blend of fiction and autobiographical facts to present a series of short narratives about a small unit of soldiers. While a war story, it is also an unrequited love story too, opening with Jimmy Cross holding letters from a girl he hoped would fall in love with him. (O’Brien 1990).
In the two novels of recent war literature Redeployment, by Phil Klay, and The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, both call attention to the war’s destruction of its soldiers’ identities. With The Things They Carried, we are introduced to the story of a young Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is currently fighting in the Vietnam War and holds a deep crush for his college-lover Martha. Jimmy carries many letters from Martha with him throughout the war, and he envisions this romantic illusion in which “more than anything, he want[s] Martha to love him as he love[s] her” (1). However, a conflict quickly transpires between his love for Martha and his responsibilities with the war, in which he is ultimately forced to make a decision between the two.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross tried to lead his platoon the best he could. Often times Martha would be a distraction for him. In the end Cross gave up his love for Martha for the love of his men and the value of their lives. He gave up everything that kept him willing to live in order to keep the lives of those who he was in charge of.
“The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien is a brutal fiction story that tells about the treacherous adversity a group of men went through during the Vietnam War. The story talks about the brave soldiers
To begin with, both Lieutenant Cross and the boy in “Araby” showed a level of immaturity by acting the way they did towards the girls they loved. In “The Things They Carried” Cross touched Martha’s left knee while they were at a movie. He constantly thought about that moment and was completely obsessed. His obsession is evident in they story when it states “Right then, he thought, he should’ve done something brave. He should’ve carried her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that left knee all night long” (O’Brien 936). Misinterpreting such a simple gesture and turning it into a sexual fantasy shows immaturity. In “Araby” the boy also made more of a situation than it actually was in reality. When he finally talked to the girl he was obsessed with, he took the conversation the wrong way. She expressed to him that she was not able to attend the bazaar because she had to go to a retreat. He responded “If I go, I ...
Initially, Jimmy Cross started his mission with a distorted image in his head, which lead to his amazing turn around in the end. Jimmy cross had to learn the hard way, that fantasies aren’t real, they are just thoughts the mind wants to believe. He soon learned what reality was, even though it wasn’t the easiest or most of all pleasurable, way to figure out the truth. Ted Lavender’s death was a blessing in the sense that Jimmy turned his whole life around and started to focus on what support to give his men to succeed and be better survivors, than Ted Lavender was. Jimmy cared for his men towards the end, that lead him to understand what love is. “Love”, is a very powerful word, that has the power and prestige to make some people zone out of their own world and live in fantasy land, as did Jimmy. Jimmy cross carried integrity and grace in the beginning of the story, but by the end added faith and hope to his nap sack that helped him become a better person for his men.
Jimmy believes that he truly loves Martha. Although the love from Martha does not seem to be reciprocated. Jimmy says of these letters, “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping… after as day’s march he would dig his fox hole, wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with his fingers and spend the last hours of light pretending” (O’Brien 2640). The way that Jimmy pretended night after night that Martha truly loved him shows Jimmy’s innocence in the way of love. He knows logically that Martha does not really love him but the innocence inside him can not help but want her love. He also says of the letters, “ They were signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and mean what he sometimes pretended it meant” (O’Brien 2640). This is a continuation of Lieutenant Cross’s pretending. The way the Cross continually pretends that Martha loves him is a way of protecting himself from the truth, to protect his
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
In the beginning of the story jimmy cross was a dreamer and dreams about dating Martha. The author writes, "He would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" (409) telling us about the small world of dreams jimmy has made in the surroundings of war. In the nights he holds the picture of Martha and rejoice every moment he spent with her. He keeps thinking about the little things which might have improved his chances with her. This is supported in the lines "He remembered kissing her good night. Right then, he should've done something brave. He should've carried her to her up the stairs to her room and tied her to the bed and touched that knee all night long." (411), this also supports his carelessness towards his duty and risking life of others with him.
Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year
The Vietnam War was not a “pretty” war. Soldiers were forced to fight guerilla troops, were in combat during horrible weather, had to live in dangerous jungles, and, worst of all, lost sight of who they were. Many soldiers may have entered with a sense of pride, but returned home desensitized. The protagonist in Louise Erdrich’s “The Red Convertible,” is testament to this. In the story, the protagonist is a young man full of life prior to the war, and is a mere shell of his former self after the war. The protagonists in Tim O’Brien’s “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” and Irene Zabytko’s “Home Soil,” are also gravely affected by war. The three characters must undergo traumatic experiences. Only those who fought in the Vietnam War understand what these men, both fictional and in real life, were subjected to. After the war, the protagonists of these stories must learn to deal with a war that was not fought with to win, rather to ensure the United States remained politically correct in handling the conflict. This in turn caused much more anguish and turmoil for the soldiers. While these three stories may have fictionalized events, they connect with factual events, even more so with the ramifications of war, whether psychological, morally emotional, or cultural. “The Red Convertible,” and “Home Soil,” give readers a glimpse into the life of soldiers once home after the war, and how they never fully return, while “If I Die in a Combat Zone,” is a protest letter before joining the war. All three protagonists must live with the aftermath of the Vietnam War: the loss of their identity.
His love for Martha was unhealthy and almost obsessive. He still remembers clearly "touching that left knee" of Martha's. Even out in the field he still reminisces how her knee felt. During a mission to destroy some tunnels, Cross imagines the tunnel collapsing on him and Martha. He also wonders if she is still a virgin or not and wonders why her letter are signed "love". This distraction and incompetence of himself lead to the death of one of their fellow soldiers, Ted Lavender. He has been shot and killed, partly because of Cross' lack of focus on the situation. He keeps to himself as he blames the incident on only himself. Shockingly, as they were waiting for a chopper to take his body away, he digs a foxhole. While sitting in the hole, crying, he was also thinking of " Martha's smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men " at the same time. This abnormal love for Martha has defected his ability to perform his duties as a leader. Martha has possessed him so much that even "without willing it, he was thinking about Martha." This shows that he has lost control on where and when is the right time to think about things like that.
The author, Tim O'Brien, is writing about an experience of a tour in the Vietnam conflict. This short story deals with inner conflicts of some individual soldiers and how they chose to deal with the realities of the Vietnam conflict, each in their own individual way as men, as soldiers.