Here, Lt. Cross has burned the letters and photographs of Martha. This quote reveals much about not only Jimmy Cross, but also the other soldiers. Jimmy had been using the fantasy of Martha as an escape from the harsh realities of war. However, he became so engrossed with the fantasy of Martha that he started to neglect his duties as a leader. As a result of Jimmy’s negligence, Ted Lavender dies. Jimmy feels guilty, and decides to burn all the things related to Martha. However, Cross realizes he cannot make the guilt disappear by burning it. Even though the burning was just a gesture, it shows that Cross is ready to take responsibility of his soldiers and be a better leader. The quote is important because it conveys the adversity soldiers face when trying to deal with the realities of the war and the fantasies of comfort after the war soldiers dream of. O’Brien is trying to tell the readers that soldiers find the actuality of war quite obfuscated. The pictures and letters that Cross burns are symbolic of his love for Martha and, especially, the comfort of home. The pictures and letters symbolize not just the comfort Cross’ derives from …show more content…
The theme that war twists morality is portrayed here. Tim felt going to war was a better option than facing the humiliation that would have come if he fled the country to avoid the draft. Society’s perception of morality has shifted due to the war, as society urges men to kill others by reprimanding those that refuse to fight. What makes this lack of morality worse is that society was urging these young men to fight for reasons almost no one understood. Furthermore, this quote exemplifies, in two ways, how most soldiers felt at this time. First, Tim decided not to flee to avoid humiliation. Likewise, soldiers within this novel are willing to do questionable things just to spare themselves of
In the book, “The Way to Rainy Mountain” by N. Scott Momaday, there is 24 chapters in which consist of three voices, myth, historical, and personal. All of these parts of each chapter come together to make an overall meaning. In chapter 10, Tai-me is described both as a person and as a figure and describes the importance of Tai-me. The myth explains how Tai-me became a part of the Kiowas. The Kiowas were hungry and one of the men went out on a search of food. While searching the man stumbled upon Tai-me and the man told Tai-me his problem. Tai-me told the man, “ Take me with you and I will give you whatever you want”. The historical part explains that the Kiowas were extraordinary grateful for Tai-me that Tai-me became the symbol of their worship and was the central figure of their Kudo ceremonies. The personal part of the story, is the narrator reflecting upon the time he visited the Tai-me bundle and left an offering as thanks. In all the chapter shows the great importance of Tai-me to the Kiowas.
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...
Life can bring unexpected events that individuals might not be prepared to confront. This was the case of O’Brien in the story, “On the Rainy River” from the book The Things They Carried. As an author and character O’Brien describes his experiences about the Vietnam War. In the story, he faces the conflict of whether he should or should not go to war after being drafted. He could not imagine how tough fighting must be, without knowing how to fight, and the reason for such a war. In addition, O’Brien is terrified of the idea of leaving his family, friends and everything he loves behind. He decides to run away from his responsibility with the society. However, a feeling of shame and embarrassment makes him go to war. O’Brien considers himself a coward for doing something he does not agree with; on the other hand, thinking about the outcome of his decision makes him a brave man. Therefore, an individual that considers the consequences of his acts is nobler than a war hero.
This autobiography written by Tim O’Brien tells us about his journey as a solider in Vietnam war. It tells all his struggles during the training camp and his time in the Vietnam. This book clearly provides an inner view of Tim’s thinking before going to Vietnam and during the war. It explains the situation the US army during the Vietnam war. Throughout this whole book Tim keeps pushing his idea about how war is wrong. From the beginning of the book he made it clear that war in not good. He kept mentioning that the war was wrong. ‘I was persuaded then, I remain persuaded now, the war was wrong. And since it was wrong …( O'Brien . p.18). Tim was drafted to go to the war in Vietnam for 12 months. He was not happy nor encouraged to go and serve
The novel “The things they carried” is set into motion with the background of a Lieutenant in an active duty team in Vietnam. Lt. Cross throughout this book is obsessed with a woman named Martha, someone he dated before he shipped to Vietnam. He is distracted by looking at her letters and photographs that she had wrote him in basic training. Cross questions her virtue and wishes that she could love him as much as he loved her. Cross is in battle with several people under his command, and he is unsure of everything he does throughout this book. Cross’s guilt is apparent when his men die throughout the book, however, is the lieutenant’s most showed when Ted Lavender dies. Cross confesses to O’Brien later on about how he has
In the beginning of this novel, Tim O’Brien introduces us to First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Cross is the leader of Alpha Company and he mentions and sculpts somewhat of a daydream-like situation where he thinks of something else instead of concentrating or looking at the big picture – being at war. He goes off talking about how the letters Martha wrote to him, “[aren’t] love letters, but [he] was hoping ” (O’Brien, 1) they were. Martha, Lt. Cross’s love interest that doesn’t feel the same way about him, was a junior and an English major at Mount Sebastian. He carried letters that she writes to him in a tight-shut Ziploc bag at the very bottom of his backpack. The letters
The central characters in this story are: Tim O’Brien, narrator and protagonist; First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the platoon leader who obsesses over a girl back home named “Martha;” and Ted Lavender, gets killed and Cross believes that it is his fault. He feels that way because Lavender was shot in the head while Cross was fantasizing over Martha. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was
Though she keeps Lieutenant Cross going and able to make it day to day, she does so by distracting him from reality. She distracts him to a point that he thinks he is responsible for the death of one of his comrade. The reason he thinks this is because he was thinking about Martha so much that it was hard to stay focused, so when Lavender came back from peeing he was shot in his head and Cross felt responsible for his death. Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton thinks Cross feels so burdened about Lavender’s death she states that “After he burns Martha's' letters and photographs he vows “to do what they had always done,” but this time with “no more fantasies.” In the same way that they often discarded in the field what they no longer needed, Lt. Cross swears to “dispense with love,” to put it aside as an unnecessary burden.” He also says he feels like she is a distraction because while strunk was in the tunnel Cross was supposed to be supervising him but instead he had his mind on Martha. “Trouble, he thought---a cave-in maybe. And then suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (pg.11). He acts as if he has no control over his fantasy of longing to be with her. Rena Korb states “Jimmy Cross's ideals of home, fantasies of a girl back home, simply serve as deadly distractions.” She says this because of the death of Lavender and the irresponsible actions towards the rest of the
Jimmy Cross was responsible for all the men lives and actions. In reference to his last name Cross, he was like God. He was to watch his men and take care of them. However, he unintentionally allowed one of his soldiers Ted Lavender to get shot while peeing due to his negligence of once again daydreaming about Martha. In an attempt to accept the blame he “crouched at the bottom of the foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs”(23), however, shortly he fully accepted the blame. He noticed that “Lavender was dead. You couldn't burn the blame”(23). He further learned that he had to forget about Martha which only took away his elated feelings and caused more internal grief. In another careless mistake, Jimmy Cross allowed his men to set up next the shit field which eventually cobbled up his soldier Kiowa. Through this experience he learned that “you could blame the war. You could blame the idiots who made the war”(177), but the blame was on everyone. Everyone felt some type of emotion which weighted on their hearts. In the chapter “Ambush” Tim O’Brien reflects on the man he killed and noted that “when I'm reading a newspaper or just sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog” (134.) Though he accepts the responsibility for the man he killed, like many of the soldier’s he
What is courage? Is courage a feeling? Is courage a memory? Being a coward is one of the worst feelings experienced, that is why Tim O’Brien felt uneasy after he arrived back from the war. In the story “On the Rainy River”, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien was to fight in the Vietnam war, he did not want to go to war as he did not throughly understand the reason for it. In “On the Rainy River”, by Tim O’Brien, O’Brien felt cowardly as he was hesitant of the causes and effects of the war, he could have escaped to Canada, and he only went to the war in fear of humiliation from others.
She was a girl from home which he held pictures of. He was truly in love with her but she did not feel the same in return. One day, as the men were humping through Than Khe, a gunshot rang through the air and Ted Lavender dropped dead. Throughout the walk, Lieutenant Cross had been thinking about Martha rather than his current situation. “He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because [of it]...” (page 7). His obsessive love had led to the murder of a friend, and, the guilt of that event was added to the burdens that he carried throughout the rest of the war. Later on, he could no longer stand the feeling and he burned Martha’s
Lieutenant Cross is a character who, until the death of a soldier, has been very loose and not taken the war seriously. He had let his soldiers throw away their supplies, take drugs, and sing happy songs in the middle of the serious war. He was only concerned with Martha; he dreamt about being with her, and he was delighted when he received letters from her. Tim O’Brien says, “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 Martha was a virgin.” (p. 2) This shows how all he cared about was Martha; he was not paying attention to his real life and his surroundings. He was basically living in a world of fantasy because they lived in two separate worlds. Being unable to wake up from this dream made him potentially weak because his mind was always wandering elsewhere, never in the current situation. This made him an easy target for his enemies because if this had gone on, then he would start to fear death, fear fighting, and fear the war. He would become a coward because he would wish for the day when he could be with Martha again after the war. This would greatly weaken him and his army both, and they would most likely lose to the enemy.
The relationship you have with others often has a direct effect on the basis of your very own personal identity. In the essay "On The Rainy River," the author Tim O'Brien tells about his experiences and how his relationship with a single person had effected his life so dramatically. It is hard for anyone to rely fully on their own personal experiences when there are so many other people out there with different experiences of their own. Sometimes it take the experiences and knowledge of others to help you learn and build from them to help form your own personal identity. In the essay, O'Brien speaks about his experiences with a man by the name of Elroy Berdahl, the owner of the fishing lodge that O'Brien stays at while on how journey to find himself. The experiences O'Brien has while there helps him to open his mind and realize what his true personal identity was. It gives you a sense than our own personal identities are built on the relationships we have with others. There are many influence out there such as our family and friends. Sometimes even groups of people such as others of our nationality and religion have a space in building our personal identities.
In the first paragraph of the story, Jimmy Cross' rank is noted (First Lieutenant) along with the fact that he "carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey" (434). From the outset, the reader sees that Martha plays a pivotal role in his thoughts and actions. The fact that Jimmy Cross "would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" after he marched the entire day and dug a foxhole indicates that he thinks often of Martha (434). While these thoughts of a lover back home provide some form of escape for Lt. Cross, they also burden him with the obsessive feelings of unrequited love. ...
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from the woman he loved who was still back at home. “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.” These letters Cross carried along with him give in an insight into his past, his present, and his character. Martha, his love, was a long distance from him, but he refused to let his memories of her be erased. It didn’t matter to Cross whether or not the love he had for Martha was mutual, but he would still “spend the last hour of light pretending.” Not only would they remind him of his past, these pictures would also give Cross something to at least hope for and have faith in. It didn’t matter that he would “pretend” that Martha loved him as much as he loved her; the photographs and letters of her that he carried were “suitable” to his personality. These things may have been meaningless to other men, but to Cross they were a sign of hope, his past, and gave him some...