Person’s brain becomes fully developed at the mid twenty’s. Jimmy Cross is too young to bear the responsibilities of being First Lieutenant. Jimmy Cross is a First Lieutenant, which means that he was responsible for the other soldiers. O’Brien’s writes “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.”(O’Brien) It is too much weight for him to carry the lives of his comrades. Jimmy Cross’s brain He never should been a First Lieutenant, he was not mature enough to handle the duties of the post.
Jimmy Cross, being only twenty-four years old, was very inexperienced, as were most of the others serving in Vietnam. As stated by Tim O’Brien, in this short story, “He was just a kid at war, in love” (600). He didn’t want to be the leade... ... middle of paper ... ...g exclusively on the war and men of whom he is in charge of. It ends up taking the death of one of his men, Ted Lavender, for Jimmy to realize that he needed to get his priorities straight; which included, being the leader that his troops deserved. In conclusion, Jimmy’s character traits changed immensely, from several negative traits in the beginning, to ample positive traits in the end.
Jimmy Cross, being only twenty-four years old, was very inexperienced, as were most of the others serving in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien said it best, “He was just a kid at war, in love” (600). This quote sums up Lt. Cross completely, he was just an inexperienced kid at war and his immaturity led him to be blinded by love and put love before responsibility. He did not intend for anyone to get hurt, he was just too young and inexperienced to realize how important his role as First Lieutenant really was. After facing different things in the story, he gains some experience and realizes how important... ... middle of paper ... ... for Lt. Cross and sparked his drastic change in attitude.
Who are the real victims of war? Unfortunately, many people ask themselves this question after they return home from battle as a completely different person as than they were before the devastation. Much of this group asking themselves this question were young when they enlisted, so they don’t know how to deal with the world they are in. Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front brings about this very group of young men during World War I. These boys are also vastly known as the Forgotten Generation, because they lost everything in the war so they were pushed aside.
This is the main reason he cut all his connections with this family. McCandless discovers that “Walt continued his relationship with Marcia in secret, dividing his time between ... ... middle of paper ... ... as a consequence.” (192). Due to Supertramp’s lack of knowledge, he didn’t tell the difference between two types of seeds. One kind of seed was okay to eat, while the other was a very poisonous, this resulting into his death. Although Christopher McCandless was intelligent young man, he could’ve been a little more considerate of the fact that he wouldn’t be able to survive in the wild.
The words meant nothing to him, just an admission of his future attendance of war, a dreaded but lifelong dream. It meant nothing that his life has only barely begun. He was young, young and untried and he hated it. Friendless, spineless, and useless, for he couldn’t attend school, he was itching for a purpose in life. His father, a war vet, was as useless as he was, crippled from saving his brother from an enemy attack.
They have no experiences as adults that do not involve a day-to-day fight for survival and sanity. Paul has a “feeling if foreignness” and “cannot find [his] way back” (172). After entering the war in young adulthood, the soldiers lost their innocence. Paul’s generation is called the Lost Generation because they have lost their childhood while in the war. When Paul visits home on leave he realizes that he will never be the same person who enlisted in the army.
He knows nothing of loneliness, want, sacrifice, or mourning. He also does not develop the requisite social skills to meet with those outside the members of his family. Even... ... middle of paper ... ...has had to leave the cluster for any length of time is his dearest friend, Clerval. Victor even lets Walton know that the family is “never completely happy when Clerval was absent.” (Shelley 52). Because of his overt dependence on his family, the other complications that accompany Victor’s departure are simply too much.
However, it is also "too early" since all these soldiers are too young, leaving behind an unfulfilled life. Unfortunately these soldiers will also never receive the true recognition they deserve for their efforts that would have been given at the end of the war. By using the technique of paradox, Dawe makes a final attempt at clarifying international misconception of war as beneficial. In all, Dawe has successfully established the uselessness of war. He can be said to be "speaking for those who have no means of speaking" in the way he presents the attitudes of the silent, dead soldiers being flown home from Vietnam.
Strong, brave, and powerful are usually the words that come to mind when you think of a traditional war hero. In Tim O’Brien’s novel he uses war heroes that aren’t what people usually imagine when they think of a war hero. They are straight out of high school, and most of the soldiers in his novel are cowards. They are scared of going into the war and even when they have a chance to save one of their friends they just let them die. Not using traditional war heroes allowed Tim O’Brien to show that not all heroes are heroic and courageous, and that they were just normal people going into a war they didn’t understand.