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The Vietnam War was an event that no man came back the same. Soldiers faced tough decisions in a grueling environment. War is fought by men, but the act is caused by only hate and evil between two or more countries. In this story Tim O’ Brien tells a story of his time in the service with his squad members especially his squad leader named jimmy cross. The story talks about O’Brien’s point of view of Cross’s combat experience and his troublesome uphills he and his teammates face in the war to battle against communism in Vietnam while dealing with problems back in the states as the leader of the group.
Jimmy Cross was part of the war in vietnam. He was part of a squad that was called “Alpha Company,” composing of soldiers which include ted
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He would receive letters from Martha who was all the way in New Jersey, and knowing Cross he’d kept them with him just as the book states, “ he kept them folded in plastic in the bottom of his rucksack.” Cross would never forget the love he had for martha and that was on his mind most of the time in Vietnam. He would always believe he would end up with here but it never did. As all the other soldiers in his platoon would carry significant items with them in ruck marches; Cross would carry the photos and letters he had of her. Believing she is a saint and a virgin, Cross couldn’t think of any other girl that would’ve meant the world to him like Martha. The love carried him through the war that one day when the war ends they can end up together. Later on they would soon meet each other again in a reunion, and they would spend time together but Cross never acted up to try to make her as his own. Surprisingly, his feeling towards her never changed even after so many years they were apart and very little signs she showed interest in him. This shows how Cross would carry feelings with him and was the type of person that wouldn’t move on and forget. Just like how he would carry and when reminded feel remorseful about Lavender’s death. Never changing throughout the story as well and still being the leader of Alpha
Tim O’Brien begins his journey as a young “politically naive” man and has recently graduated out of Macalester College in the United States of America. O’Brien’s plan for the future is steady, but this quickly changes as a call to an adventure ruins his expected path in life. In June of 1968, he receives a draft notice, sharing details about his eventual service in the Vietnam War. He is not against war, but this certain war seemed immoral and insignificant to Tim O’Brien. The “very facts were shrouded in uncertainty”, which indicates that the basis of the war isn’t well known and perceived
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...
The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of
Lt. Jimmy Cross is extremely affected by Martha as his one time girlfriend; he is obsessed with even the thought of her.-- So obsessed with her, he even becomes distracted to the point an accident occurs for which he blames himself for the longest time. That Martha was a distracting factor shown through Tim’s observations of Lt. Cross. He loved her so much. On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting sea salt and moisture. His mind wandered.
Vietnam War was one of the hardest wars ever fought. There are several reasons for this statement. It was basically impossible to conquer the territory because there were no boundaries. The soldiers had to put up with the climate, land, diseases and most importantly themselves. This essay is about yet another reason: the relationship between the soldiers and the officers.
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 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 book The Things They Carried Jimmy Cross chang as a charter he started out not caring only wanting to think about Martha and forgetting about war. After ted lavender dies he is determined to become a better Lieutenant for his men. It goes on to talk about the good things in war as well as the bad. The story is an eye opener for many who don't know much about
At just the age of twenty four, Cross is a Lieutenant and responsible for the lives of a platoon of men that are only a couple of years younger than him. This shows that he was taking up way too much responsibility at his age when he is probably not mature enough for his duties. What makes his duty even harder, was his immense love for his former classmate, Martha. The fact that she wrote to him and he imagined them to be love letters consumed a lot of his time with imaginary scenarios. Since “he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her, but the letters were...elusive on the matter of love,” he spent more time that he should thinking about how much he loved her, what he could be doing with her if she loved him too, and what she is like instead of focusing on the battlefield and safety of his men (O’ Brien 706). This version of Cross did not pay too much attention to his men and thought about Martha most of the
Her lack of interest in him as a romantic partner is clear, yet he continues to believe that she may love him one day. This intricate fantasy has caused his mind to wander from the important matters at hand. Throughout their many missions, he would remind his men to spread out and to be aware of their surroundings. Ironically, Lieutenant Cross would slip away from reality to think about Martha and what he could have done when he was next to her. In the midst of one of his many daydreams, a fellow soldier, Ted Lavender, dies. Lieutenant Cross is suddenly hit with the realization that it was his
The Vietnam War was a controversial conflict that plagued the United States for many years. The loss of life caused by the war was devastating. For those who came back alive, their lives were profoundly changed. The impact the war had on servicemen would affect them for the rest of their lives; each soldier may have only played one small part in the war, but the war played a huge part in their lives. They went in feeling one way, and came home feeling completely different. In the book Vietnam Perkasie, W.D. Ehrhart describes his change from a proud young American Marine to a man filled with immense confusion, anger, and guilt over the atrocities he witnessed and participated in during the war.
In “The Things They Carried,” Lee Strunk is set to investigating a tunnel while the others waited up top. Cross watches over the men, “but he was not there. He was buried” with thoughts of Martha (600). He wakes up from this glassy-eyed state to Ted Lavender being shot straight through the head. Both Lavender and Cross drop like cement, each in their own respects. Cross immediately feels great remorse sorrow, for “he had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (602). It’s one challenging thing to watch someone die, it’s even worse to have someone die on your watch, and it’s absolutely horrid to have someone die since you were slacking off. One of the worst possible forms of guilt shakes Cross to the very core. This literal and figurative gunshot suddenly makes Cross realize the foolishness of his obsession. He burns the letters and pictures from Martha symbolically but only further realizes that he “couldn’t burn the blame” (606). He wakes up to the true world he’s living in, takes in the war around him, and starts fresh, anew, ready to carry the weight of his
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
...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.
The soldiers feel that the only people they can talk to about the war are their “brothers”, the other men who experienced the Vietnam War. The friendship and kinship that grew in the jungles of Vietnam survived and lived on here in the United States. By talking to each other, the soldiers help to sort out the incidents that happened in the War and to put these incidents behind them. “The thing to do, we decided, was to forget the coffee and switch to gin, which improved the mood, and not much later we were laughing at some of the craziness that used to go on” (O’Brien, 29).