Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The things they carried symbols
Symbolism of the things they carried
Symbolism of the things they carried
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien there are many times when he uses symbolism. Lieutenant Cross is one of the major characters who symbolizes something bigger to the overall meaning of the story. In the war, all Lieutenants carry heavy burdens. Lieutenant Cross symbolizes Jesus Christ in the way that they both had a heavy cross to carry. In the end Cross is able to rise from his emotional burdens with Martha and his physical affliction of realizing that his job title as their leader. All Lieutenants have a heavy burden to carry during war. They hold the responsibility of keeping the men safe and being their leader. Lieutenant Cross is not able to fully perform his job being a Lieutenant due to the fact that he emotionally distracts himself with a girl back home named Martha. We see Cross’s obsession for her when the narrator says “It was a phantom jealousy, he knew, but he couldn’t help himself. …show more content…
He is not emotionally ready in the beginning, distracted. He denies reality by being inattentive and focusing on a girl named Martha. He has a breakthrough moment when the narrator says, “He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence” (O’Brien, 10). Cross realizes that he has the job of being a Lieutenant and has to take the role seriously. If he does not want to lose more men, then he has to protect them. He has to let go of his memory of Martha so that he can become a better leader for his men. When Cross was able to let go of his emotional cross with Martha it led to a chain reaction of realizing that he is a Lieutenant and with that will come heavy burdens. His responsibilities include leading these men into war. His decision will decide whether they will make it out alive. These realizations allow him to be able to rise up from what was holding him
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...
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.
Since Jimmy Cross was the oldest he was an evident leader and assumed responsibility. Since Jimmy Cross took upon the leadership role, his memories with the war will be carried forever. For example, when Cross encounters another split-making decision regarding his soldier’s lives; he is given a warning to not make the same repeat mistake he did with Lavender and attempt to not get distracted with the concept of love but war is unpredictable and so are the burdens and consequences. Cross’ has the ability to choose the next campsite; he has told to put the camp in the field despite being warned it was a trap by the locals who lived there. This was a foreshadow to imminent death that happens later in the novel. The campsite was a trap and Kiowa, Alpha Company’s soldier, was exploded by rounds of mortar and died. This made Cross responsible for a part of a soldier’s death. This is a big part of the theme of emotional burdens such as guilt that carries with Jimmy Cross. "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." (115) shows us the struggles and emotional burdens that must have carried afterward with Cross and his platoon, all this from the result of plain carelessness despite trying not to focus on Martha and overcoming his obstacles. Other soldier’s such as Mitchell Sanders cannot make sense of their fellow soldier’s death and his only way to feel that Kiowa’s death was not meaningless and sad was to blame someone. "Ten billion places we could've set up last night, the man picks a latrine." (28) This is exactly what Mitchell Sander’s did towards Jimmy Cross, putting all the blame on him. This not only affecting Sander’s emotionally but also Cross’ which puts them with more burdens than ever before.
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...
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.
Before O’Brien introduces the characters, he introduces the items they carry as symbols of their humanity. The reader has a chance to develop curiosity for the depth of each character presented and is not instantly alienated by the war setting. In the first paragraph O’Brien introduces the letters Lieutenant Cross carries by writing, “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping” (O'Brien 337). The letters are one of the most prominent symbols the reader encounters and at the story’s opening, act as a symbol of home, youth, and hope. Because he carries these dainty baubles, Cross seems more vulnerable, therefore, more human. The reader sees this again when introduced to more of the soldiers inventory, “Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosqui...
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 main symbol in “The Things They Carried” is the necessities they carried as well as personal belongings. Each item tells a story that shows the past life on the soldier. Rat Kiley, the medic, carried M&M’s with him at all times. They were not to snack on during breaks. He brought them to provide as a placebo for soldiers who weren’t critically wounded and weren’t going to make it. The candy made some soldiers believe it was a painkiller and actually kept them alive and importantly quiet Ted Lavender’s tranquilizes and dope help reduce his fear. Kiowa carried an illustrated New Testament. For Jimmy it is his letters from Martha, it symbolizes the life that he wishes he could be living back at home with her. However, all of them carried one thing in common, the coward trait, the instinct to run at any given moment. Piedmont-Marton argues in her critical essay, “The things they carry on their bodies creates the illusion of unity and collaboration, but the fragile collective is always compromised by the things they carry inside and by the meanings and emotions attached to the smallest and most private of artifacts” (Para 3). She shows that the things that weigh the most have the least amount of meaning to them. The only thing getting them through times and not putting a bullet in their foot is the weightless mementos they have that give them
Throughout Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, there is a constant theme about all the things that the soldiers carry. In the opening chapter, The Things They Carried, the soldiers are carrying tangible and intangible items. The tangible items included things they carried like mosquito repellant, pocket knives, wound compress, tents, weapons, and ammunition for the purpose of basic survival in the war. As the rank of the soldiers increase, the responsibility that needed to be carried also increases. Being the highest rank, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried the compass, maps, and the soldiers’ lives in his hands. Rat Kiley, the medic, carries the pain medication and malaria tablets to keep the men from getting disease. Besides the survival items,
Horner states " throughout gender history, men have been pressured to react to deadly crisis according to the sacred rules of a male honor code. From Odysseus to King Arthur, from Ulysses to George Washington and from Aeneas to Norman Schwarzkopf, clearly the most widely accepted values of integrity, dignity, respect, self respect, valor and thus unquestioned masculinity hinge upon a commissioned response to fear and duty." (Horner, 1999) Tim Obrien shows that the classic battle of good versus evil. Lieutenant Cross's desires of Martha created an illusion that caused him to focus on himself, instead of his troops. The central tension comes between his imaginary love affair and the real responsibilities he has as the officer in command. He bypassed all his responsibilities, for his
Although their physical loads did not weigh the soldiers down, they definitely became their necessities. Certain physical burdens became items that helped them escape from the reality of being at war. Even though these men had things they had to carry, they elected to carry more. The items they carried were intended to illustrate aspects of their personality. All of them carried great loads of memories, fears, and desires. These abstract objects were an essential part of them and therefore could not be put down. They continued to carry these emotional burdens along with them throughout the war. And as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross came to realize, “It was very sad…the things men carried inside. The things men did or felt they had to
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 woman that Cross is in love with is named Martha. She's barely a junior from Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. Although he is madly in love with her, Martha doesn't return the feelings back for him. This one-sided love causes him to ponder and lose focus of what is really important, keeping himself and his troops alive and well. As he is lying in his foxhole, he looks at pictures of Martha; he can't help to feel, "More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her " As shown, he just wants to be with her and to share a love with her. Over and over again, he would think about her; sometimes in foxholes, sometimes while marching, even at times of danger. This lack of focus on the real dilemma, their situation in the war, will be a costly one.
Storytelling is one of the major themes in the book “The Things They Carried”, and is conveyed several times throughout most of the novel. The author, Tim O’Brien, uses the theme storytelling to convey his experience in VIetnam during the war. Another reason is to show what his soldiers had felt during the war, and what they experienced from their perspective. He uses many factors to convey this theme like how it has to be embarrassing and has no moral, story truth and happening truth, and he includes the stories of others. These really contribute to the theme of storytelling and why it is such a major theme for Tim O’Brien.