Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was being replaced as his leg had gotten blown off by a Bouncing Betty this morning. The betty was positioned three feet away from his foxhole. When Cross had crawled out, there was a huge explosion that left him injured and lying on the ground. I could hear the blast all the way from the tree while I was taking a piss. I didn’t flinch even though it that sounded like a grenade went off. Anyway, after I heard the explosion, I saw smoke emerging from the area, so walked over to the sight where I saw Cross’s upper body coming out of the foxhole. The whole platoon was around his foxhole trying to help him. As I got closer, I could see how injured he was. There was a pool of blood underneath him trickling down his foxhole. …show more content…
As the black helicopter landed, we all said goodbye and let him go. The funny thing was Cross was not particularly concerned about leaving us. We wished him good luck on his journey back to America and that was the gist of it. After he settled in the helicopter, someone else came out of the rear seat. When we laid eyes on a solid, tall, dark-skinned fella came out of the helicopter and introduced himself as our new Lieutenant Christian …show more content…
It was not long before the Lieutenant heard him murmuring and mumbling his hate speech. I could see everyone make way for him a s he walked in the middle of the group. He stopped when I was face to face with Azar and knocked him right out. The punch was so strong; he collapsed smack-dab on the ground and chipped his left front tooth. You could hear the tooth chip when he fell down. When he fell, there was an instant movement of the platoon, letting Azar collapse on the stony, light- brown dirt. When Azar got up, the lieutenant got in his face and whispered “Try me again.” Holding his jaw, Azar walked back to the back of the
The book Outlaw Platoon written by Sean Parnell is a soldiers’ tale of his platoon in one of the most dangerous places on earth. This book is a non-fiction riveting work that tells the story of a platoon that spent sixteen months on an operating base in the Bermel Valley, the border of Pakistan. This mission the men were sent on was part of a mission called Operation Enduring Freedom. This book is extremely relevant to the war that we are still fighting in Afghanistan and the humanitarian work that continues. We still have men in this area fighting and losing their lives everyday. It is the focus of ongoing political debates and the purpose of our involvement there is an ongoing question in the minds of many Americans. In writing this book, Parnell makes it clear in his author’s notes that he indeed was not trying to pursue one political agenda over another. His goal as not to speak of all members of the platoon and expose their identities and the types of soldiers they were but instead to showcase some of the men’s bravery and abilities during the war. Parnell believed that he owed it to the men to write something that would show the world what these men go through during combat in an honest and raw account. Another purpose of Parnell’s in writing this book is an attempt at making sure these men are given a place in American war history.
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...
...sends Rat off into the helicopter with comic books in order to give him something to do. While these two scenes do show a newfound humanity in Azar, the scene where Azar and Tim decide to get back at Jorgenson do take him two steps back in the other direction. However, it is still obvious that experiences during Azar’s time in the Vietnam War had a great impact on him.
The things they carried, by Tim O'Brien. "Oh man, you fuckin' trashed the fucker. You scrambled his sorry self, look at that, you did, you laid him out like fuckin' Shredded Wheat." I chose to start off my essay with this particular extract from the book because I think that it very much represents the story in itself. Azar said this, after Tim (supposedly) killed a Vietnamese soldier with a hand grenade. It shows that in times of war, how callous men can become. However, callousness varies, whether they choose to be apathetic, like Tim shows us after his grenade episode.
The drought was near historic high levels for the time of year. In the moments before the entrapment on of the squads and the crew boss trainee were working with a fire engine and its three person crew when a spot fire erupted right next to the road. The seven Northwest Regular Crew number six and a engine crew got in there vehicles and drove south past the fire along the edge of the road. While driving they radioed the other 14 crewmembers who were working north further up the river about the dangerous situation. The 14 crewmembers and the incident commander and two Northwest Regular number six squad members were suppressing spot fires between the river and the road ¼ mile north of the first squad when they were informed of the situation that was threatening there es...
The violent nature that the soldiers acquired during their tour in Vietnam is one of O'Brien's predominant themes in his novel. By consciously selecting very descriptive details that reveal the drastic change in manner within the men, O'Brien creates within the reader an understanding of the effects of war on its participants. One of the soldiers, "Norman Bowler, otherwise a very gentle person, carried a Thumb. . .The Thumb was dark brown, rubbery to touch. . . It had been cut from a VC corpse, a boy of fifteen or sixteen"(O'Brien 13). Bowler had been a very good-natured person in civilian life, yet war makes him into a very hard-mannered, emotionally devoid soldier, carrying about a severed finger as a trophy, proud of his kill. The transformation shown through Bowler is an excellent indicator of the psychological and emotional change that most of the soldiers undergo. To bring an innocent young man from sensitive to apathetic, from caring to hateful, requires a great force; the war provides this force. However, frequently are the changes more drastic. A soldier named "Ted Lavender adopted an orphaned puppy. . .Azar strapped it to a Claymore antipersonnel mine and squeezed the firing device"(O'Brien 39). Azar has become demented; to kill a puppy that someone else has adopted is horrible. However, the infliction of violence has become the norm of behavior for these men; the fleeting moment of compassion shown by one man is instantly erased by another, setting order back within the group. O'Brien here shows a hint of sensitivity among the men to set up a startling contrast between the past and the present for these men. The effect produced on the reader by this contrast is one of horror; therefore fulfilling O'Brien's purpose, to convince the reader of war's severely negative effects.
The struggle to avoid cowardice is very important to the narrator. In his time near the Canadian border, he has much time for self reflection. That self reflection seemed to be something very necessary for Lt. Jimmy Cross. While there, he discovered that devotion to his family, his hometown, and his country was stronger than devotion to his own mora...
One of the hardest events that a soldier had to go through during the war was when one of their friends was killed. Despite their heartbreak they could not openly display their emotions. They could not cry because soldiers do not cry. Such an emotional display like crying would be sign of weakness and they didn’t want to be weak, so they created an outlet. “They were actors. When someone died, it wasn’t quite dying because in a curious way it seemed scripted”(19). Of course things were scripted especially when Ted Lavender died. It had happened unexpectedly and if they didn’t have something planned to do while they were coping they would all have broken down especially Lieutenant Cross. Cross...
Jimmy Cross was one of them. As his obsession with Martha grew, he no longer had his eyes on what was important like staying alive and protecting his fellow soldiers. One day outside of the village Than Khe, in mid-April, a soldier by the name of Ted Lavender was shot in the head. Jimmy feels great guilt over Ted’s death because he is responsible for the entire team of soldiers. Due to his obsession, he ended up losing a life on his team and it was a preventable death. This put a heavy guilt on his shoulders. When Martha told him that she did not really love him, he was crushed and realized what his obsession had done to Ted and what could have happened to the rest of the
Before this battle, the men are starting to feast on pig and some other foods. All of a sudden they realize that something is wrong because the observation balloons have spotted smoke from their chimney. Soon after, shells begin to drop on them. They race down to the house and feast for four hours. Outside houses are burning, shells are propelled down to the ground. In eight days the men are told to return. Only a few days later are they ordered to evacuate a village. While on their way, Kropp and Paul see people fleeing out of the village with distress, anger, and depression. Everyone is silent as the two walk by them, even the children holding on to their mothers for moment, Paul feels a blow on his left leg. Albert is right next to him, and he cries out to Paul. The men scurry to a nearby ditch. They are hurt, but do the best that they can to run to another ditch. Albert is straggling behind, and Paul helps him to continue by holding him up. They reach the dug-out where Paul bandages up Kropp’s injury, a bullet for an ambulance to be taken. The ambulance picks them up, and they are given an anti-tetanus shot in their chests. When the dressing station is reached, Paul and Kropp make sure that they are lying next to each other. The surgeon examines Paul and tells someone to chloroform him. Paul objects to this order, and the doctor does not do it. The surgeon takes out a piece of shell, and puts Paul in a plaster cast. The two are brought on the train, Albert develops a high fever so he needs to be taken off the train at the next stop. In order to stay with his friend, Paul fakes a fever and they reach a Catholic Hospital together. Paul is operated on and recovers faster than Kropp. His leg is amputated, and he later goes to an institute for artificial limbs. Paul is called back to his regiment and returns to the front.  parts, or lost body parts, and they are thankful that it is not them who are in danger of dying. By receiving injuries, Paul and Kropp experience the war from a different perspective.
Throughout the chapter O’Brien uses a technique known as point of view. The point of views in the novel comes from three characters- Azar, Kiowa, and Tim O’Brien himself. The three characters perspectives on war are interpreted entirely different. Tim O’Brien is illustrated as the most sensitive solider out of the three. “His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut, his other eye was a star-shaped hole…” (124). Tim’s sensitivity is revealed when he shows how bewildered he is as he stares at the lifeless Viet Cong body. Tim allows the readers to see that he has remorse about how he took action to stop the Viet Cong solider as he thinks repetitively about the repugnant attack. Tim is also shown as the character that never really talks and is very quite which in turn shows that he is guilty and ashamed. Azar happens to be the solider that is there to complete his job and does not show any sorrow for any actions that may occur. “Oh, man, you fuckin’ trashed the fucker” (125). In the novel, Azar shows that he actually enjoys the work of war and it does not really seem to bother him. Kiowa is more sensible in realizing and understanding what Tim is experiencing. “Tim it’s a war. The guy wasn’t Heidi—he had a weapon, right? It’s a tough thing, for sure but you got to cut out that staring” (126). He knows that what Tim is feeling is really hard for him to grasp because of the astonishment “Take it slow. Just go wherever the spirit takes you.” (126). It is shown that Kiowa has an understanding of Tim but he knows how to deal with the situation at hand.
As First Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross is the highest ranking member in the short story, thus the other characters look to him to lead them. However, he is just as messed up as the rest of the soldiers are he just does not show it because the soldiers need someone to look up to. When listing Lt. Cross’s personal effects O’Brien deliberately includes “a responsibility for the lives of his men,” (O’Brien 271) and although responsibility is not tangible it does weigh him down. Jimmy deals with the war by fantasizing about a girl back home as much as he can. Try as he might, he cannot push the thoughts about Martha out of his mind and concentrate on the war. Sometimes the thoughts come unbidden and he find himself “suddenly, without willing it, … thinking about Martha” (274). Whenever a member of his platoons is killed, he blames himself for his distracted state. While marching down the trail he sucks on a pebble that Martha sent him and thinks about the New Jersey shore instead of looking for signs of ambush. He didn't want to be in ch...
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.
This story will be talking about what happened when a little mustrack moved into a burrow. It all happened on a somewhat of a cloudy day. Chuchundra a a little mustrack had just moved into his new burrow because there was tall green grass that flowed when the wind blowed and beautiful bushes that smelt like rosemary and felt like grass after it's been cut. his other burrow was infested with red ants so after he got settled into his new burrow he went out to go and meet people in the garden. When he got out of his burrow he meet Darzee and darzee’s wife he talked with them as it got darker Chuchundra started to walk back to his burrow but, then he got visited by Nag and Nagaina but what Chuchundra didn't know was how evil Nag and Nagaina where. After Chuchundra was stopped by Nag and Nagaina he was scared at first until Nagaina told him not to be scared of them and he wasn’t because he believed them then off Nag and Nagaina went.
“ You can’t handle the truth! Son we live in a world that has walls, and those have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it you, you Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury, you have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago's death while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence while grotesque and incomprehensible, to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you talk about parties; you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall! We use words like honor, code, loyalty, We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something, you use them as a punch line.