The Things They Carried by Tim O’ Brien

The novel “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’ Brien takes place in the Vietnam War. The protagonist, Lieutenant Cross, is a soldier who is madly in love with a college student named Martha. He carries around photos and letters from her. However, the first few chapters illustrate how this profound love makes him weak in the war.

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.

Another weakness that resulted from this love is shown when he says, “Right then, he thought, he should’ve done something brave. He should’ve carried her ...

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...ghts and memories with Martha. However, his current denial to accept and face reality is what is causing him to be bullied by his emotions, which is making him weaker. This will make him both physically and mentally weak; he will no longer be concentrated on the real world, and he will be constantly worrying about whether or not Martha really loved him. He does not realize that he has a greater problem to be thinking about, not just in his small world. The fate of Vietnam was in his hands.

Thus, Lieutenant Cross is weak because he loved Martha, he was always distracted from the real world, and he always wished to return to his normal life not in the war. This will make him both physically and mentally weak, making him an easy target for enemies. This is how love may affect soldiers during battle. Therefore, I think that soldiers should not love when they are at war.