capacity to sacrifice themselves for others. Not all do it and many do just the opposite. In the story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’BRIEN, demonstrates that statement. Jimmy Cross, who is 1st lieutenant of his platoon, is a man of integrity and grace which unfortunately starts to diminish throughout his journey. Jimmy begins to fantasize of, “love” which starts to interfere with his daily life, subsequently leading to his excess amount of emotional baggage that he carries, but, ultimately he
George Orwell and Jimmy Cross Character Comparison In the two short stories, Shooting an Elephant and the Things They Carried there are certain similarities and differences that George Orwell and Jimmy Cross hold. Each character in the short stories has there own different situation they are in, but they both are in a foreign land and they both have to take orders and do what there country is asking of them. However, even though each situation is different they both deal with some of the same emotional
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
midst of a hostile jungle in a hostile country. The relationship between Lt. Cross and his team can be noticed as he barely communicates with them, although he’s their leader. Cross finds solace and peace by staring at the picture of his sweetheart, Martha, and uses her pictures to find some quiet from the war raging around him. Martha is the fantasy to Jimmy’s reality. Being stuck as a leader, the war forced Lt. Cross to become lonely, and his leadership suffered as his need to be with Martha grew
in battle and the weight of the stuff they carried internally such as their doubts, fears, love and hopes. The story takes place in the late 1960s during Vietnam War and the author begins the story by presenting the main character, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and provides insights of his feeling and thoughts by describing He also lists some of the personal item delivering hints of his characters’ personalities to the readers and what these items meant to them. He writes how Henry Dobbins, “the big guy”
Looking at Jimmy Cross, he realized it was only a gesture, stupid and sentimental he thought but Lavender was dead and couldn’t burn the blame [O’Brien 1170]. As Jimmy burns Martha’s letters he burns all memories of her out of his head, he has to in order to keep his focus on his men’s safety. He sacrifices the one memory he can hold onto that brings him back home, in one of the worst situations imaginable on the other side of the world. Jimmy Cross was chosen to go to Vietnam and
Like every good fiction story, this one contains some truth about what our military men go through when they are away at war. “The Things They Carried” lets us look into the mind and experiences Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. The author, Tim O’Brien, does an amazing job of painting a picture of Cross’s love, loss, and environment; the story goes back and forth between where he is at physically and mentally. The struggle portrayed in the writing is something anyone who has served in the military can relate
indecision seemed to paralyze Lt. Jimmy Cross in every move he made. Fear is what kept him away from the war, and fear is what made him join his countrymen in battle. A pacifist who did not support the war, the narrator Jimmy Cross was forced to make the difficult decision of what was more important to him. In the end, it was Cross’s reluctancy to deal with the consequences of pacifism which made his decision to go to war. That indecision seems to stay with Cross throughout the book and causes him
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
own way of grappling with such overwhelming feelings of grief for his highly-esteemed comrade. Yet what every man has in common is that in the end he concludes that he alone is the one ultimately responsible for Kiowa’s death. Take Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, for example. Although he had no desire to be in Vietnam, not to mention be leading troops there, it is evident that he is selfless in the pursuit of the war, and genuinely concerned about the welfare of his men. Unfortunately, he is blinded by
Field. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross felt guilty for Kiowa's death. He blamed himself for not thinking about his troops even though he did what he was supposed to do. Couple of soldiers were pissed off about Kiowa's death. They blamed it all on Lieutenant even though they knew it was not his fault. Then they let their emotions out and the situation turned to be out of control. O'Brien describes it syntactically. He is trying to persuade us that all the soldiers knew Jimmy was not guilty, but
In O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried”, Jimmy Cross thinks the death of his comrades, Ted Lavender is his fault but it’s not. Jimmy Cross was only 22 year old too young to be First Lieutenant. Jimmy Cross’s obsession with Martha reading and a daydreaming about her letters. In which Jimmy Cross’s mind could escape from the ugliness of the war. In Vietnam War, being a strong leader over the troop is impossible the war’s mission are undefined. Ted Lavender’s death was a great tragedy of the
soldiers have with them remind them of there past. Sometimes the soldiers have to let go of something they have because of certain conditions. For example Jimmy Cross had a good luck from his girlfriend Martha, it was a pebble that was from the Jersey shoreline. She sent it to him because it reminded her of how they are "together but separate". Jimmy took this everywhere during the war and kept it in his mouth. When one of his friends got killed during action he got rid of the pebble because he thought
instance, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is a vital member of the Alpha Company carries vital things that later translate into the theme. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carries compasses, maps, and responsibilities for the Alpha Company such as marching in a line and keeping guns clean. The character accompanied with all his objects is used as a metaphor for the war that has no structure. He is a leader in the eyes of the Alpha Company who see him as the oldest and wisest but
country. The mama-sans yelling at the soldiers to get out of the muddy field represents the world being against the war. America is protesting and rioting for the war to be called off, but the soldiers are ordered to do their job, just as Lieutenant Jimmy Cross orders the men to stay on the muddy field. Once the men discover that the field is a shit field, it is obvious that the shit field symbolizes the political involvement in the war. The politics of the world start the war, and they order men to go
soldiers that go to war carry emotions with them and these emotions are real and they fight these emotions internally. Tim O’brien shows this message through his descriptions of what the soldiers carry and the character development of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his team. Tim O’brien tells us about the the soldiers gear and the emotional baggage they carry, “They carried all the emotional baggage of the men that might die. Grief, terror, love , longing -- these were intangibles, but the intangibles
just to stay alive. One of the clearest points in The Things They Carried is that of the importance of certain objects or feelings used by the soldiers of Alpha Company to survive the war. Jimmy Cross, the leader the group, carries a picture of a Martha, a girl who writes him from the states. Jimmy knows that there is no real relationship between the two, but he uses the picture the help keep him connected to the world he was forced to leave behind. He creates stories in his head about what
main focus of the story. War has a huge impact on characters in this novel because war changes the way you think, act and relate to other people. Three characters that experience change from war are Mary Anne Bell, Norman Bowker and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Mary Anne Bell was a seventeen year old girl from Cleveland Heights Senior High School. She wore a sexy pink sweater, white culottes, and has blue eyes. She was sent to Vietnam to be with her boyfriend, Mark Fossie, who shipped her there so
One of the significannot concepts in The Things They Carried is that of the importance of certain objects or feelings used by the soldiers of Alpha Company to survive the war. Some examples of these items are the picture of the girl carried by Jimmy Cross, the Bible carried by Kiowa, and the stockings carried by Henry Dobbins. All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their
according to your birthdate, if you would or would not have been drafted during that time period. (Go) In O'Brien's narrative, he portrays the soldiers as being young. In the opening of the story, we immediately see a young man, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, who is deeply in love with a college girl. On page 13, we find out that he is only twenty-four. Throughout the story we find many hin... ... middle of paper ... ...page 15, O'Brien describes that the men carried the whole atmosphere. On