Powerful Motivator In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

He is seen as the soldier, a writer and a kid. His family and his Country are the only reasons he is at war, inside he is actually a pacifist. Jimmy Cross- He is the lieutenant of the Alpha Company. He is also responsible for the entire group of men. Cross has good intentions but he is unsure of himself of how to lead his men.

Tim O’Brien uses seemingly true events to describe his overall emotions about the Vietnam war and what he and others did there. “I want you to know what I felt. I want you to know why story-truth is truer sometimes than happening-truth” (O’Brien, pg. 171). This quotation is the foundation of the entire book The Things They Carried, O’Brien uses this base to tell the story of many things that he witnessed. O’Brien’s verisimilitude is used to give real world emotions to a literary work.

Jimmy Cross is blaming Martha to hide his own guilt, when in reality ted's death was nobody's fault but the enemy. This proves how people change under conflict. In the things they carried by Tim O’brien, there is a story of how two enemies become friends to survive in the Vietnam War. The story starts with Dave Jensen beating a man by the name of Strunk, but as the war drags on they become friends.

“They carried shameful memories” (O’Brien 109). In their heads were flashbacks of all the men they killed, the friends they lost, and the families they split up, everything they had ever seen while battling was forever implanted in their thoughts. To escape their memories of the war many soldiers committed suicide. Lieutenant Cross on the other hand carried a good memory, about Martha of course. Jimmy was a day dreamer, he fantasized about Martha, and she was all he could think about, she was an interference.

When reading a story or even watching a movie, a character's actions cannot be fully explained. The author is the only person who knows everything about a character, but they tend to leave that open for the reader's interpretation. In Tim O'Brien's story "The Things They Carried" the main character Jimmy Cross is plagued by the war around him and inside of him. All of the men in the story are fighting in the war, fighting for their lives, but each character is also struggling with personal issues, especially Jimmy. Based on a literary analysis and O'Brien's use of literary techniques, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a characterized representation for war portrayed by the things he carried (physically and emotionally), his affection for Martha,

Tim O’Brien is the narrator of “The Things They Carried” recalls his personal experience in the Vietnam War. Tim writes about Jimmy Cross who is the lieutenant goes into battle with several men in his charge. Lieutenant Cross doesn’t show that his is a born leader in the beginning of the story in fact Jimmy appears to be unsure of everything he does. Lieutenant Cross does show that he is brave when he led all his men through the war. Lieutenant Cross also shows that he is a leader and has integrity when he suffer the death of the men that lost their life’s so that the troops didn’t have to bear the brunt, or the guilt, and the confusion.

The Things They Carried” is a great short story by Tim O’Brien who displays the remarkable story of soldiers during the Vietnam War. Being away from your family, in an unknown place, giving up your life’s luxuries is difficult to handle mentally and physically. Similarly, in the short story we see how soldiers try to overcome their fear by escaping from the reality of the war time situation around them, to a world that is just an illusion. Throughout the short story we see several men coping through their fear in Vietnam as they had the responsibility of a solider and carried burdens of need and emotions. In order to cope with their fear, the soldiers talked with each other and told each other what they felt since the only thing that they had was time and pain.

He is conflicted with the emotional burden of loving Martha and his responsibility to his men. Cross is the Lieutenant of this platoon, meaning that he is their leader and ultimately responsible for the outcome of all their lives. Even though it is easy to see how these men need an escape to help them survive the daily task of fighting, the illusions of being somewhere else can result in additional weight being

Interpreting the emotional effects and impacts of war on soldiers can be quite difficult. What most people do not understand is that post-traumatic stress disorder or commonly referred to as PTSD, is something that is lifelong and troublesome to treat. It was due to the soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War, that this disorder was discovered. The National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study (NVVRS) approximates that 236,000 veterans currently have PTSD from the Vietnam War, an enormous long-term emotional and human cost of war (Vermetten). Tim O’Brien captures an astonishing painful and powerful realism through the emotions that the soldiers experience in “The Things They Carried”.

As the chapter progresses, whenever Jimmy Cross is mentioned, Martha is mentioned as well. Jimmy cross blames himself for the death of Ted Lavender. “He pictured Martha’s smooth young face, thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her”(O’Brien 7) and “he had loved Martha more than his men, as a consequence Ted Lavender was now dead”(O’Brien 16). Jimmy Cross constantly feels that he is failure for not saving Ted Lavender when he could have saved his life. He blames this on Martha because she was a distraction for

For the average reader of “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, it is hard to understand why the author chose the title he chose. Even though the first chapter is literally about what the soldiers carried, the rest of the book seems like just a collection of stories. From how war changes people to blame and to killing people, the books seemingly discusses everything but what the men in Vietnam carried. But at a closer glance, Tim O’Brien actually is writing about what the soldiers carried. The physical pain they experience day in and day out.

Martha had a big effect on Jimmy cross 's during his adventure in Vietnam. “Jimmy Cross 's had loved Martha more than his man , and as a consequence lavender was dead now and this was something he had to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war and life.” Martha was a young lady that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was obsessed with. It was very possible the distraction of Martha caused lavender to die. Although Martha never loved cross.

One of the Lieutenant’s men, Ted Lavender, gets shot in the head while the rest of the company is distracted and Cross takes the soldier’s death personally and in result feels like a failed leader. As a result, the next morning Cross burns Martha’s letters and photographs, he swears off any further fantasies, and makes a personal vow to become a harder, crasser officer for his men. Cross becomes acutely aware to the fact that these men’s lives are in fact his to shoulder and protect, the event serves as a major reality check and turning point for the

The first sign of Lieutenant Cross’s exceptional leadership was indicated when Ted Lavender was killed. This calamitous incident occurred when Lavender got shot in the head and was killed while returning from using the latrine. Just moments before this tragedy occurred, Lieutenant Cross was daydreaming about Martha, and how he loved her and how she did not have the same feelings for him. It is while his mind was drifting that Ted Lavender was killed. Lieutenant Cross felt responsible for Lavender’s death.

Tim O’Brien states, “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” (O’Brien 16). In this quote, Tim O’Brien explains that since Jimmy Cross blames himself about Ted Lavender’s death, he will always be in lieutenant’s head. Thus, the lieutenant will always feel the guilt. With this, Tim O’Brien makes the reader think that Jimmy Cross is the person to blame since he is the head of the group and he has to pay more attention to his plans. Having questions about his love, Martha, in his mind instead of being careful about his men is the reason of him feeling guilty that “the lieutenant’s in some deep hurt” (17).