The Realities Of War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In the book “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien is about a first Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who was in love with a girl named Martha who was attending Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. He carries pictures and letters that she sent. Cross was a distracted soldier O’Brien states “at dusk, he would check the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole” (2). After returning to his hole he would relaxed and daydream about Martha. While he was daydreaming one of his group members got shot in the head, he blames himself for the soldier’s dead.

“Lieutenant Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was buried with Martha under the white sand at the Jersey shore. They were pressed together, and the pebble in his mouth was her tongue”(O’Brien 7). His infatuation with Martha would transport him into another world to avoid the situation he was currently in.

Additionally, the quote offers in-depth imagery as to how little can be seen in that environment. This impacts the reader’s interpretation of the military experience as it allows them to fathom the war-ridden environment, and offers insight into how the soldiers processed it. In the exploration of darkness, there is a clear attempt to gain the reader's empathy, as O’Brien makes an additional appeal to pathos through darkness is where characters feel the most alone, the most safe, and the most scared. To illustrate this, the character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’ love for a woman, Martha, led to the distraction which he believes caused the death of the soldier Ted Lavender.

(O’Brien 460). Martha was holding him back, making him daydream and forget his responsibilities. She doesn’t love him, and he knows that all he can do is now focus on the war and his men. Cross then realizes that he and his men would need to do a better job at being soldiers.

Jimmy Cross carried letters and some photograph of a girl named Martha, he loved Martha so much. He kept the letters safe by putting them in his rucksack, and when he rewrite her letters he would imagine them together, “imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains” (O’Brien 3). He would imagine being with Martha and daydream and he would sometimes daydream about her and how he wants to tie her up in bed and touch her leg all day and how he wants to be the one who gets to make her no longer a virgin. Moreover when Ted Lavender got shot in the head, Cross felt responsible for his death because he was the lieutenant and all he has been doing is daydreaming about a girl that doesn’t love him back. After the death of Ted Lavender, Cross started to change his colors by letting go if Martha and focusing more on the war.

I think of Lt. Jimmy Cross as a young man who wasn’t prepared to leave his loved ones to fight in a war. He left his normal life filled with regrets of not doing “something brave” (5). His young adult life was taken from him by the war. He had to experience things that no normal twenty four year old man would have to. He wanted to be in love with a girl and have her love him back.

He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence 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 107). Consequently, Cross vows to abandon his obsession with Martha, and his dramatic reaction is very reminiscent of many actual Vietnam soldiers’ mindset, as described by a poem from a Vietnam historical analysis by Barbara Tischler. The poem reads, “‘Dig it,’ they said, and I dug. ‘Shoot it,’ they said, and I shot.

Emotional worry is a major weight the men carry while in war. Jimmy Cross, the leader of the men, carries a picture of Martha, a college student, whom Cross longs the love he feels for her to be returned back. By keeping the picture of her in his bag, he constantly thinks about her and this leads to a death on his part and the carry of guilt. Cross thinks about a date they went on and continually wishes he had done more to her. This creates a longing for Martha even

Tim Lavender is shot and killed, and Jimmy feels responsible. He is always thinking about the girl of his dreams Martha, and wondering if she loves him the way he loves her. “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. ”(6) Jimmy Cross feels that because he was so distracted and loved someone who he isn't sure feels the same, more than the men he is supposed to protect, that he caused Lavender's death.

Jimmy Cross longs to reunite with Martha during the war , and consequently, his mind remains infatuated by her and the fantasies he wishes he could experience with her. When Ted Lavender died, O'Brien says, “He [Jimmy Cross] felt shame. He hated himself. ”(16). This is because Jimmy Cross feels guilty for always thinking about Martha and letting a death of one of his soldier slip through his hands.

War is a heavy topic for most soldiers as it brings back painful memories that they wish to eliminate from their minds. Most soldiers attempt to escape from reality because it is all they can do in a time of violence. The Things They Carry is a perfect example of this. This is a short story created by Tim O’Brien where First Lieutenant Jimmy cross, a soldier who is in love with a girl named Martha, is the type of man to focus on a false reality instead of what is occurring. However, this all changes when one of his men, Ted Lavender is killed by the Vietnamese.

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war.

From our initial introduction we can see that Lieutenant Cross is distracted and not focusing on the war he’s fighting in. Instead, Cross’ mind is on a young girl back home who he is not even sure reciprocates his deep love for her but he clings to her memory because a sweetheart is often one of the few escapes from war a soldier has. “On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (O’Brien, 641). Cross does this throughout the story, drifting in between the war and his imaginary Martha, and it doesn’t pose an issue for him until an April afternoon.

For the majority of the chapter, Cross carried his mind in thoughts of Martha. He was obsessed with matters such as why she signed her letters “love”, and if she did love him or if that was just formality. Cross is unable to grieve in the ways his soldiers do; he distances himself and decides it’s better to be a leader than to be loved. The weight of the responsibility he carries for his men outweighed his love for Martha. The grieving process out-weighed his fantasies of love.

Cross blames himself, knowing “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead…” (p. 121). First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is distracted by his infatuation for Martha, which ultimately results in Ted Lavender’s death, forcing Cross to realize his fantasies for Martha are wrong and that he is not fulfilling his duties as a lieutenant. Lieutenant Cross is inattentive to the war and his responsibilities because he is unable and unwilling to stop thinking about his adoration for Martha.