How Did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Get Responsible For The Loss In The Things They Carried

In the book The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, all of the characters are American soldiers in the Vietnam War. Each day, the soldiers are faced with traumatic situations, like the death of a fellow soldier. O’Brien repeats phrases/events to showcase the PTSD that all of the soldiers, including Jimmy Cross, obtain. The audience begins to see the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder the characters face, when the narrator continues to bring up the death of Ted Lavender, an American soldier. The narrator says, “But Ted Lavender [...] was shot and killed.”

In Crazy for the Storm you have war between the mind and heart of Norman Ollestad, a young boy at the time. In his mind he lives the life his father wants him to lead, one of healthy eating and consistent activity. A life filled with adrenaline

The fact he felt this way still haunts him now causing an emotional burden. As well, Soldiers can be affected emotionally by whether or not they receive a medal during the war. Another emotional burden is when Norman is driving around the lake feeling guilty about not getting a medal and about letting his friend die: “I could’ve won the Silver Star for valor,”(140). This shows that even after the war has ended soldiers continue to be affected emotionally by the burdens faced in war. Even after he left the war, Norman continues feeling shameful and guilty about the things he’s done.

“There was nothing to say. He could not talk about it and never would” (O’Brien 147). O’Brien shows the pain and trauma that Norman felt whilst he could not seem to tell anyone though he yearned to (Speaking of Courage, Notes). This gives basis to his isolated soldier role which O’Brien uses to highlight the surviving guilt for Norman’s regret of cowardice. In the chapter "Notes," O'Brien's method of reaction retelling gives a basis on how O'Brien revised the scene in "Speaking of Courage" to be more meaningful with greater detail and focus on Kiowa’s demise and Norman’s stagnation on the scene.

In this situation Norman finally realizes his brother needs help. The author shows how Norman should finally realize that Paul needs help with his problems. Even though Norman doesn’t know how to help his brother, he finally realized that Paul being in jail showed Norman the problems Paul is dealing

Carefully, not covering up his own guilt” (O’Brien 162). Lieutenant Cross was put in a difficult situation after Kiowa died because he felt like it was his fault. He said that he needed to write the letter to Kiowa’s father in a way where he told the truth about what happened, but did not make it seem like Cross was not to blame. This chapter shows that not just O’Brien feels guilty for someone's

In the chapter Speaking of Courage, the narrator explains how Norman tries to save Kiowa, “He would've talked about this, and how he grabbed Kiowa by the boot and tried to pull him out. He pulled hard but Kiowa was gone, and then suddenly he felt himself going, too.” (page 143). Norman lived with this for the rest of his life, playing what he could've done to save him over and over again in his head. Another example is in the chapter,

Norman had felt as if he had no one to talk to or relate to because no one around him had experienced war like he had. He tried to keep jobs when he was home from war, but not one of them had lasted more than 3 weeks. Since he feels he is unable to speak to anyone about war, he writes a letter to O’Brien, telling his entire war story. He soon feels as if he cannot do anything without thinking about war and hangs himself in the locker room of his town’s YMCA.

The loss of innocence and gain of war trauma affects almost every soldier in the war either during or after the war. Which is seen through the killing of Kiowa and the death throughout the chapters. O'Brien had tried to show Kiowa a picture at night with and turned a flashlight on and

O’Brien’s novel serves as an outlet for him to work through his trauma, as well as offer a warning as to what might happen if others don’t do the same. If O’Brien’s warning isn’t heeded, then the unchecked damage that repressed trauma can cause may lead to vulnerable people suffering the same fate as Norman

A guy who can’t get his act together and just drives around town all day and can't think of any damn place to go and doesn't know how to get there anyway. This guy wants to talk about it, but he can’t… If you want, you can use the stuff in this letter,” (O’Brien 151). This last quote, also connects highly to the work as a whole because Norman is writing about himself as someone who wants to talk about his problems with someone, and just get away from his old life in general, but can’t because of the way war works; it breaks you as a person and builds you back up as a soldier, and you can’t leave that behind. Norman has many bad things in his head from the war, but he can’t seem to bring himself to talk about them with anyone to make himself feel better about

Lieutenant Cross decided he must remove all distractions of Martha and home and begin to focus on his responsibilities. These unexpected losses helped Lieutenant Cross recognize his responsibility and aided him to become a leader who did not let his personal life obstruct with his duties as an officer. He burned Martha’s letters and photographs and threw away her good luck charm (O'Brien). No more fantasies, he told himself. Henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it would be only to think she belonged elsewhere (O'Brien).

He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine.

Norman is unable to find words to describe his struggles and therefore can’t move on from the war. This just shows that the horrors don’t stop, even after the war. Norman is desperately grasping for a way to understand everything but he is unable to. Because of this, Norman, unlike Roy, is unable to cope and eventually takes his own life to escape his own mind. Additionally, Tim O’Brien himself has been greatly afflicted by the psychological aspect of war.

Already he had passed them six times, forty-two miles, nearly three hours without stopping” (O’Brien 139-140). As if Norman was stuck in a loop, he drove around that lake, reliving moments of his life from when he was in Vietnam. He questioned, doubted, and second guessed things that had happened. He wants to tell his story to his friends but they all moved on with their lives while he was in Vietnam in the war, leaving him with no one. He wanted to talk to someone but he couldn’t.