Analysis Of O 'Brien's Short Story The Things They Carried'

In O’Brien’s short 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 daydreaming about her letters. In which Jimmy Cross’s mind could escape from the ugliness of the war. In the Vietnam War, being a strong leader over the unit is impossible the war’s mission are undefined. Ted Lavender’s death was a great tragedy of the Vietnam War and not the fault of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross. Jimmy Cross is only 22-year-old First Lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Jimmy Cross brain was not fully developed yet. Person’s brain becomes fully developed at the mid twenty’s. Jimmy Cross is too young to bear the responsibilities of being First Lieutenant. Jimmy Cross is a First Lieutenant, which means that he was responsible for the other soldiers. O’Brien’s writes “He carried a strobe light and the responsibility for the lives of his men.”(O’Brien) It is too much weight for him to carry the lives of his comrades. He never should obtain a First Lieutenant post, he was not mature enough to handle the duties of the post. Jimmy Cross’s obsession with day dreaming about Martha is a way of coping with being at the

The death of Ted Lavender was not his fault at all. Jimmy Cross was just a youth and does not have fully mature to handle the weight of being a First Lieutenant in the war. Jimmy Cross daydreaming and fantasies of Martha letters and photos. Allow him to escape the war, think about life at back at home. The Vietnam War was a very repetitive regularly life because they had no clear mission. They just matched village to village doing the same things over and over. Ted Lavender’s death was a great tragedy of the Vietnam War and not the fault of First Lieutenant Jimmy