Transformations Through Grief In A Vendetta by Guy de Maupassant and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the transformation of the characters after experiencing grief contrast with one another. Both the old widow from A Vendetta and Lieutenant Jimmy Cross from The Things They Carried show the transformation that occurs when a person goes through the pain caused by the loss of a loved one. While the old widow shows the dark side of this transformation through plotting and accomplishing revenge, however, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross shows this change through improvements in himself. The Lieutenant’s ability to become a better officer stems from the fact that he blames his own neglect for the death of Lavender, while the old widow fixates on revenge …show more content…
because she blames the murderer for her son’s passing. This difference in character development shows that the transformation of an individual depends on himself only. The two protagonists are similar because both the characters lose someone they care about.
The widow loses her only son to a stabbing, leaving her completely alone in the world, in this scene we can see her begin her mourning after the son’s body is brought to her. “Then, stretching her wrinkled hand over the body, she promised him a vendetta. She did not wish anybody near her, and she shut herself up beside the body with the dog, which howled continuously, standing at the foot of the bed, her head stretched towards her master and her tail between her legs. She did not move any more than did the mother, who, now leaning over the body with a blank stare, was weeping silently and watching it.” In this scene, we can see the grief struck mother begin her mourning process, although she also begins to make her transformation by promising her son …show more content…
revenge. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, as well, experiences grief when Ted Lavender is murdered. “Lee Strunk made a funny ghost sound, a kind of moaning, yet very happy, and right then, when Strunk made that high happy moaning sound, when he went Ahhooooo, right then Ted Lavender was shot in the head on his way back from peeing. He lay with his mouth open. The teeth were broken. There was a swollen black bruise under his left eye. The cheekbone was gone.” Here we can see that the men are in a good mood, they’re fooling around as shown with the “Ahhooooo” Strunk makes, and then everything changes, and the story takes a very dark turn. The death of Lavender causes a trauma to all of the men in the company “Oh shit, Rat Kiley said, the guy’s dead. The guy’s dead, he kept saying, which seemed profound—the guy’s dead. I mean really.” But most of all, it signs Lieutenant Jimmy Cross the hardest. They are different mainly because of the road they decide to take to deal with their grief. The old widow, chooses to go down the dark path of revenge, while Cross chooses to change his behavior, so the event will not happen again. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, as we can see in the passage after the battalion burns down Than Khe, deals with his grief in a constructive way. “All he could do was dig. He used his entrenching tool like an ax, slashing, feeling both love and hate, and then later, when it was full dark, he sat at the bottom of his foxhole and wept.” Through his actions, we can see that he is trying to keep his composure for his team. He feels guilty for being distracted when he should have been careful with their surroundings and tries to deal with all the negative energy in his body by pushing it into a task, digging. The composure breaks when he’s alone in the dark, and he cries not only for his soldier, but for Martha, and for himself. Lieutenant Cross makes the decision to become a better officer as we can see in the passage that states “He was now determined to perform his duties firmly and without negligence. It wouldn’t help Lavender, he knew that, but from this point on he would comport himself as an officer. […] Later in the day, perhaps, he would call the men together and speak to them plainly. He would accept the blame for what had happened to Ted Lavender. He would be a man about it.” Taking responsibility for the actions that led up to the man’s death, shows a great deal of growth in the character, and an understanding that he can’t change the past, but he can make the best of the future. He also decides to give up on his love for Martha which was the reason why he was distracted in the first place “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs.” With the growing understanding that she would never love him back as he did her, he finally is ready to let her go and move on with his life. This transformation from a distracted man who only thinks about the woman he loves, to a careful, responsible soldier, shows that the protagonist learns from his mistakes and his choices build his character in a positive way. The old widow, struggles with her grief, now being all alone in the world except for Semillante, the son’s dog.
“"Never fear, my boy, my little baby, you shall be avenged. Sleep, sleep; you shall be avenged. Do you hear? It's your mother's promise! And she always keeps her word, your mother does, you know she does." Slowly she leaned over him, pressing her cold lips to his dead ones.” In this passage, we can see the woman promise revenge to the body of her deceased son. Soon she becomes fixated on this idea to the point of spending days staring at the coast of Sardinia, trying to figure out how to carry out her retaliation on Ravolati. “All alone, all day long, seated at her window, she was looking over there and thinking of revenge.” The turn of events begins when she finds the plan that will bring her to reach her goal. She ties the dog outside and starves her for two days, finally, she creates a dummy and cooks a sausage. “Semillante, frantic, was jumping about, frothing at the mouth, her eyes fixed on the food, the odor of which went right to her stomach. Then the mother made of the smoking sausage a necktie for the dummy. She tied it very tight around the neck with string, and when she had finished she untied the dog. With one leap the beast jumped at the dummy's throat, and with her paws on its shoulders she began to tear at it.” She does this for three months, feeling expectant and satisfied when Semillante is trained. This shows how darkness can take hold of
someone’s soul and make them enjoy hurting others (the dog) to reach their end goal (revenge). She then takes her across the sea to Sardinia and pays Ravolati a visit. “"Go, go! Eat him up! eat him up!" The maddened animal sprang for his throat. The man stretched out his arms, clasped the dog and rolled to the ground. For a few seconds he squirmed, beating the ground with his feet. Then he stopped moving, while Semillante dug her fangs into his throat and tore it to ribbons.” The climax of the story shows her reaching her goal, the son’s dog being the murder weapon, an ironic image in the dark storyline. The fact that she is finally able to sleep well after achieving revenge is a macabre depiction of her transformation for the worse. After seeing the body of a man torn to shreds by her dog, the sight should have haunted her, but she has better rest than she’s had since her son died. As seen in the two short stories A Vendetta by Guy de Maupassant and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, the contrast between the character developments is substantial. While one character learns from his mistakes and changes his behavior accordingly, the other resorts to “an eye for an eye” method and searches for revenge. In conclusion, the two characters show that grief can transform someone, but it only depends on that individual which way they will turn. Bibliography de Maupassant, Guy. A Vendetta. 1880. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. 1990.
The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is based in Vietnam during the Vietnam War in the 1950’s. Though most of the novel is just a flashback to the Vietnam War, there are some events that occur well after the war. Looking back at their place in time during the Vietnam War, Jimmy Cross and some of his old fellow war vets use some of the objects they carried with them in Vietnam to remember those events that caused their lives to drastically change. The most significant event that changed Jimmy Cross’ life was of watching fellow platoon member Ted Lavender die right next to him. Cross does not go a day in his life without blaming himself for Lavender’s death. Throughout the novel Jimmy is torn between the love of his life, Martha, who does not feel as affectionate towards Cross, and by his actions in the War. In the novel, the author/narrator Tim O’Brien is also a protagonist in the story. He is first presented as a nervous, young, soldier who is in the Alpha Platoon. Because of O’Brien being the author of the novel, he can strongly use imagery to his advantage when he writes of stories he confronted in his point of view. The two main topics of current war and PTSD which are illustrated in the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien can be compared and contrasted with three relevant articles: “Al Qaeda tries to recruit Americans in Syria,” “Ukraine orders Crimea troop withdrawal as Russia seizes naval base,’ and “Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
Lt. Jimmy Cross is extremely affected by Martha as his one time girlfriend; he is obsessed with even the thought of her.-- So obsessed with her, he even becomes distracted to the point an accident occurs for which he blames himself for the longest time. That Martha was a distracting factor shown through Tim’s observations of Lt. Cross. He loved her so much. On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue, tasting sea salt and moisture. His mind wandered.
One of the main characters in the short story “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’Brien, is a twenty-four year old Lieutenant named Jimmy Cross. Jimmy is the assigned leader of his infantry unit in the Vietnam War, but does not assume his role accordingly. Instead, he’s constantly daydreaming, along with obsessing, over his letters and gifts from Martha. Martha is a student at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, Jimmy’s home state. He believes that he is in love with Martha, although she shows no signs of loving him. This obsession is a fantasy that he uses to escape from reality, as well as, take his mind off of the war that surrounds him, in Vietnam. The rest of the men in his squad have items that they carry too, as a way of connecting to their homes. The story depicts the soldiers by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. After the death of one of his troops, Ted Lavender, Jimmy finally realizes that his actions have been detrimental to the squad as a whole. He believes that if he would have been a better leader, that Ted Lavender would have never been shot and killed. The physical and emotional baggage that Jimmy totes around with him, in Vietnam, is holding him back from fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon. Jimmy has apparent character traits that hold him back from being the leader that he needs to be, such as inexperience and his lack of focus; but develops the most important character trait in the end, responsibility.
“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” (O’Brien 604) “The Things They Carried”, written by Tim O’brien, portrays a platoon of soldiers in The Vietnam War by the baggage that they carry, both mentally and physically. The main character, whom was assigned to be First Lieutenant of the platoon, is twenty-four year old Jimmy Cross. Lt. Cross is a prime example of a leader who is too immature to handle the responsibility of their role. He is constantly daydreaming about Martha, obsessing over the letters and gifts she has sent him, rather than leading his men. Martha is a student at a college back in Lt. Cross’s hometown. Lt. cross and his men all have baggage that weighs them down, but as the assigned leader, Lt. Cross has to free himself of these distractions. In “The Things They Carried” Lt. Cross’s inexperience and lack of focus, combined with his ample emotional and physical baggage, stand in the way of him fulfilling his responsibilities as the First Lieutenant of his platoon.
In the two novels of recent war literature Redeployment, by Phil Klay, and The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, both call attention to the war’s destruction of its soldiers’ identities. With The Things They Carried, we are introduced to the story of a young Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who is currently fighting in the Vietnam War and holds a deep crush for his college-lover Martha. Jimmy carries many letters from Martha with him throughout the war, and he envisions this romantic illusion in which “more than anything, he want[s] Martha to love him as he love[s] her” (1). However, a conflict quickly transpires between his love for Martha and his responsibilities with the war, in which he is ultimately forced to make a decision between the two.
The central theme of the story is the age-old conflict of life and death. On a more personal level with First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the round character and protagonist of "The Things They Carried", it is a conflict of love, his antagonist and of war.
One of the main characters of The Things They Carried ,written by Tim O’Brien ,named Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and he was only 24 years old, yet he carried the responsibility for the lives of his men. Like most men in the war Jimmy Cross did not sign up for it, he was drafted, and often times his mind was elsewhere trying to escape the realities of the war. He was young and often thought about what most do at his age, women. He had a particular girl, and he was often caught daydreaming about this girl back home. Her name was Martha and she was an English major at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey, she played volleyball and was a junior in college. In a way Martha represented a religion to him, and he worshipped her day and night. Although Martha was not interested in Cross, he was still interested in her and loved knowing that the love was not returned. The way that the men escaped their reality differed and for Cross, Martha was his distraction. Cross was indeed a martyr. Much like a martyr he endured great suffering brought on by saying goodbye to all that reminded him of Martha on behalf of a belief or cause such as keeping his men alive during the war.
... seeing and feeling it’s renewed sense of spring due to all the work she has done, she was not renewed, there she lies died and reader’s find the child basking in her last act of domestication. “Look, Mommy is sleeping, said the boy. She’s tired from doing all out things again. He dawdled in a stream of the last sun for that day and watched his father roll tenderly back her eyelids, lay his ear softly to her breast, test the delicate bones of her wrist. The father put down his face into her fresh-washed hair” (Meyer 43). They both choose death for the life style that they could no longer endure. They both could not look forward to another day leading the life they did not desire and felt that they could not change. The duration of their lifestyles was so pain-staking long and routine they could only seek the option death for their ultimate change of lifestyle.
In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, the readers follow the Alpha Company’s experiences during the Vietnam War through the telling’s of the main character and narrator, Tim. At the beginning of the story, Tim describes the things that each character carries, also revealing certain aspects of the characters as can be interpreted by the audience. The book delineates what kind of person each character is throughout the chapters. As the novel progresses, the characters’ personalities change due to certain events of the war. The novel shows that due to these experiences during the Vietnam War, there is always a turning point for each soldier, especially as shown with Bob “Rat” Kiley and Azar. With this turning point also comes the loss of innocence for these soldiers. O’Brien covers certain stages of grief and self-blame associated with these events in these stories as well in order to articulate just how those involved felt so that the reader can imagine what the effects of these events would be like for them had they been a part of it.
This caused the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon to fall to the Northern Vietnamese forces. Just like how the war was long and bloody, many characters from the novel The Things They Carried experienced many things that were relatable to people who in reality dealt with the war. The brutality of war causes indelible psychological and emotional changes in most of its participants. Three main characters in The Things They Carried Specifically, Tim O’ Brien, Jimmy Cross and Mary Anne Bell, are composites of combatants whose lives are changed forever through the experience of war. Jimmy Cross is a character who seems to have trouble with getting his priorities straight and one component of an example of this is how it seems as if Jimmy seems like a distracted leader.
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from the woman he loved who was still back at home. “They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack.” These letters Cross carried along with him give in an insight into his past, his present, and his character. Martha, his love, was a long distance from him, but he refused to let his memories of her be erased. It didn’t matter to Cross whether or not the love he had for Martha was mutual, but he would still “spend the last hour of light pretending.” Not only would they remind him of his past, these pictures would also give Cross something to at least hope for and have faith in. It didn’t matter that he would “pretend” that Martha loved him as much as he loved her; the photographs and letters of her that he carried were “suitable” to his personality. These things may have been meaningless to other men, but to Cross they were a sign of hope, his past, and gave him some...
In Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried, numerous themes are illustrated by the author. Through the portrayal of a number of characters, Tim O’Brien suggests that to adapt to Vietnam is not always more difficult than to revert back to the lives they once knew. Correspondingly the theme of change is omnipresent throughout the novel, specifically in the depiction of numerous characters.
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
When Death stops for the speaker, he reins a horse-drawn carriage as they ride to her grave. This carriage symbolizes a hearse of which carries her coffin to her grave a day or two after her death. As they ride, they pass, “the School… / the Fields of Gazing Grain— / [and] the Setting Sun—” (lines 9-12). These three symbolize the speakers life, from childhood in the playgrounds, to labor in the fields, and finally to the setting sun of her life. When the speaker and Death arrive at the house, it is night.
The writer introduces a widow known as Paolo Saverini, her son Antoine Saverini, and his dog Semillante. They live in a small town called Bonifacio located in France. Paolo’s son was murdered in the town by Nicolas Ravolati, the body was then taken to the widow’s house. While grieving his death, she swore to avenge her son’s death by any means necessary. She then executes her plan by training the dog to kill her son’s murderer.