In the book “The Things They Carried” four female characters played an important role in the lives of the men. Whether imaginary or not, they showed the power that women could have over men. Though it's unknown if the stories of these women are true or not, they still make an impact on the lives of the soldiers and the main narrator. Martha, even though she is only ever mentioned in the beginning of the book, still plays a huge role in the lives of the soldiers. In some ways, she is a large part of how the platoon’s lives played out, even a part of why one man died. 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 in 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. He had difficulty keeping his attention on the war. 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. (8) Linda was what kept Tim going throughout the book, even if only just her memory played a big role in his life. Dying from a brain tumor when they were just nine, she inspired him to keep fighting when life was hard. To him she was always nearby in spirit. He contended with her death by dreaming, and eventually used that in his later writing during struggles. These dreams and st... ... middle of paper ... ...s, and why he writes them at all. Instead of judging him, she tries to understand and fix it her own way, and it affects how he sees his writing: I feel guilty sometimes. Forty-three years old and I’m still writing war stories. My daughter Kathleen tells me it’s an obsession, that I should write about a little girl who finds a million dollars and spends it all on a Shetland pony. In a way I guess, she’s right; I should forget it. But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget. (33) Even if these stories were never really true, or they were true made up to look false, the women in them played important roles. From the obsession with Martha, inspiration from Linda, Mary Anne’s power, or Kathleen’s support all four of these women had an impact on the soldiers or on Tim in powerful ways. It just goes to show imaginary and reality isn’t always too far apart.
In the first paragraph of the story, Jimmy Cross' rank is noted (First Lieutenant) along with the fact that he "carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey" (434). From the outset, the reader sees that Martha plays a pivotal role in his thoughts and actions. The fact that Jimmy Cross "would imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire" after he marched the entire day and dug a foxhole indicates that he thinks often of Martha (434). While these thoughts of a lover back home provide some form of escape for Lt. Cross, they also burden him with the obsessive feelings of unrequited love. ...
Lieutenant Cross is a character who, until the death of a soldier, has been very loose and not taken the war seriously. He had let his soldiers throw away their supplies, take drugs, and sing happy songs in the middle of the serious war. He was only concerned with Martha; he dreamt about being with her, and he was delighted when he received letters from her. Tim O’Brien says, “Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin.” (p. 2) This shows how all he cared about was Martha; he was not paying attention to his real life and his surroundings. He was basically living in a world of fantasy because they lived in two separate worlds. Being unable to wake up from this dream made him potentially weak because his mind was always wandering elsewhere, never in the current situation. This made him an easy target for his enemies because if this had gone on, then he would start to fear death, fear fighting, and fear the war. He would become a coward because he would wish for the day when he could be with Martha again after the war. This would greatly weaken him and his army both, and they would most likely lose to the enemy.
The title of the book itself couldn’t be more fitting. The Things They Carried is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Tim O'Brien about soldiers trying to live through the Vietnam War. These men deal with many struggles and hardships. Throughout this essay I will provide insight into three of the the numerous themes seen throughout the novel: burdens, truth, and death.
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' Brian's, The Things They Carried, he talks about the Vietnam War and it's effects country. O' Brian uses the psychological approach to tell the sorrows of war . The things that they carried had all represented a part of each soldier. In the days of the Vietnam war, they did not expect a woman to fight in a war. The story is better understood because the reader knows the background of the story and the characters personality. The thought was just unacceptable and definitely not normal. The two methods of interpreting a story fused together brings about a great understanding of the characters and the event which is about to take place. The deceitful interpretations presented, the things they carried, and a transformation of a dainty girl that turns into a survivor are examples of each method presented.
The "things" each man carries are literal and figurative. The physical load each man carries oversees the emotional load. Henry Dobbins carries items belonging to his girlfriend which symbolizes his desire for comfort and affection. Jimmy Cross also carries the emotional burden of desire seen from the letters from Martha, a college love, who it seems will never give the love and affection Cross desires. O'Brien touches on the burdens carried after the war in "Love" and "Notes." Survivors of the war may hold the gift of seeing the sun shine every day but are also reminded everyday of the grief and conf...
Jimmy Cross has many burdens to bear out on the line of duty because of his leadership position as platoon leader and first lieutenant. As per his rank, Cross is required to carry such things as maps, code books, a compass, his pistol and the responsibility of the lives of his men. Jimmy carries around memoirs of his love back home, Martha. He carries two pictures of her, a letter that she ...
One of the first women introduced to the reader was Martha. Martha is Lt. Jimmy Cross's love interest, even though she has only ever considered him a friend and nothing more. O'Brien uses the story of him and his misguidedness to show how the soldiers were completely separated from the war. After the war is over, the soldiers return home attempting to get back to their normal lives.
In the book The Things They Carried Jimmy Cross chang as a charter he started out not caring only wanting to think about Martha and forgetting about war. After ted lavender dies he is determined to become a better Lieutenant for his men. It goes on to talk about the good things in war as well as the bad. The story is an eye opener for many who don't know much about
Lieutenant Cross spends most of the story thinking about Martha instead of the survival of himself and his platoon. After Lavender dies, Cross realizes that the fate of the other men were in his hands and that he had to abandon his thoughts of Martha and focus on keeping everyone alive. “He was realistic about it. There was that new hardness in his stomach. No more fantasies, he told himself (O’Brien1149).” After burning the pictures and letters that Martha had sent to him he realizes how selfish and foolish he had acted and decided to take responsibility and learn that the good of the group was more important than his needs. “This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world, where there were no Pretty poems of medterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity. Kiowa was right. Boom-down, and you were dead, never partly dead.(O’Brien1150)” Cross realizes that the war and violence of Vietnam changed his view of life after Lavender’s
As First Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross is the highest ranking member in the short story, thus the other characters look to him to lead them. However, he is just as messed up as the rest of the soldiers are he just does not show it because the soldiers need someone to look up to. When listing Lt. Cross’s personal effects O’Brien deliberately includes “a responsibility for the lives of his men,” (O’Brien 271) and although responsibility is not tangible it does weigh him down. Jimmy deals with the war by fantasizing about a girl back home as much as he can. Try as he might, he cannot push the thoughts about Martha out of his mind and concentrate on the war. Sometimes the thoughts come unbidden and he find himself “suddenly, without willing it, … thinking about Martha” (274). Whenever a member of his platoons is killed, he blames himself for his distracted state. While marching down the trail he sucks on a pebble that Martha sent him and thinks about the New Jersey shore instead of looking for signs of ambush. He didn't want to be in ch...
Little did they know that women would play a pivotal role in building many different things in war-time factories. The differences between these two women and their fellow workers were significant. The other women had six months of training on how to perform the tasks needed to do this job. This caused a sense of distance between these women, because even their coworkers thought they were incapable of doing the job. Admittedly, the two teachers were completely unqualified to do this job, but the factories needed workers on the shift they were choosing to work so they were hired for the position. The two women, Constance and Clara Marie, thought it their civic, patriotic duty to devote themselves to the war effort in any way they could. Though they were not sure of their ability to perform, they took on the task
Jimmy comes to the conclusion that it was indeed his ideation of Martha that leads him astray. He develops a cynical outlook, and tells himself to resent Martha. The narrator expresses this by stating "He hated her. Yes, he did. Love, too, but it was a hard, hating kind of love."(111) The feeling he has for Martha is not burning hatred, rather he hates himself and Martha for how his this pathetical relationship with a woman that didn't love him back effected him drastically. This is derived from the author's statement on the nature of his hate, "He was realistic about it, there was a new hardness in his stomach, he loved her but he hated her."(111) As Jimmy works on the emotional aspect of hating Martha, he decides to deal with the physical ties he has to her as well. In a symbolic gesture Jimmy burns all his correspondence with the young English Major. The text describes the scene: "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 ." ( 110) The notion of Ted Lavender's death forces Jimmy to revaluate his priorities to stay alive himself. It could have easily been him who was shot while relieving himself. The narrator reinforces this by saying "This was not Mt. Sebastian, this was another world... a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity."
One of the significant concepts in The Things They Carried is that of the importance of certain objects or feelings used by the soldiers of Alpha Company to survive the war. Some examples of these items are the picture of the girl carried by Jimmy Cross, the Bible carried by Kiowa, and the stockings carried by Henry Dobbins. All the items helped the respective soldier to survive from day to day and to continue fighting the war. One of the most important things that helped the soldiers is their friendship with each other. This bond that the soldiers form helped them to survive, excluded someone who was outside their group, and helped the men of Alpha Company to cope with the war after they returned to the United States.
The memory of her father was often reminded in the novel because his death was an important effect on her. Her loss of father at the age of nine affected her life deeply. She needed