The True Leader In Tim Obrien's The Things They Carried

When people think of words that describe a great leader, people often think of words such as brave, determined, fearless, and confident. However, this isn’t fully true in Tim Obrien’s book The Things They Carried. Instead of being someone that troops count on to get home safely, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was an imitation of a hero. Horner describes a hero as a person who has “rational control over the emotion of fear or doubt; strengthen, that is of the gifted athlete and military wizard; appropriate aggression fed by a competitive spirit, full of pitch confidence to win against overwhelming odds; and utter loyalty to duty, God, country, family, and his friends are the classic hero." In the beginning, Jimmy Cross didn’t have any of these qualities

Furthermore, it potentially got one of his troops killed. Although he did fall for his desires, his motivation to not die began to show and he started to focus on bringing his troop’s home safely.

Often times people are unable to control what motivates them, as well as our desires. The heart has a mind of its own; sometimes we bypass our ethical responsibilities for these motivations and desires. Consequently, people need adversity to hit so that people can refocus like a phone camera zooming in on pictures. In Tim Obrien’s The Things They Carried, it’s obvious that Jimmy Cross’s one and only desire was a girl named Martha. Tim Obrien uses the power phrase "Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps." Tim Obrien explains the importance of the word "in it's intransitive form, to hump meant to walk, or march, but the word implied burdens far beyond. Richardson states "to hump has a sexual meaning, which gives the reader a sense of Cross's sexual frustration."" The story states “they were not love letters,

Horner states " throughout gender history, men have been pressured to react to deadly crisis according to the sacred rules of a male honor code. From Odysseus to King Arthur, from Ulysses to George Washington and from Aeneas to Norman Schwarzkopf, clearly the most widely accepted values of integrity, dignity, respect, self respect, valor and thus unquestioned masculinity hinge upon a commissioned response to fear and duty." (Horner, 1999) Tim Obrien shows that the classic battle of good versus evil. Lieutenant Cross's desires of Martha created an illusion that caused him to focus on himself, instead of his troops. The central tension comes between his imaginary love affair and the real responsibilities he has as the officer in command. He bypassed all his responsibilities, for his