Theme Of Burdens In The Things They Carried

In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien the story follows the journey of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his platoon through Vietnam. O’Brien lists both physical and emotional burdens that they carry into battle. O’Brien focuses on burdens carried by Lt. Jimmy Cross throughout the story, his emotional burdens affect him the most. Jimmy Cross’s attention on his feelings and emotions throughout his journey compromise his ability to be a qualified leader for his men, showing that mixing emotions with duty is a recipe for disaster. Lt. Cross has a borderline crazy obsession with Martha, a girl that he was a friend with before leaving for Vietnam. Martha has kept in touch with Cross by sending him letters and pictures. Cross is totally obsessed

This distraction is evident from the beginning of the story, “Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men…” (114). Cross carries or “humps” the letters and the emotional distraction that is Martha on his journey in Vietnam. As the story progresses the distraction only grows. This leads to Cross making mistakes and not realizing what he is there for. Cross’s duty is to serve his men and return with them alive in Vietnam. With Martha as a distraction Cross is not able to do this and it leads to severe consequences later in the

After deciding who goes into one of the tunnels, the men run security and wait for the tunnel to be cleared. After the man descends into the tunnel Cross begins to daydream, “and then, suddenly, without willing it, he was thinking about Martha” (118). This shows how distracted Cross is when it comes to Martha. Without even thinking about her, she is in his head and he immediately starts dreaming about her. His obsession is so powerful that it breaks his concentration on the war in front of him, “he tried to concentrate on the cave and the war, all the dangers, but his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed” (118). The mere thought of Martha disables him from focusing on anything else other then her. He was completely distracted, “his mind wandered, he had difficulty keeping his attention on the war…he would yell at his men to spread out…then would he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending” (117). This shows that Cross thinks of Martha first instead of the men who have placed their lives in his hands. When Cross thinks about Martha he does not casually think about her, he completely loses himself in her, “Lt. Cross gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was buried with Martha…” (119). When Cross thinks of Martha there is nothing else, no war, no platoon, and no duty, just