How Did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Get Responsible For The Loss In The Things They Carried

During times of war, soldiers would encounter death left and right, either if it were their friends or enemies. As a result, many people, including the characters in The Things They Carried, had been scared physically and emotionally due to the death of allies or enemies. Many people deal with their emotions in different ways, some in positive ways and some in negative ways. Characters such as Tim O’Brien, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, and Norman Bowker were haunted by the deaths of the people around them, and dealt with their grief by internalizing their feelings, getting rid of distractions, and talking to imaginary people.

Tim O’Brien is haunted and is reminded by his past actions because he killed what he thought was an innocent young man.

He feels guilty because the men in his company are under his command and he was supposed to keep them safe, but he failed because he wasn’t paying attention. He kept daydreaming about Martha, who Lieutenant Cross had a crush on, when he should’ve been paying attention to the battle happening at the time. And as a result, he blames his obsession on Martha and himself for the death of Ted. To atone for the death of Ted, Lieutenant Cross decided to burn “Martha’s letters” (Tim O'Brien 22), pictures, and threw away a pebble that Martha had given him. He threw away all reminders of Martha to make sure that the memory of Martha would never distract him again so that his men won’t have to die like Ted

Norman could’ve easily saved his friend, but failed when he couldn’t handle the environment. He continues to blame the environment, and this blame would eventually drive Norman to the point of insanity. Norman did try to cope with the loss of his friend, but he only made his condition worse. He tried talking to other people, but no one cared to listen to him and ignored him. At this point, Norman made fake conversations in his head to comfort himself when no one else would in attempts to cope. The imaginary people would listen to him, even asking him “what you really need, friend” (O’Brien 146). The imaginary people would comfort him when no one else would, and had him admit that Kiowa’s death was his fault after they tried convincing him that “he was already gone” (O’Brien 147). This torture that Norman goes through eventually leads to Norman ending his