Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Analysis

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is in a war instead of his crush Martha. She is 13,982 Kilometers away studying at college in New Jersey. Lieutenant Cross is concerned that Martha does not have the same intense love for him as he does for her. Jimmy’s emotions eventually hinder his judgement and his ability to stay focused. This results in one of the men in his platoon to lose his life.
Martha is not really in love with cross but considers him as a friend. Martha would send letters sometimes such as pictures of a sea while Jimmy was away. She would sign the letters with “love, Martha” and when Jimmy “kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it” (295,302). Cross saw Martha as a girlfriend where Martha saw Jimmy as merely a close friend.

She also had to compete with her other sisters to get Ama’s attention. When the narrator is at Abuelita’s she does not have to compete. The narrator reflections on Abuelita’s “gray eye” and that it made her feel “safe and guarded, and not alone” (33). Some people act out because they want attention. For the protagonist, Abuelita eyeing her is not creepy but comforting. She knows Abuelita’s grey eye represents caring and purpose of gardening with Abuelita. To the narrator’s misfortune Abuelita is very ill. She dies, the young protagonist prepares Abuella’s lifeless body, she laments on “sob emerging” as she grieves “the misery of feeling half born”, and “the sobs crippling into sadness are relief” (37). The narrator is saddened, she believes that her purpose was to be with Abuelita and when Abuelita died half of her purpose died with her grandmother. Through her grief the protagonist discovers her purpose has not actually died only the person who inspired and helped her to her true self. This renewed sense of purpose give the narrator the relief she needed to move on from her short time with Abuelita and continue to grow in a courageous