Lieutenant Jimmy Cross In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien writes about Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and the troubles his men face throughout the war. He mentions the underlying truth of war and how each soldier carries something special with him along their journey. The items each soldier carries is important to them but also represents the mental challenges they face. Each soldier faces his own set of physical and mental problems whether it is during or after the war. O’Brien uses this as a way for us to understand the story as a whole. In the section, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien states, “First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried letters from a girl named Martha, a junior at Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. They were not love letters, but Lieutenant Cross was hoping, so he kept them folded in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack” (O’Brien). Jimmy Cross used the letters as a way to escape the fact that he was in charge of a group of men’s lives. The letters helped him to escape the burdens that lingered within him. The weight of keeping everyone safe that fell so heavy on his shoulders. Martha’s letters let him forget all the men that died under his watch.

With the death of his good friend and the heartfelt letter that had no response back, Rat uses the comics as a way to remind him of the innocence he once possessed. The death of friends and the killing of enemies takes a toll on the soldiers mentally and emotionally. Rat Kiley eases his mind by using the comic books as a trigger to relive the days where just being an innocent kid in this huge world where only good happened and their was no bad or evil and all everyone knew was love. The war steals the innocence out of the soldiers and leaves them feeling empty with nothing but the many tragic events that happened to