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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross In The Things They Carried

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Changes in Lieutenant Jimmy Cross
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a character from the story “The Things They Carried”. This story is about different men that are in a platoon with Lt. Cross and what they all carry with them during the war. A dynamic character is a character that changes throughout the story. Lt. Cross is a perfect example of a dynamic character because his love for Martha changes throughout the story.
In the beginning, Lt. Cross was all in love with Martha and nothing else came close to even being thought about. Martha was a girl that he met before going overseas when he went over they started sending letters to each other. Although those were not lover letters, Cross always hoped that one day they would be, “Wash his hands under a canteen, unwrap the letters, hold them with the tips of his fingers, and spend the last …show more content…

Cross realized that Martha would never love him. When he finally realized this concept, Cross was depressed cause he spent all his time thinking about how he wanted her to love him. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letter. Then he burned the two photographs.” (par. 81). Lt. Cross also piece together that they do and would not live in the same world, “When he thought about Martha, it would be only to think that she belonged elsewhere. He would shut down the daydreams. This was not Mount Sebastian, it was another world, where there were no pretty poems or midterm exams, a place where men died because of carelessness and gross stupidity” (par. 94). After giving Martha up while he is in the war he decided to stick to being an officer and there for his men. He figured out ways to tell his men that he would accept full responsibly and blame for Ted’s death. He realized that doing these gestures would not ease his guilt or blame but he proved to himself that he was going to stop putting Martha before his

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In the book “The things they carried” by Tim O’Brien is about a first Lieutenant Jimmy Cross who was in love with a girl named Martha who was attending Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey. He carries pictures and letters that she sent. Cross was a distracted soldier O’Brien states “at dusk, he would check the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole” (2). After returning to his hole he would relaxed and daydream about Martha. While he was daydreaming one of his group members got shot in the head, he blames himself for the soldier’s dead.

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Throughout the story “The Things They Carried” Lieutenant Cross’ character goes from being a boy at war, to a man that will execute orders sternly to get his men home alive. His character goes through a large change in a short period of time and he is described as having a “new hardness in his stomach (437).” In the story he uses the stone from Martha as a coping mechanism to transition himself into the man he now is. Lieutenant Cross uses the hardness of the stone to create the hardness in his gut when it is implied that he swallows the stone, and this action also signifies the burying of the feelings for Martha deep down.

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His bitter experience, a combination of self-hatred and sorrow at the loss of a comrade hardens him. As a form of atonement, he destroys all the letters and pictures he has of Martha. Lt. Cross re -dedicates himself to his current predicament allowing no distractions to enable the loss of another of his

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In the first chapter, the author lists things some of the men in Lt. Cross’ corps carry. Some items were necessities and some gave the reader ideas of what kind of person one was based on their possessions. Lt. Cross carried photographs, such as a girl named Martha, playing volleyball or in front of a brick wall. Letters signed love at the end of them, and a lucky pebble from a girl he was infatuated with. From these personal items, we can clearly see that he loves this girl and keeps her close to his heart.

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Cross blames himself, knowing “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead…” (p. 121). First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is distracted by his infatuation for Martha, which ultimately results in Ted Lavender’s death, forcing Cross to realize his fantasies for Martha are wrong and that he is not fulfilling his duties as a lieutenant. Lieutenant Cross is inattentive to the war and his responsibilities because he is unable and unwilling to stop thinking about his adoration for Martha.

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Tim O’Brien states, “Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (O’Brien 16). In this quote, Tim O’Brien explains that since Jimmy Cross blames himself about Ted Lavender’s death, he will always be in lieutenant’s head. Thus, the lieutenant will always feel the guilt. With this, Tim O’Brien makes the reader think that Jimmy Cross is the person to blame since he is the head of the group and he has to pay more attention to his plans. Having questions about his love, Martha, in his mind instead of being careful about his men is the reason of him feeling guilty that “the lieutenant’s in some deep hurt” (17).

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Jimmy Cross is the first lieutenant who carries pictures and letters from Martha, the woman he loves who—sadly—does not love him back. The pictures and letters from Martha symbolize Jimmy’s longing to be loved and comforted. It is ironic that although he is the first lieutenant who is expected to take charge and lead others, yet he never took charge of his own love life. This is a regret and burden Cross carries to the end of the story. “It was very sad, he thought.

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In Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried ”, the story is set during the Vietnam war, the story’s main focus is on Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his one sided love for a girl named Martha. O’Brien also mentions the other men in Jimmy Cross’ squad. ,even though O’Brien never mentions much more than what the names of the men were and what they carried, you could still tell a lot about the men by just what O’Brien says. For example “Mitchell Sanders, the RTO, carried condoms,” (1002) From this you can tell that sex was important to Sanders because he felt the need to bring condoms to war with

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Jimmy. In the first story of The Things They Carried, Jimmy Cross is the first character that is introduced as the Lieutenant that received letters from his girlfriend back home, Martha. Martha is a big distraction to Lt. Cross as she is always in his mind: “[He] gazed at the tunnel. But he was not there. He was buried with Martha…he could not bring himself to worry about matters of security…

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Cross and his obsession with Martha. Eventually, after a death in the group, LT. Cross was distracted and he decides to burn the letters Martha sent him. “On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First LT. Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters…

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In The Things They Carried, limited third person is used to get the readers in the mind of a general while The Open Boat uses dialogue to reveal soldiers’ feelings while isolated. O’Brien takes readers in the mind of First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross by describing his feelings. One example is to start out the story is how “he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her” (O’Brien 598). O’Brien reveals that Martha is an American lady that Cross misses while at war and would “carry letters” from her (598). Cross’ mind would constantly wander and he has “difficulty keeping his attention on the war” (602).

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Martha had a big effect on Jimmy cross 's during his adventure in Vietnam. “Jimmy Cross 's had loved Martha more than his man , and as a consequence lavender was dead now and this was something he had to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war and life.” Martha was a young lady that Lieutenant Jimmy Cross was obsessed with. It was very possible the distraction of Martha caused lavender to die. Although Martha never loved cross.

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This quote is noteworthy because the point of view, first person, shows how Martha feels about getting the jacket. If this was written in third person, the reader might not understand how much the jacket truly means to her. This piece from the text shows that Martha was very upset about hearing she might not receive the jacket. These craft elements used by the author not only show the

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The theme of friendship is shown in many chapters of “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, in the chapter “Love,” friendship is shown through Jimmy Cross coming to visit Tim in Massachusetts. They drank and smoked for a whole day and caught up with things. “For a full day we drank and smoked cigarettes together and talked about everything we had seen and done so long ago,” (O’Brien, 26). This quote shows how good of friends they had become during the war and after because if not Jimmy wouldn 't go to Massachusetts.

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