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Theme Of Escape In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

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In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien we have the theme of escape, conflict, guilt, acceptance and responsibility. Taken from his collection of the same name the story is narrated in the third person and after first reading the story the reader becomes aware of the significance of the title of the story. O’Brien (throughout the story) lists all the items that each soldier carries as they struggle through the war. By listing each item O’Brien manages to highlight to the reader the burden that each man carries, not only physically but emotionally as well. It may also be significant that by listing each item (particularly personal items), O’Brien is in some ways not only personalizing each man for the reader but is also exploring each man’s …show more content…

At night Cross would read Martha’s letters or look at the pictures of her, imagining himself to be with her. This is important as just like Kiowa, Cross is escaping from the reality (war) he finds himself in. O’Brien also mentions Rat Kiley’s comics and the tranquilizers and dope that Ted Lavender carries with him. Also Henry Dobbins wears a pair of his girlfriend’s stockings around his neck. Again symbolically these items are important as they also suggest the idea of escape. Each man having different methods to escape from the realities around …show more content…

As Lee Strunk is searching the tunnel, after drawing the number 17, there is a sense that Strunk, though he is aware of how dangerous the task of searching tunnels is, accepts that it is his turn. Likewise as the other men are drinking Kool-Aid, waiting for Strunk, Mitchell Sanders says ‘you win some, you lose some.’ This statement is important as it suggests that just like Strunk, Sanders accepts that part of his role as a soldier is to search tunnels regardless of how dangerous it is. However the most significant incident in the story, which demonstrates acceptance, is the fact that Cross accepts that he, through lack of concentration, may have been responsible for Ted Lavender’s

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The Things They Carried Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

670 Words | 3 Pages

Shame and self-hatred surface when Lieutenant Cross realizes “…Ted Lavender [is] dead because he [loves] her [Martha] so much and [cannot] stop thinking about her” (326). Furthermore, the pebble that once symbolized his affection for Martha is replaced with a figurative “stone in his stomach” (332), representative of his guilt. In order to begin to remove his distracting infatuation with Martha, Cross takes the following action: “On the morning after Ted Lavender [dies], First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross [crouches] at the bottom of his foxhole and [burns] Martha’s letters. Then he [burns] the two photographs” (336). Cross’ burning of Martha’s letters and photographs is a physical representation of the transformation in his personality and priorities.

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The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien: Literary Analysis

885 Words | 4 Pages

In the story Lieutenant Cross carries the death of Ted Lavender not only as a burden but also as motivation (O'Brien). Moments before Ted Lavender was shot, Lieutenant Cross was thinking heavily about Martha and how much he wanted her to be a virgin (O'Brien). After Lavenders death, Lieutenant Cross tried to keep calm. It says in the story that Lieutenant Cross “with his entrenching tool, which weighed five pounds, he began digging a hole in the earth” (O’Brien). This shows that Lieutenant Cross cared deeply about Ted Lavender and Martha, and he will continue to fight for those he truly did care about most in life.

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross's Leadership During The Vietnam War

776 Words | 4 Pages

Lieutenant Cross decided he must remove all distractions of Martha and home and begin to focus on his responsibilities. These unexpected losses helped Lieutenant Cross recognize his responsibility and aided him to become a leader who did not let his personal life obstruct with his duties as an officer. He burned Martha’s letters and photographs and threw away her good luck charm (O'Brien). No more fantasies, he told himself. Henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it would be only to think she belonged elsewhere (O'Brien).

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Brief Summary Of The Book 'Evicted' By Matthew Desmond

1289 Words | 6 Pages

Housing is a huge part of the economy. Everybody a certain point in their life becomes a tenant or a homeowner. Recently, I read “Evicted “written by Matthew Desmond , a story of tenants and homeowners in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Matthew narrates a story different families with various background, race, and needs. All those family faced a commonly problem which is an eviction.

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

1173 Words | 5 Pages

Guilt which is caused by letting Martha in his mind interfere with the war he is supposed to be in. The narrator explains the way Cross feels as "He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead"(16). The quote's tone is noticeably shame. He makes a direct connection with Martha and Lavender's death as the quote is worded in a cause and effect relationship. This is where the sympathy plays a big role.

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Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

689 Words | 3 Pages

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the leader of the platoon. “He carried … the responsibility for the lives of his men” (O’Brien 5). As the commander of the crew, he felt that if something happened to his men, no matter the situation, it was on him. He felt liable

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The Things They Carry Rhetorical Analysis

702 Words | 3 Pages

Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.

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Lieutenant Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

798 Words | 4 Pages

From our initial introduction we can see that Lieutenant Cross is distracted and not focusing on the war he’s fighting in. Instead, Cross’ mind is on a young girl back home who he is not even sure reciprocates his deep love for her but he clings to her memory because a sweetheart is often one of the few escapes from war a soldier has. “On occasion he would yell at his men to spread out the column, to keep their eyes open, but then he would slip away into daydreams, just pretending, walking barefoot along the Jersey shore, with Martha, carrying nothing” (O’Brien, 641). Cross does this throughout the story, drifting in between the war and his imaginary Martha, and it doesn’t pose an issue for him until an April afternoon.

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War Altar People: The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1140 Words | 5 Pages

Jimmy Cross carried letters and some photograph of a girl named Martha, he loved Martha so much. He kept the letters safe by putting them in his rucksack, and when he rewrite her letters he would imagine them together, “imagine romantic camping trips into the White Mountains” (O’Brien 3). He would imagine being with Martha and daydream and he would sometimes daydream about her and how he wants to tie her up in bed and touch her leg all day and how he wants to be the one who gets to make her no longer a virgin. Moreover when Ted Lavender got shot in the head, Cross felt responsible for his death because he was the lieutenant and all he has been doing is daydreaming about a girl that doesn’t love him back. After the death of Ted Lavender, Cross started to change his colors by letting go if Martha and focusing more on the war.

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Tim O 'Brien's The Things They Carried'

1263 Words | 6 Pages

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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All Is Not Fair In Love And War Analysis

1009 Words | 5 Pages

Along with his military gear, O’Brien states, “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (p. 115). Cross loves Martha, and “More than anything, he wanted Martha to love him as he loved her” (p. 114), but is unsure of whether she loves him back. Despite his uncertainty,

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Soldiers In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1019 Words | 5 Pages

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried a map and compass, which symbolized his responsibility of leading his men. Cross also brought the desire for love and a normal life, wherever he went, in the form of letters and pictures from a girl named Martha. The letters were his way of escape from the pressure of leading his battalion. The heaviest baggage Cross carried, though, was grief. When Ted Lavender was shot and killed, Cross had been day-dreaming of Martha, instead on the lookout for danger.

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Emotional Burdens In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1509 Words | 7 Pages

He accepted the blame of Ted Lavender’s death because he was more focused on Martha than he was about his troops. Wesley states that while Jimmy Cross accepts the blame he thinks this will make it all better by accepting heroic responsibility. This relieved the stress upon Cross and made him feel as if he was even more of a leader and not a coward. When Ted Lavender died they treated it as if it was nothing but a daily routine.

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War In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

868 Words | 4 Pages

It looks to be as if he is falling more and more in love with Martha, because she sends him a small pebble and he carries it everywhere and even puts it in his mouth to taste the sea salt. However, it slowly became clear that Lieutenant Cross was becoming more cold but the story becomes more expressive of what Cross is feeling. As the story continues Cross expresses his love and still daydreams about Martha, however he one day goes to the trench and puts the letters she sent him in a fire. He gets colder and starts to act more like a commander of his squadron, he also makes sure to pay attention more. As he thinks of Martha he just knows that she belongs somewhere else.

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The Things They Carried Title Analysis Essay

403 Words | 2 Pages

For example, Jimmy has been in love with Martha and carries her letters. These letters are “signed Love, Martha, but Lieutenant Cross understood that Love was only a way of signing and did not mean what he sometimes pretended it meant. " Jimmy’s daydreaming about Martha is a way of escaping the war and his responsibilities as a leader, which later results in guilt. When a comrade is killed he thought that “he had loved Martha more than this men” and that “this was something he would have have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war.” Crosses feels guilty for fantasizing about someone who doesn't even love him and denying his duties as a

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