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

War Altar People People are strongly affected by what they carry through life, because sometimes you don’t know how to go back to your old self. Some soldiers that had served in the war have a hard time adjust to life outside the war; for example when soldiers go to sleep they are afraid of getting bombed or killed and when they return home to their family some still have that feeling of getting attacked and would wake up in the middle of the night terrified. In The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien show characters change during the time of war and what they carried. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried his love for Martha and Mary Anne carried Vietnam, both of them were affected by the thing they carried and the people around

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. In order to get Martha out of head he ended up, “burning Martha's letters” (O’Brien 22). By burning the letters, he showed

After losing a member of his team, Jimmy Cross was unhappy with the result and blamed himself for the lost of Ted Lavender and started to do what is necessary to win the war. Meanwhile after Mary Anne saw the village and what the soldiers go through everyday to protect their country, she changed changed by become one with the war and fighting among her country that she became one with vietnam. Jimmy Cross burned the letter as a way to show his new role as a leader while Mary Anne wore a necklace that has human tongues to represent the person, the war turned her to. Jimmy Cross and Mary Ann had someone that they love and care about, although Martha didn’t love Cross back, Cross stilled loved her so much that he evened told her that he loves her but she didn’t say it back. Mary Anne loved her Boyfriend Fossie but he was unhappy with the person she was becoming so he left the war and never saw her again; Both Had loved one but at the end their loved one left them alone. Nevertheless both Mary Anne and Jimmy Cross put the war first and the person they love second; we see that when Jimmy Cross burns the letters and when Mary Anne promise that she will stop going on mission to her boyfriend but breaks the promise when he goes to