Within the first couple of minutes of reading the story the audience sees the first stages of Lieutenant Cross emotional state. Lieutenant Cross seems to be mentally …show more content…
This is the second change of mentality and way of thinking Lieutenant Cross goes through in the story. During the second change Lieutenant Cross happens to begin daydreaming about his overseas “lover”. While day dreaming soldier Ted Lavender was shot killed instantly by an gun shot. The Narrator states “Lieutenant Cross felt the pain” of knowing one of his soldiers died (O’Brien 567). Lieutenant Cross continued to “blame himself” because he knows if he was on his p’s and q’s comrade Lavender wouldn’t have been shot and his soldiers would be more aware of the setting they were in. The next day Lieutenant Cross kept to himself saying nothing to anyone. He pictured Martha’s smooth young face thinking he loved her more than anything, more than his men and now and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her. This last thought process of Lieutenant Cross reveals that he going through a change of mentality because now he understands the severity of the situation he’s in and begins to come to a full understanding of the reality that him and Martha are not actually lovers. That this represents a fantasy of