• Home Page
  • Jimmy Cross Character Analysis Essay

Jimmy Cross Character Analysis Essay

Improved Essays
Show More
The men of war are not really men. They are boys expected to act like men, in the face of unknown danger. Called up from ROTC to serve in Vietnam, Jimmy Cross was unprepared maturely and did not believe in the war itself. Thus, as a lieutenant in the war, he endangers his men by being easily distracted. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is a kid, thrust into a leadership role, that has the goals and attitude of an adolescent, due to his weak mindedness and insecurity about Martha.
In the novel The Things They Carried Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has a flashback to a date he had with a volleyball player at the college he attended before the he left for the war. During the movie that they watch Jimmy tried to make a move by putting his hand on her knee, but she just looked at him that communicated that she did not fancy him. After the movie he kisses her good night outside her dorm room, a kiss that she fails to return. Jimmy longs to have a friendly date with Martha. Although, he is trying to start a failed relationship. He wishes to start a relationship with Martha right before he is to go to war in Vietnam. The future of the relationship is nonexistent considering how long he is going to be absent and the …show more content…
The fantasy of tying up Martha and touching the knee all night is a thought that exerts him as dominant over a situation in which he is a passive player. He is very insecure about their relationship. The actions that Jimmy takes all demonstrate that he must force the relationship if it is to continue. Martha has all the power in the relationship because Jimmy would do anything to receive any affection back from Martha. Also Jimmy is the only one putting any effort into the relationship. Jimmy wants to make Martha love him. He longs for her love so much that it affects his job in Vietnam. It affects mainly his focus and situational awareness that can be deadly in a war

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The Things They Carried Memory Analysis
    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Things They Carried Memory Analysis

    Jimmy Cross was sent a pebble from Martha along with letters. Here from these tangible objects he began to let his mind wander, having difficulty paying "attention to the war. " Both objects symbolize this emotional tie, he has, which he inevitability obliterates. Although these memories allow him to escape the war and diminish trauma, they also become too powerful allowing his mind to slip away at any given moment. This is why he burns the letters, and supposedly disposes of the pebble.…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Martha From Lost Girl Summary
    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Martha From Lost Girl Summary

    Her whole world changes when a civil war breaks out in Sudan. She has to escape the militia before they get to her and her sister Tabitha. Already you can see that Martha will have to stay close to her sister and depend on her “family’” to help take care of them. From the story you can see that Martha loves her sister, she would do anything for her sister, and so would I. My relationship with my sisters would be similar to hers.…

    • 263 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    War In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    Jimmy Cross goes into the war not very experienced and kind of afraid much like a child do something new for the first time. After Ted's death, he falls into depression and thinks of what he could have differently to save Ted. He learns from these mistakes and shortly after starting a new beginning for him in the war and removes everything Martha related to focus more on his men. "When a man died, there had to be blamed. Jimmy Cross understood this.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Things They Carried Character Analysis Essay
    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Things They Carried Character Analysis Essay

    Cross has a greater burden than the physical, his responsibility to his command, and his obsession with Martha. The reader quickly becomes agitated with Cross, and his obsession for Martha, and begins to wonder if he will be one of the dead, and frankly hopes it will be him, and not one of his command due to his negligence. He is the responsible party – let him pay the price for his inattention to command. Lieutenant Cross has many burdens to carry, the least of which was the physical necessities of war, “To carry something was to hump it, as when Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (152).…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Gender Roles In Oryx And Crake
    • 1893 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Gender Roles In Oryx And Crake

    Martha Graham is a run-down school, with a below average education program, but Jimmy is experiencing the independence he’d been longing for. One of the first realizations Jimmy made is, “that he is interested in damaged, artistic women, because he finds them easy to manipulate, and finds satisfaction in listening to others’ vulnerabilities.” He’s misogynistic like his father, finding comfort in the power he assumes over women, he’s unreliable like his mother, continuously finding and leaving new girls, and he’s superficial like Crake, generalizing all ‘damaged’ and ‘artistic’ women as ‘vulnerable’. This is inexcusable evidence that Jimmy has adapted to their behaviors and…

    • 1893 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Jimmy Cross Symbolism
    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Jimmy Cross Symbolism

    It wasn’t until he experiences the tragedy of losing one of his soldiers, Ted Lavender, that he realizes that there is no going back home the same way he came. Looking at the possessions Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried, Martha’s items symbolize everything Cross had left behind when he joined the war and all that he hopes to return to in the future. Ultimately, due to Lavender's death and the realization that Martha will never love him, Cross learns that he has to let go of her, and face the reality that he is at war. The nature of the romantic…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Guilt In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 2092 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Guilt In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    By carrying the pebble of Martha around, Jimmy Cross creates a false hope of them being together, knowingly distracting him from his duties as leader of his platoon. Not only did Lieutenant Cross carry a pebble, he also had a picture of her in the bottom of his knapsack, to keep him mentally grounded. By having her presence on him, he is able to imaginatively drift off into thought where they can be together back in New Jersey. While being distracted by the pebble, one of his platoon mates, Ted Lavender died. This causes Cross to believe that it has not only his fault for being distracted, but also Martha’s fault for distracting him.…

    • 2092 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Tim O Brien Cross Analysis
    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Tim O Brien Cross Analysis

    The Things they carried by Tim O’Brien was a very interesting novel. The author Tim play a big role in the novel as Cross. Cross shares similar stories in this book as his fictional childhood and his time in the army days. In this novel Cross used characters to demonstrate what his life was like. These characters were soldiers that carried a lot of different things from mental illness, guns, abuse and most of all fear.…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Things They Carried Courage Quotes And Analysis
    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Things They Carried Courage Quotes And Analysis

    This is shown through Jimmy Cross’s actions when he feels guilt for allowing men to die on his watch as the First Lieutenant when he decided to camp on the dangerous riverbank. He murmured to himself, “my fault,” (O’Brien 169), because he felt he had the responsibility and duty to make sure they were alive, and fell through with his poor campground choice. In this sense, responsibility is weighed heavily in the hands of Jimmy Cross. However, responsibility is also in the hands of every troop member. They must all hold each other accountable to guard themselves as well as their team in order to successfully carry out their mission during the Vietnam War.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Conflict In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Conflict In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    In “The Things They Carried”, we are presented with a story about a group of military men during the Vietnam War. The story is told by an unnamed narrator, from a third-person subjective (limited omniscient) point of view. While the story goes on to describe what each of the characters carried during their missions in Vietnam. The author focuses mainly on the emotional dilemma of the group’s lieutenant ,Jimmy Cross, and the effect it has on his group. Being that the conflict is an emotional struggle, I categorize the main conflict as an internal conflict.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Epiphany In The Things They Carried
    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Epiphany In The Things They Carried

    Not only is the trauma of being a solider during war a heavy burden, but also the life Cross is missing while at war takes a toll on him psychologically. In the beginning of the story, we learn that more than anything Jimmy wants to be loved by Martha just as much as he loves her. Though he knows she does not love him the same, she becomes the main focus of his world, leading to his constant distraction which is a heavy weight he bears upon his shoulders. This weight leads to him feeling responsible for one of his men dying and can be understood when the narrator states, “He had loved Martha more than his men, and as consequence 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”. The language used by O’Brien not only underscores the pain felt by Cross for believing he could have both a life in America and life at war, but also carefully reveals his epiphany of letting go of his life in America to become a true war…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Trauma In The Things They Carried
    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Trauma In The Things They Carried

    Similarly to the young soldier who carried Billie’s picture, Lieutenant Jimmy Cross used to carry letters and pictures of a girl from back home named Martha. Both the young soldier and Cross felt like they killed their comrades because of their focus on these women, but while the young soldier continues to obsess over the picture, Cross finds composure in abandoning his love. At first, he carried letters from Martha that “weighed 4 ounces” and “humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps” (2, 3). Cross carried the letters even though they added weight, which the specific detail illustrates, to what he carried. He was so in love with Martha that we was willing to commit and carry her letters through difficult terrain.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Things They Carried Theme Essay
    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Things They Carried Theme Essay

    In “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien shares numerous war stories to illustrate the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War. Throughout the book, the narrator, Tim O’Brien, shares stories about the soldiers in his platoon during the war. He shares what each soldier carried and its significance. He also discusses the effects of the war on the soldiers’ life, including his own, by using themes. O’Brien utilizes several themes in his stories, such as love and guilt.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Emotional Burdens In O Brien's The Things They Carried
    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Emotional Burdens In O Brien's The Things They Carried

    Cross makes the ultimate dissection that his team is more important than his love for Martha by trying to get rid of his thought for her as stated, “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha 's letters. Then he burned the two photographs (O’Brien 10). O’Brien sates…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Sexism In Look Back In Anger, By John Osborne
    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sexism In Look Back In Anger, By John Osborne

    Arguments, discussions, and day by day situations, plus an old, untidy and dirty background, are keys to make an unpleasant play. In first place, Jimmy Porter represents undesirable attitudes of a real man (working class man) after the war. For a start, a particular mood that is remarkable from Jimmy is his necessity of leadership. He needs to dominate from his untidy throne, reading his…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2025 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  Cookie Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings