Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

In the things they carried we can see a recurring theme of story telling. O’brian finds a creative way of subjecting the truth of war and turning it into a adventure that could help cope with the guilt faced, and explains the ambiguous involvement from the characters which help tell the story. O’brian says “ by telling stories you objectify your own experience, you seperate it from yourself, you pin down certain truths” With different understanding from several characters we are allowed to put tragedies together about the life changing time period in which guilt helped tell the stories of the young men who were apart of the Vietnam War.
The begging of story telling starts with a fascination Jimmy Cross has about a Young girl back home …show more content…
“On the rainy river” we are told the story of a young man who has a bright future ahead of him and his questioning of weather he is a coward for going to war or for going against his own principles. Imagine graduating community college, getting ready for the next step in your life and you get drafted into a war which you feel to good for, a war in which you do not fully want to participate in, a war in which you don't even understand why you are fighting. These emotions and time period in O’brians life has him questioning whether he should flee to canada and be seen as a coward for avoiding the war. O'brien comes to a roadblock in his life when he finds himself on the border of minnesota and canada thinking about his future. He spends over a week thinking about the war while at the tip top lodge, and comes to the conclusion that he will go to war in fear of being seen as a coward. This is O’brian story in which lead him into the vietnam war. Truth be told O’brian would have not went to war if there would be no effects in his life if he refused to go, but the cause of being seen as coward overtook his …show more content…
The story starts by being put into Lieutenant Jimmy’s feeling of guilt in which he felt for the lose of Kiowa. Jimmy Cross express that he had felt that “he knew for a fact that he had made a mistake setting up here...He should've move to higher ground for the night, should've radioed in false coordinates. There was nothing he could do now, but still it was a mistake and a hideous waste. He felt sick about it." (pg. 164). Jimmy tested his own courage by refusing to listen to his own intuition leaving him hopeless when searching for kiowa’s body. The next perspective in this story applies to anyone who can relate to losing someone due to “dumb and dangerous decisions” (Pg.170), . The anonymous character shares his experience in which help tell his story on why he feels like Kiowa died and the actions behind his reasoning. Kiowa's death seemed to be everyone's reality due to experiencing it first hand. Being “ In The Field” brought guilt to everyone, even becoming a wake up call for Azar, who had a sense of humour which made fun of the dead. Realizing the truth that life should not be taken for granted helped Azar grow up and understand that Kiowa's death easily could've been him. These perspectives all support the cloudment of truth, and feeling of guilt in ways each character tells there