O’Brien continues analyzing masculinity as he captures the internal emotional struggles that overwhelmed the Vietnam solider. Soldiers hide emotions to prevent the world from viewing them as weak, fragile, and above all feminine. This internal denial forces men to be “actors” in their own lives. Men carry love, hate, fear, grief, guilt, and all spectrums of emotions. Yet, society deems that these feelings need be hidden from the world. The soldier must maintain a “give ‘em hell…a stance based on false self” (Pollock 14). The male gender must “retreat behind the mask of masculinity” (Pollock 13). In doing this they lose part of themselves that is human. The character of Lieutenant Jimmy Cross explores his emotional humanity with his focus on
