Jimmy Cross Symbolism

According to Tim O’Brien, “to carry something was to hump it” (345). Having served in the Vietnam War, O’Brien wrote a collection of stories to reflect on his experiences (Britannica). In one of his short stories, "The Things They Carried", the plot alternates between Lieutenant Jimmy Cross' daydreams of a college girl named Martha and the brutal realities of the Vietnam War. Throughout the story the protagonist, Jimmy Cross, is portrayed as a lovestruck teenager as he “humped his love for Martha” (O’Brien 345) despite the fact that she did not return his love. He carries her letters, photos, and a pebble that she had given him. 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 …show more content…
. . where things came together but also separated” (O’Brien 348). Along with that, she explained, “It was this separate­but­together quality. . . that had inspired her to pick up the pebble and to carry it in her breast pocket for several days, where it seemed weightless.” (O’Brien 348). It can be interpreted that by “together” it means that she too, is thinking of him while “separate” represents how they are countries apart. When she mentions that carrying the pebble in her pocket seemed “weightless”, it is because she has come to acceptance that they can not be together and she no longer feels burdened by his feelings for her and wants to pass that onto him in hopes that he’ll also move