Martha's Role
Tim O'Brien's short story, "The Things They Carried," is based on the life of soldiers in the Vietnam War era. The character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the short story is the one responsible for an entire group of soldiers during the war. Lieutenant Cross is fixated on a young woman named Martha who attended Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey to become an English major during this time (pg. 1). Martha, like most women of the soldiers in war, was hope, distraction, and realization throughout the story for Lieutenant Cross. Martha was Lieutenant Jimmy Cross's hope for love and the return home during the Vietnam war. Lieutenant Cross knew from Martha's letters that she did not feel the way he did, but he hung onto the hope that when he returned home she would be his. Tina Chen wrote in "Unraveling the Deeper Meaning" that Martha represented the idea of home for Lieutenant Cross (85). By saying that, the pebble that Martha sent Lieutenant Cross or in other words the "token of her truest feelings" is an accurate example of how she was hope for love and the return home (The Things They Carried, 8). The pebble was hope that Martha had the …show more content…
Lieutenant Cross's distraction of Martha would lead to a fatal tragedy of one of his men. Cross was imagining he and Martha buried "under the white sand at the Jersey Shore" when one of his men, Ted Lavender, was shot on the way back from the restroom (12). In Jack Smith's, "The Things He Carried," an interview with Tim O'Brien, they discuss how the human imagination transforms, deals, and spins its ideas and how we provide emotional release from it during certain times (Lines 25-27). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross provides release from his imagination when he realizes the death of Ted Lavender is indeed his fault because he was thinking about
Tim O'Brien's short story, "The Things They Carried," is based on the life of soldiers in the Vietnam War era. The character Lieutenant Jimmy Cross in the short story is the one responsible for an entire group of soldiers during the war. Lieutenant Cross is fixated on a young woman named Martha who attended Mount Sebastian College in New Jersey to become an English major during this time (pg. 1). Martha, like most women of the soldiers in war, was hope, distraction, and realization throughout the story for Lieutenant Cross. Martha was Lieutenant Jimmy Cross's hope for love and the return home during the Vietnam war. Lieutenant Cross knew from Martha's letters that she did not feel the way he did, but he hung onto the hope that when he returned home she would be his. Tina Chen wrote in "Unraveling the Deeper Meaning" that Martha represented the idea of home for Lieutenant Cross (85). By saying that, the pebble that Martha sent Lieutenant Cross or in other words the "token of her truest feelings" is an accurate example of how she was hope for love and the return home (The Things They Carried, 8). The pebble was hope that Martha had the …show more content…
Lieutenant Cross's distraction of Martha would lead to a fatal tragedy of one of his men. Cross was imagining he and Martha buried "under the white sand at the Jersey Shore" when one of his men, Ted Lavender, was shot on the way back from the restroom (12). In Jack Smith's, "The Things He Carried," an interview with Tim O'Brien, they discuss how the human imagination transforms, deals, and spins its ideas and how we provide emotional release from it during certain times (Lines 25-27). Lieutenant Jimmy Cross provides release from his imagination when he realizes the death of Ted Lavender is indeed his fault because he was thinking about