Blog Assignment #7

Mark Alli

5/3/10

The Things they Carried

In this essay I argue that the character of Jimmy Cross had been one that did not grow on its own, but, rather, was forced. In other words, the character of Jimmy Cross was forced to grow because of circumstances and situations rather than Jimmy’s intuition. This is not to say that Jimmy had no initiative of his own, since he himself was an infantryman of devout proportion. This devoutness to the war however was acquired rather than learned. This was definitely because of the death of Jimmy’s friend and the initiative Jimmy was forced to take in the war ending.

In the beginning of “The Things They Carried”, we find that Lieutenant Jimmy carried many letters from a girl named Martha. She herself was a girl who attended college in New Jersey. In the late afternoon, Jimmy would unwrap the letters that Martha sent, and spend the last hours of light pretending. This pretending was from “imagining romantic camping trips into the White Mountains in New Hampshire” (pg 392). He also would taste the letters knowing the girl’s tongue had been there. This shows a number of things about the character of Jimmy. It mainly shows the fact that on a lust level, Jimmy had not become any more mature than he been (prior to war). He wanted Martha to love him as he loved her. (pg 392). This basically sounds like the kind of stream of consciousness that any young man who is encountering a lust relationship would have. Another line which alludes to this is “she was a virgin, he was almost sure”. In relation to the war, Jimmy was more focused on his inner thoughts of his love obsession. The last line of the first paragraph reads “he would check the perimeter; then at full dark he would return to his hole”.

Contrarily, the second paragraph shows the necessities of the things carried by the combats men. This paragraph is more weighty than informative. The following paragraph tells us about the combat zone of Jimmy Cross. Jimmy carried two photos of Martha, rather than most of the things the other men carried. The second picture was the picture of Martha in a women’s volleyball tournament from her yearbook. Jimmy was obsessed with the fact that she had many boyfriends. He still was certain that she had not been touched by them. He even tells the reader that she is “just over one-hundred pounds” (pg393). This just lets us know how obsessed he still is over Martha and that his character had not yet understood the tactics of befriending the men in his command.

In the field specialty of Jimmy Cross, we see that he carry the “responsibility of the lives of men”. This was what his responsibility entailed but not necessarily occurred. As Kiowa who was one of Jimmy’s men recalls during one of the fights outside Than Khe, Jimmy feels responsible. It is the sense of blame that he feels for the of one of his patriots, Ted Lavender. It was “like watching a big sandbag fall”. Lieutenant Cross kept to himself. He did not know what to feel for the men since Ted died. He was even more entangled in his own thoughts more than anything. I believe that his character had not really changed although he did sympathize with the dead soldier. Jimmy himself was not outgoing and probably preferred to be in position of mourning from a distance rather than taking any more responsibility for the men. The next paragraph goes on to say that Jimmy received a good-luck charm from Martha.

Jimmy finds this romantic and ponders the real meaning of the gift. He carries the gift around in his mouth on hot days in April. Kiowa, on the contrary, was a religious man, carrying the bible. Each of the men carried the thoughts of those who had already gone. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross examined a tunnel opening across the paddy dryness toward the village of Than Khe. When the moment came for Lee Strunk to come out of the tunnel, he came out grinding but alive. The men ran out to clap Strunk and make jokes. However, Lieutenant Cross nodded and stood away. It may have just been the Lieutenant’s nature to let his men take care of things of this sort. He another time asks Mitchell Sanders, put his hand on a dead boy’s wrist.

In the paragraph (pg 399) Lieutenant Jimmy Cross has his men go into the village of Than Khe. They are ordered to burn everything. Kiowa explains to the Lieutenant how Lavender dies, and he trembles. Jimmy Cross, as we can see at this point, does not like things that do not pertain to love.