Character Analysis Essay " the Things They Carried"
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- Category: English: Novels
- Date Submitted: 10/07/2010 07:01 PM
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“The Things They Carried”
Jimmy Cross is a protagonist because the story is about him dealing with the loss of his
friend Tim Lavender. Cross is a lieutenant of the Alpha Company fighting the war in Vietnam. He does not care about the war and he does not want to be a leader . Jimmy is insecure about everything he does and he wonders if he makes the right decisions. His way of escaping is to day dream about Martha. She is an English major at Mount Sebastian, New Jersey and she sends him photos and letters regularly. She writes poetry letters and never mentions the war. Her letters are very friendly, full of all her activities and details of her life. She always signs her letters “Love Martha”(p.315), but she is not in love with him. He know this but dreams of her and him in a relationship. He carries Martha’s letters with him in a backpack and looks at them every night while dreaming about how his life could be with her intimately. He carries a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a pistol. You want to be able to fight back especially if your life is in danger. I think Cross should have been paying more attention to his men, but instead he was daydreaming about Martha. It reveals that he was selfish because he cared more about her, than his men. Cross had a lot of responsibilities as a lieutenant and he was not doing his job. He was endangering the lives of his men by having Martha on his mind too much. “But his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside of her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered.” (p.318) This means that he wanted to be really close to her and that he could not get her off his mind. Cross really cared about Martha and wanted to be with her. He was always thinking about her and pretending they were together. He fantasized about being with her intimately. He was in love with her. “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps.” (p.316) The men...
Jimmy Cross is a protagonist because the story is about him dealing with the loss of his
friend Tim Lavender. Cross is a lieutenant of the Alpha Company fighting the war in Vietnam. He does not care about the war and he does not want to be a leader . Jimmy is insecure about everything he does and he wonders if he makes the right decisions. His way of escaping is to day dream about Martha. She is an English major at Mount Sebastian, New Jersey and she sends him photos and letters regularly. She writes poetry letters and never mentions the war. Her letters are very friendly, full of all her activities and details of her life. She always signs her letters “Love Martha”(p.315), but she is not in love with him. He know this but dreams of her and him in a relationship. He carries Martha’s letters with him in a backpack and looks at them every night while dreaming about how his life could be with her intimately. He carries a compass, maps, code books, binoculars, and a pistol. You want to be able to fight back especially if your life is in danger. I think Cross should have been paying more attention to his men, but instead he was daydreaming about Martha. It reveals that he was selfish because he cared more about her, than his men. Cross had a lot of responsibilities as a lieutenant and he was not doing his job. He was endangering the lives of his men by having Martha on his mind too much. “But his love was too much for him, he felt paralyzed, he wanted to sleep inside of her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered.” (p.318) This means that he wanted to be really close to her and that he could not get her off his mind. Cross really cared about Martha and wanted to be with her. He was always thinking about her and pretending they were together. He fantasized about being with her intimately. He was in love with her. “Lieutenant Jimmy Cross humped his love for Martha up the hills and through the swamps.” (p.316) The men...