Jimmy Cross Character Analysis

3402 Words14 Pages
Mariah Graves 1st block Summer assignment The Things They Carried Lieutenant Jimmy Cross carried many reminders of his love for Martha, a girl from his college in New Jersey, who had given no indication of returning his love. He carried her letters in his backpack and her good luck pebble in his mouth. Every day, he unwrapped her letters and imagined the thought of her returning his love someday. Martha was an English major and she wrote letters that quote poetry but never mentioned the war. She always signed the letters "love, Martha" but Cross knew it was only a way of signing and it did not mean what he wanted it to mean. Love Years after the end of the war, Jimmy Cross went to visit Tim O'Brien at his house…show more content…
Rat Kiley, who had a reputation for exaggeration told a story about his first assignment in the mountain of Chu Lai, near the village of Tra Bong, where along with eight other enlisted men, he ran an aid station that provided basic emergency and trauma care. One day, Eddie Diamond (the highest ranking man) jokingly said that his area was so unguarded and seemingly safe, that you could even bring a girl to camp there. Mark Fossie, a younger medic, seemed very interested in the idea and went off to write a letter. Six weeks later, his elementary school sweetheart, Mary Anne Bell, arrived on a helicopter with a resupply shipment. Fossie got Mary Anne to camp and Mary Anne was curious and a fast learner so she picked up on Vietnamese and learned how to cook. After a while, Fossie and Mary Anne became engaged and made wedding plans, but over the next several nights, it became clear that there was a strain on their relationship. Fossie made arrangements to send her home but Mary Anne refused and disappeared. Mary Anne returned three weeks later and went to the Special Forces hut. Kiley said that he never knew what happened with Mary Anne because he received orders to join the Alpha Company, but he confessed that he loved Mary Anne- that everyone…show more content…
Cross ordered an air strike and the platoon watched the village burn. Dave Jensen poked at a dead old man whose right arm had been blown off. He tried to encourage O'Brien to do the same thing but he refused and later Kiowa told him that he'd done a good thing. Kiowa asked O'Brien if the old man was his first experience with a dead body. O'Brien said no thinking of his first date, Linda. During the spring of 1956, O'Brien was in love with nine-year-old Linda. He arranged for his parents to take him and Linda to the movies. When the movie was over, they went to Dairy Queen and O'Brien knew he was in love. O'Brien later explained that Linda had a brain tumor and died. O'Brien went to the funeral with his father and couldn't believe how strange and unreal it was to see Linda's body in a casket. O'Brien said that in Vietnam, the soldiers had ways to make the dead seem less dead- they kept them alive with stories. O'Brien says that in stories, the dead
Open Document