Jimmy Cross in The Things They Carried
The things they carried written by Tim O’Brien. I decide to talk about Jimmy Cross.
This character that happens to be the center of focus in the entire work done by Tim O’Brien is Jimmy Cross who works alongside missions. In other work, O’Brien reveals several things about the company among them being fear and guilt which he defines as intangible together with tangible objects such as rifles, morphine, and matches.
In these work, O’Brien describes the events that led him to the Vietnam War which is the same reason as to why he ends up being a soldier.
In the entire character, Jimmy Cross reappears in various stories where his mental state keeps changing to adapt to the surrounding. During the overseas war mission, several members were killing. The author describes how Jimmy’s teammates under the Alpha Company succumb to death while in the battered field and the impact it leaves behind to the team. He points out the death of Ted Lavender who is a low ranking soldier who was shot while getting out of the bathroom. Lavender used to deal with his anxiety by smoking marijuana and taking a tranquilizer, and Jimmy Cross feels responsible for Lavender’s death. When Lavender was killing, Jimmy Cross is in the course of distracting his thoughts of her college crush, Martha. Jimmy Cross feels for Matha were reveal in the love chapter whereby the author goes ahead to indicate that the character perfectly reveals the aspect of love.
The reason I choose Jimmy Cross is the fact that he perfectly reveals several aspects of a soldier while in the battlefield. In the love chapter, Jimmy Cross was introducing while carrying the letter from her crush although the letters are not loved letters, and as a result, he wrapped them in a plastic bag and placed them in the bottom of his rucksack. The character perfectly reveals the aspect of patience and anticipation since after he had concluded his daily activities, he would get the letters and hold them with his fingertips and spend a lot of his time pretending to be reading the letters. While holding the letter, Jimmy Cross would imagine the romantic moments that he would be spending with her crush including the camping trips in the New Hemisphere. In some occasions, he would taste the flags of the envelope because she knew that her lips had passed there and he always wished that Martha would love him back just like he did. The thoughts of Matha by Jimmy seemed to occupy the most significant part of his routine since he always wished that everything would happen as he expected both in his love life and in his career. Jimmy plays a significant role in the chapter since he reveals the aspect of love while on the battlefield and the impact it brings especially after the end of the battle.
The reason O’Brien includes Jimmy Cross in this chapter is the fact that he appropriately reveals the aspect of hump which he describes as carrying something The lieutenant is reveal as a person who humps his love for her college crush regardless of the mountains, swamps and the distance the lies between them. The intrinsic meaning of the term hump is to march or walk although, in this context, he brings out the burdens that are beyond the imaginations of the characters. Most of the soldiers in the Alpha Company humped photographs and in Jimmy Cross’s wallet, he had photographs of his love which he kept wondering who had actually taken them. The photographs expressed frankness and competitiveness which made the lieutenant remember the moments that he has spent will her before getting in the battlefield.
With regards to conducting his duties, Jimmy Cross used to be a platoon leader who used to carry maps, a compass, binoculars, codebooks as well as 45 caliber pistol that used to be loaded fully at all times. He also used to carry a strobe light and was typically responsible for the safety of his team members. Being a leader of his platoon, Jimmy Cross had the role of ensuring that his teammates remained safe in the course of the war and had the authority of conducting missions in the most appropriate manner. When Tim Lavender was shot dead while getting of the bathroom, Jimmy Cross feel guilty of the occurrence because he was constantly lost in his thoughts thinking about Martha rather than taking care of his fellow soldiers.
This indicates that Jimmy Cross had developed a positive relationship with his team members to ensure that the mission was effectively undertaken. The feeling of guilt seems to have taken a larger part of Jimmy Cross thoughts since O’Brien goes ahead. To indicate that twenty years after the death of Lavender, he still feels guilty of what took place in Vitamin Jimmy Cross plays a significant role in ensuring that his fellow soldiers have been assigned the appropriate duties with regards to their ranking in the line of service.
