What kind of person is Jimmy Cross?
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the main character of the title story. Cross is a young soldier, drafted like many others, and committed to the war effort and getting his men out alive. He is not emotionally or patriotically committed, instead simply seeing the war as his assigned job to which he gives his best effort.
What did Jimmy Cross carry in the things they carried?
Jimmy Cross – 1st lieutenant and platoon leader, age 24, he carries a pebble, pictures, and letters from Martha. He appears in “The Things They Carried,” “Love,” “Spin,” “Church,” “Style,” “Speaking of Courage,” “In the Field,” “The Ghost Soldiers,” “Night Life,” and “The Lives of the Dead.”
What did Jimmy Cross carry emotionally?
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, of the Alpha Company, carries various reminders of his love for Martha, a girl from his college in New Jersey who has given no indication of returning his love. Cross carries her letters in his backpack and her good-luck pebble in his mouth.
Is Jimmy Cross a dynamic character?
Jimmy Cross- Lieutenant Cross is the leader of the Alpha Company. Cross is a dynamic character because he realizes, after Ted Lavender dies, that Martha doesn’t love him and stops staring at her picture. Kiowa is a static character who doesn’t change while he is present in the novel.
What does Kiowa’s death symbolize?
Kiowa’s death is symbolic of the senseless tragedy of war. He dies in a gruesome way, drowning under the muck of a sewage field about which his lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, has a bad feeling.
Why did Lt Jimmy Cross feel Ted Lavender’s death was his fault?
Why did Lieutenant Jimmy Cross feel guilty about Ted Lavender’s death? In what sense is his death Jimmy’s fault? Jimmy felt like his death was because he loved Martha so much and he could not stop thinking about her while Ted was in the platoon. Since Jimmy was not paying attention Ted was shot.
What does Jimmy cross symbolize?
Jimmy Cross’s character represents the profound effects responsibility has on those who are too immature to handle it. As a sophomore in college, he signs up for the Reserve Officers Training Corps because it is worth a few credits and because his friends are doing it.
What does Martha symbolize to Jimmy Cross?
Martha represents Cross’ hopes and dreams. She gives him a sense of escape.
What is Jimmy Cross rank?
What is Jimmy Cross’s rank? Lieutenant.
What is the relationship between Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and Martha?
What is the relationship between Jimmy Cross and Martha? guards a photograph of Martha, a girl who is not his girlfriend, to maintain a strong link to love and his life at home. He fails to recognize, however, how love and war are connected, relying instead on his love for Martha as an escape from war.
Why did Jimmy Cross go to war?
Going to War As an undergraduate, Cross had signed up for Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) as a way to pick up a few extra credits in college. Because of this decision, he is placed in a position of leadership in Vietnam.
What does Henry Dobbins carry for good luck?
Summary. O’Brien relates that on ambushes, and sometimes in bed, Henry Dobbins wears his girlfriend’s pantyhose around his neck. Superstitions are prevalent in Vietnam, and the pantyhose are Dobbins’s good luck charm.
Why does Henry Dobbins carry his girlfriend’s pantyhose?
When caught in a fight in the middle of an open field, Dobbins wrapped the pantyhose around his face and made it through the fight unscathed. The pantyhose, he believed, kept him safe, and he continued his eccentric practice even after his girlfriend broke up with him because he said the magic did not go away.
What does Dave Jensen carry emotionally?
Dave Jensen carries a toothbrush, dental floss, and soap. Ted Lavender (“who was scared”) carries tranquilizers. The emphasis is on Ted Lavender, the scared one, who carried tranquilizers.