What does Martha represent in the things they carried?
In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, Martha to Cross represents an idealized version of the life he has left behind at home. Fantasizing about her allows him to at least partially shut out the horrible realities of war that are all around him.
What happened to Martha in The Things They Carried?
It turns out that after Cross burned the first one, Martha gave him a new one after running into him at a college reunion. Here’s what happened: Cross and Martha spend almost an entire day together. Martha hasn’t married, and is now a Lutheran missionary who has done work in Ethiopia and Guatemala.
What role does Martha play in the lieutenant Cross burn her letters?
Lieutenant Cross feels guilty and responsible for Ted Lavender’s death and ends up burning Martha’s letters and photographs at the bottom of his foxhole. Burning her letters and photographs is Lieutenant Cross’s gesture of attempting to forget about Martha and focusing on his job.
Why is Jimmy so concerned with Martha’s virginity?
He loves her because of his intrinsic longing for feminine affection. Yet, he hates her because he knows that his obsession with her virginity is pointless; it is nothing but a cynical attempt on his part to take his mind off the horrors of war.
What did Tim O’Brien carry physically?
The narrator, Tim O’Brien, describes the things all the men of the company carry. They are things in the most physical sense—mosquito repellent and marijuana, pocket knives and chewing gum. The things they carry depend on several factors, including the men’s priorities and their constitutions.
What did Rat Kiley carry?
In the first chapter, O’Brien describes the various objects that the members of Alpha Company carry along with them as a way of showing the burdens (physical, mental, and emotional) that each soldier carries. Rat Kiley, for example, carries malaria tablets, morphine to ease the wounded’s pain, and supplies to treat …
Why does Rat Kiley shoot himself?
In The Things They Carried, Rat Kiley shoots himself in the foot order to get out of fighting. This way, he’ll be transferred out of the combat zone without causing himself any serious damage.
Why does Rat Kiley kill the water buffalo?
In The Things They Carried, Rat Kiley shoots at and eventually kills the baby water buffalo because of his feelings of grief and anger at the death of his friend, Curt Lemon.
Why is the baby water buffalo scene more disturbing than the death of Curt Lemon?
Curt Lemon, however, dies a swift, painless death that ends his suffering without even realizing what happened. The baby water buffalo has to feel every bullet and ends up sinking down in quiet despair. This makes the scene with the baby water buffalo significantly more disturbing than Lemon’s demise
Why does Rat Kiley write a letter to this man’s sister?
A week after his friend is killed, Rat Kiley writes a letter to the friend’s sister, explaining what a hero her brother was and how much he loved him. Kiley, frustrated, spits and calls the sister a “dumb cooze.” O’Brien insists that a true war story is not moral and tells us not to believe a story that seems moral.
What were Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley doing when Curt stepped on the land mine?
What were Curt Lemon and Rat Kiley doing when Curt stepped on the land mine? They were playing catch with smoke grenades.
Who killed Curt Lemon?
Curt Lemon dies by accidentally stepping on a grenade. Lemon and Rat Kiley “were playing catch with smoke grenades” in the shade during a break their platoon took from being on the move.
Why is Rat Kiley so disappointed when Curt Lemon’s sister doesn’t answer his letter?
1. Rat Kiley thought Curt Lemon’s extreme and questionable acts were true. His sister couldn’t accept them as true. She found the actions to be inappropriate and disturbing. So even though the author said the story was true, the audience, in this case the sister, couldn’t accept it as true.
What does O’Brien leave in the water?
He goes for a quick swim, surprising and disgusting Kathleen, who threatens to tell her mother. But before he leaves the river, he takes Kiowa’s moccasins and leaves them in the spot where he imagines his friend settled into the river. When O’Brien returns, Kathleen asks him if an old man in the field is mad at him.
Why did O’Brien lie to his daughter?
He keeps writing them because he needs to tell somebody what happened. He lied to his daughter because she was so young.
Why is O’Brien angry with Jorgenson?
13) Why does O’Brien become angry at Bobby Jorgenson and eventually want to get revenge on him? O’Brien carries a grudge about this and decides to get revenge on Jorgenson by scaring him while he’s in his tent. He “wanted to hurt Bobby Jorgenson the way he’d hurt [him].”
Why did O’Brien go to war?
Why does O’Brien decide to go to war? He believes in the cause. He’s too embarrassed not to. He doesn’t want to go to jail.
How does Tim O’Brien feel about the war?
The work recounts his personal experience in the Vietnam War and allows him to comment on the war. He enters the war a scared young man afraid of the shame that dodging the war would bring him and leaves the war a guilt-ridden middle-aged man who tells stories about Vietnam in order to cope with his painful memories.
Did Tim O’Brien actually go to war?
He graduated summa cum laude from Macalester College in 1968. From February 1969 to March 1970 he served as infantryman with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, after which he pursued graduate studies in government at Harvard University.
What was O Brien’s job before the war?
The author of this story remembers that during the summer of 1968, when he had received his draft notice calling him to fight in the Vietnam War, he was working in an Armour meatpacking plant in his hometown of Worthington, Minnesota. His job was to remove blood clots from the necks of dead pigs.
Why hasn’t o’Brien ever told the story on the Rainy River?
Why hasn’t O’Brien ever told the story “On the Rainy River”? Why does he decide to do so now? He thought it would only cause embarrassment for all of them. He is doing ithe now because he wants to relieve at least some of the pressure on his dreams.
What does Obrien mean when he says he was too good for this war?
What does O’Brien mean when he says he “was too good for this war”? O’Brien explains that he was in a completely different mindset before the war started: he was a student, focused on his studies, and he had a bright career as a scholar ahead of him. He had an image of a soldier that resembled a boy scout.
Why does Tim O’Brien write stories?
Author Tim O’Brien’s purpose in writing his book The Things They Carried is to use the genre of fiction to explore the harsh realities of war and communicate them to a wider audience. This is one of the techniques the author uses to make his fiction more representative of reality.