He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of the war” (103). Cross was ashamed; he is a leader and was not there for his soldiers. Now he has the burden for a soldier that died at his hands. The last personality trait that First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross demonstrates is bravery.
When his soldier Ted Lavender died all he could do was cry and blame himself for his death, “He felt shame. He hated himself.... this was something he would have to carry like a stone in his stomach for the rest of war.” (O’Brien, The Things They Carried 42) but he didn’t let that very heart-wrenching emotion of feeling responsible for someone’s death cloud his judgment or cause him to take his job lightly. Towards the end of the story he stepped up, over-coming the guilt he felt after the death of Ted Lavender. Learning from his mistakes and changing the way he lead his platoon “He would not tolerate laxity. He would show strength, distancing himself.” (O’Brien, The Things They Carried 100) He showed courage while seeing the bigger picture telling himself “that his obligation was not to be loved but to lead.” (O’Brien, The Things They Carried 101) Masculinity is very apparent in this platoon.
This essay will explore this interpretation of Haig and the generals, but in order to provide a balanced view, I will also consider the positive interpretations of Haig as a leader, as many sources from the time and recently praise him as a good leader. At the time of the war and after, soldiers criticised Haig and the generals , Haig was criticised because he made commands without being in trenches. In source B2 a soldier who had watched his friends die around him due to Haigs incompetence and bad planning, wrote “it was pure bloody murder. Douglas Haig should have been hung, drawn and quartered for what he did on the Somme. The cream of British manhood was shattered in less than 6 hours.” This suggests that he wanted Haig to be punished due to his loss of so many of his own men, but also due to his own resentment towards him.
Some died a quick death while others died a slow, painful death, showing the reality of war. Paul and his friends have realized that the ideals of patriotism are hollow. They no longer believe that war is honorable. The reality of war becomes evident to Paul when he kills the French soldier, Gerard Duval, in his first face-to-face combat. He is distraught to kill a man that he finds out has a wife and child.
Lieutenant Cross knows that it was because of his carelessness, that Ted Lavender was dead. This is shown on page 346, when O’Brien writes, “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence, Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry like a stone
The emotion a soldier experiences cannot be understood by anyone except those in war. This emotion is unique to each individual, as we all have different outlooks on life, death and war. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross’s experience of the death of Lavender undoubtedly illustrates the effect war eventually makes on a soldier. Due to his mistake, Cross “felt shame. He hated himself.
The only thing we are sure about is that Macomber is dead (Gaillard 32). After this happening, Wilson uses this as a chance to torture Margot. He does this by painting the picture that Margot might have murdered her husband. This is one of the scenes in the story where the reader seems not to agree whether Margot meant to kill her husband. Though this is the case, in her expression, it is evident that Wilson’s reaction deeply touches Margot.
The reader may disagree with Cross’s conclusion that his fantasies about Martha leads to Lavender’s death. The text merely says that at the time that Lavender was shot, “Lieutenant Cross nodded and closed his eyes” while the other men cracked jokes. The crucial issue here, however, is not the physical realities of the circumstances surrounding one soldier’s death but its emotional implications. Cross sees the events in stark, black-and-white terms: Martha or his men. There is no room for compromise in the world he now inhabits.
The dreadful reality of death in war is present within the story, “The Things They Carried”. The story makes it obvious that the Alpha Company Squad was deeply moved by the effects of war. Lieutenant Cross, took the death of Ted Lavender personally and struggled with it. There are a couple symbols that we can take from Ted Lavender’s death. The reader of “The Things They Carried” can become engrossed it the story and become easily moved.
It had destroyed a whole generation leaving the soldiers who had fought in it broken shells of the young men they had once been. It drove a wedge between society and soldier as no civilian would ever be able to understand what atrocities the young men had experienced while fighting at the front. This left the soldiers feeling betrayed by their nations who had forced them to carry out their patriotic duty and sent them to their deaths. Both novels describe how the soldiers felt alienated from the lives that they had left behind. One British soldier wrote of how “despite the flag-waving that greeted us [Britain's returning troops] many felt nothing but hatred for the leaders and those back home who'd sent us to die.” Both novels, “Regeneration” by Pat Barker and “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Marie Remarque discuss how the brutalities and horrors experienced at war have left the men who fought in it feeling alienated and ostracised from civilian life.