He proves that he is not in the quote “He remembered kissing her good night at the dorm door. Right then, he thought, he should’ve done something brave,” maybe his cowardice is what motivated him to sign up for the war and prove to Martha that he was man enough and maybe this act of his would make her love him like he loved her. Later on in the story Lieutenant Cross ends up burning the letters and photographs that he has been carrying after his platoon mate and friend Ted Lavender is shot and killed. This is a turning point for the character as he blames himself for the death of his friend. “Slowly a bit distracted, he would get up and move among his men checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to
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.
They witnessed as their comrades were blatantly killed on the battlefield, but were forced to quickly move on and continue fighting. This was the same mentality as the WWI soldiers featured in the book “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Remarque. However, in the true nature of these soldiers, they cared for and mourned over their fallen comrades. In addition, the soldiers of both wars didn’t join them because of the violence of it, but solely because it was their duty. They felt they needed to honor their country by serving in the wars.
It is possible as outlined in this story that he had a change of venue, an epiphany, in that his infatuation and love for a girl back home might be the culprit for his loss of focus in his duty as Lieutenant and that he held himself responsible for loss of lives. In doing so, he took drastic steps in incorporating change and removing the obstacles and focusing his energy on the survival of his troop. The drastic changes included, “Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha’s letters. Then he burned the two photographs” (O’Brien
He writes, “For the people I’ve talked to I’ve come up with some new ideas on the war.” He states that nobody is patriotic about the war except for the men that are excited to kill. He has learned that people muster enthusiasm for two reasons. One reason is for self-preservation; if you don’t kill the enemy, he will eventually kill you. Another reason is revenge against them after seeing your friend or fellow soldier die. Lt.
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.
Time slowed down and life was a blur. In the soil of Vinah Chanh, South of Saigon, a booby trap set by the Viet Cong awaited an innocent victim. As the acting squad leader my Uncle, Specialist John Robert Baummer, was leading his platoon when the booby trap went off. This ensuing debacle riddled his legs with shrapnel. Pain like a hot iron on skin flooded his legs causing my Uncle to be taken off the line.
I believe a lot of the anti-conscription believers would have a family consisting of sons and its only natural to not want your young son to go fight in a War that you won’t know when or if he will return. I believe this is a valuable source and would be useful to a historian studying this period because it shows a side of Vietnam War and keeps you interested and wanting to know about other campaigns and parties. Additionally, other campaigns such as Save Our Sons, and Youth Campaign Against Conscription were also against conscription and didn’t believe in the sending off of innocent lives. My last source, Source C which is may chosen source is once again a primary source, it is a pro-conscription poster for the Vietnam War. It is a poster divided on two sides with a young man at War in his uniform and the other side is a young man as well kicking back enjoying life reading a magazine.
That he risked his life for his country” she is trying to tell Ishmael that many men were effected by the events that happened during the war, there is also a subliminal message that is telling Ishmael that if the war managed to change Kabuo that the same impact has effected Ishmael in a similar way and that his mother wants the previous version of her son back. However Ishamel seems to dismiss this point which shows a lack of respect for his mothers opinion and views on the situation which really should have enlightened him to hand in the evidence
First, many diseases cause severe pain and suffering, it is cruell to not listen to the patients plea to end their agony. Matthew Donnelly was diagnosed with a rare skin cancer that destroyed him; he lost his nose, his left hand and part of his jaw. All he wanted was to die, however the law didn’t permit it, so he was forced to suffer until his brother shot him to put him out of his misery. No one listened to his cries of pain and there was no way out, the only way was to get someone to shoot him, a much better fate would’ve been euthanization. He would’ve been happier and died how he wanted.